A co-worker left me a message the other day. He was disturbed and disheartened by the lack of moral rectitude that underlies the polarization defining us as a country these days and thoroughly disgusted with the slimy folk many of our lawmakers have become. To respond I was forced to try and sort it all out and, I must admit, I have been unable to do so completely.
On the one hand, we live in a country suffering under the generational weight of mindsets that devalue the intrinsic dignity not only of womanhood and manhood, but of humanity itself. We are the inhabitants of a secular, sexually saturated culture where physical attraction lives most broadly in commercial enticements and casual “fun” and no longer has anything to do with the sacred eventuality of family life and everything to do with the unabated seeking of pleasure with no strings. Of course, “Humanae Vitae” told us this is where we would be. When we’ve chosen to eliminate boundaries of behavior in our foolish and short-sighted libertarianism, things like sexual assault on the one side and the psychology of victimization on the other are an expected outcome.
On the other hand, if corrective measures are not themselves grounded in respect for the traditional family, they will morph into a cultural hostility for one gender or the other. Lives and reputations can be sullied and even destroyed by accusation alone, while genuine harassment and abuse go unreported. Our politicians go on with their various agendas – caring not a whit for the souls of those being destroyed, either by abuse or by character assassination – probably because in their hearts they don’t honestly believe in the existence of the human soul.
It is a terribly confusing time. I am so glad my children are now out of college. I have come to understand that universities can be havens for sexual predation and that the Jekyll and Hyde syndrome is alive and well on college campuses. Our daughters need to know this and they need to be aware that a culture fueled by the aforementioned libertarianism, topped with massive doses of alcohol and other drugs, surrounds them so they must take the utmost care to avoid the predators in this environment.
Where are the fathers telling sons to behave as gentlemen or they will be knocked down a few notches until they do? Where are the fathers, period? And in today’s climate, the good guys, the ones who have actually listened to their fathers, are in peril as well. A young man needs to realize that even harmless horseplay or humorous gestures can be taken the wrong way and his life can be forever altered by something most would see as innocent or, worse, by scurrilous innuendo or outright falsehood.
Ultimately, what do we do with all this ugliness? With the moral decline in behavior, fairness and decency?
As ever, in the face of moral dilemma, we do what is in front of us to do.
We do our jobs in a morally forthright manner. We treat our families and our friends with human dignity. We live by the rule of law and the presumption of innocence; we stand for life; we listen to those who have been hurt and we pray for them. Sometimes all we have to go by is what is in front of us, so we honestly and carefully analyze what we know. Then we pray some more, and some more after that. Then we go about our business, the business of living in such a way as to respect human dignity, even in a world that deems that respect necessary only when it fits in with one’s partisan political fervor. And we strive for a return to the predominance of values emanating from family life versus academia, from the home versus the street, from chastity and chivalry and kindness versus hedonism and victimization and godlessness.
Let us wake up each day knowing that absolute truth exists, not my truth or your truth, but the Truth. Let us walk through our days looking for the good we can do, making our world livable and lovable by our actions. Let us disseminate all the goodwill we can and, regardless of what the talking heads are saying, let us hold our heads up, love our children, help our neighbors and try our best – despite these confounding times – to do God’s will in this life with which He has graced us.
Fred Gallagher is an author and editor-in-chief with Gastonia-based Good Will Publishers Inc.