A Culture at War?

When I hear people speak about the “culture war” I think they are talking about the struggle in our society to either preserve or abolish traditional values. There are many in our society who believe that you are “bigoted” or “close minded” or “intolerant” if you cling to traditional values on hot button issues such as abortion, same sex marriage, etc. On the other side you have many who have adopted a “to each his own” mentality and choose not to engage in the discussions and dialogue on sensitive topics.

I believe people should stand up for what they believe in. I, personally, would consider myself quite conservative. For me, as a Christian, I cannot stand behind a political platform that makes provisions for the slaughter of innocent babies, equates homosexuality with Biblical marriage, and rewards those in our society who are LAZY and will not work.

Call me what you will…I choose to stand up for my convictions. I will always respect those on the other side of the issue, but I will never sit quietly and pretend that we agree. Truth is truth. Right is right. Wrong is wrong. There is no getting around it.

So, yes, I believe there is a struggle in our culture.

Hey Don,
First, love your books!
I believe we’ve been recruited in a culture war. I would like to believe that we have a choice, as Americans, and a responsibility, as Christians, to not give in to the propaganda. We must openly confess our acceptance of the differences between ourselves and our fellow man. We are bombarded daily with choices, some of them are hard ones too. Our job is to not give in. We need to not kill each other with slander and hatred from a self centered point of view. Our society draws battle lines instead of breaking down barriers. We join groups or clubs for a social or economic agenda without first educating ourselves about a true or full background knowledge of what these groups stand for. Then we find ourselves defending a position we never understood from the start. To move beyond culture war, we need to be aware of misconceptions and prejudice. Just look ourselves in the eye and say “you, my friend, are living a life of ignorance.” We won’t change others by joining or coercing them to our point of view. My grand parents have taught me to sweep my own porch before I try to clean up the whole neighborhood. I don’t believe that making a friend of a stranger is giving in to an enemy. Rather it is driving home the message of Jesus, which is love. God sent Jesus to show us His love for us and to show us how to love each other. I don’t remember any story in the Bible of Jesus starting any wars or even any rebellions. Peace negotiations are not necessary when education and understanding are put to use. Instead of believing everything some one tells you, go out and read the texts people are “quoting” to you. Find the truth behind your own misconceptions. I’m not saying you need to convert to understand other people and cultures, just take the time to find out what their philosophy really is all about. Then love them where they are, as they they are. That’s how God found you. That’s how He found me. He loves us as we are, where we are. In and through Him we will be changed. He is the source and driving force behind that change. I know that I am only human, an image of God. I hope He’ll find the way to mend me, and most importantly, that I will allow Him to perform His healing.
P.S. I’ve got some Raison Bran in the cupboard, if you ever get to Pa.

What I find terribly interesting is that with the following that you have, you yourself deliver both truth and error and although I love this entry the beginning saddens my heart. I think its wise for you to speak out and share some wisdom about our media and its purpose to not inform but in fact drive up ratings and make money. Isn’t that interesting. The very shows we are watching to be more informed are really actually just trying to make money. Nevertheless, I find myself continually asking God what he is doing with all of this and how can I be a reflection of His character.

I don’t care much for the war metaphor, maybe because I served in an actual war and I now see how ridiculous using it as a metaphor often is.

I lean toward the “cultural divide” metaphor. And I’m always looking for people willing to build a bridge (even if it’s one of those scary rope bridges) rather than erode the canyon walls even more.

I’m not sure how to answer your questions, but I want to share a story.

I used to be all riled up about illegal immigration. I was very angry about it, to the point that I felt resentful when I would call a customer service line and be given an option to talk to someone in Spanish.

Eventually, I had this nagging feeling that my emotions were not lining up with what Jesus thought. So I simply asked God to change my thinking if it was not in line with what He wanted for me. And He did. He gave me compassion where I had none before.

I think it was Lincoln who said that it was more important for us to ask if we were on God’s side, than if God was on ours. I guess my wish for Christians is, that in the middle of trying to prove how right we are, we would stop and ask God to show us the world through His eyes. Maybe then we would have empathy for not just the unborn child but its mother, not just what is best for America, but what is best for everyone.

I wonder if this culture war, whether real or perceived, causes Christians to live more in fear than in a “ready to fight” mode. If we think people will hate us, or fire us from our jobs, or laugh at us, many might just hide their Christianity.

It is food for thought.

Maybe not to ignore the fact that some people do hate us, but to realize our fear is more unfounded than we think. And even more so if we realize who we are in Christ.

It was a glorious morning. The sun was shining and the wind was from the southeast. Up especially early, a tall bony, redheaded young Virginian found time to buy a new thermometer, for which he paid three pounds, fifteen shillings. He also bought gloves for Martha, his wife, who was ill at home.

Thomas Jefferson arrived early at the statehouse. The temperature was 72.5 degrees and the horseflies weren’t nearly so bad at that hour. It was a lovely room, very large, with gleaming white walls. The chairs were comfortable. Facing the single door were two brass fireplaces, but they would not be used today.

The moment the door was shut, and it was always kept locked, the room became an oven. The tall windows were shut, so that loud quarreling voices could not be heard by passersby. Small openings atop the windows allowed a slight stir of air, and also a large number of horseflies. Jefferson records that “the horseflies were dexterous in finding necks, and the silk of stockings was nothing to them.” All discussing was punctuated by the slap of hands on necks.

On the wall at the back, facing the president’s desk, was a panoply — consisting of a drum, swords, and banners seized from Fort Ticonderoga the previous year. Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold had captured the place, shouting that they were taking it “in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!”

Now Congress got to work, promptly taking up an emergency measure about which there was discussion but no dissension. “Resolved: That an application be made to the Committee of Safety of Pennsylvania for a supply of flints for the troops at New York.”

Then Congress transformed itself into a committee of the whole. The Declaration of Independence was read aloud once more, and debate resumed. Though Jefferson was the best writer of all of them, he had been somewhat verbose. Congress hacked the excess away. They did a good job, as a side-by-side comparison of the rough draft and the final text shows. They cut the phrase “by a self-assumed power.” “Climb” was replaced by “must read,” then “must” was eliminated, then the whole sentence, and soon the whole paragraph was cut. Jefferson groaned as they continued what he later called “their depredations.” “Inherent and inalienable rights” came out “certain unalienable rights,” and to this day no one knows who suggested the elegant change.

A total of 86 alterations were made. Almost 500 words were eliminated, leaving 1,337. At last, after three days of wrangling, the document was put to a vote.

Here in this hall Patrick Henry had once thundered: “I am no longer a Virginian, sir, but an American.” But today the loud, sometimes bitter argument stilled, and without fanfare the vote was taken from north to south by colonies, as was the custom. On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted.

There were no trumpets blown. No one stood on his chair and cheered. The afternoon was waning and Congress had no thought of delaying the full calendar of routine business on its hands. For several hours they worked on many other problems before adjourning for the day.

Much To Lose

What kind of men were the 56 signers who adopted the Declaration of Independence and who, by their signing, committed an act of treason against the crown? To each of you, the names Franklin, Adams, Hancock and Jefferson are almost as familiar as household words. Most of us, however, know nothing of the other signers. Who were they? What happened to them?

I imagine that many of you are somewhat surprised at the names not there: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Patrick Henry. All were elsewhere.

Ben Franklin was the only really old man. Eighteen were under 40; three were in their 20s. Of the 56 almost half – 24 – were judges and lawyers. Eleven were merchants, nine were landowners and farmers, and the remaining 12 were doctors, ministers, and politicians.

With only a few exceptions, such as Samuel Adams of Massachusetts, these were men of substantial property. All but two had families. The vast majority were men of education and standing in their communities. They had economic security as few men had in the 18th Century.

Each had more to lose from revolution than he had to gain by it. John Hancock, one of the richest men in America, already had a price of 500 pounds on his head. He signed in enormous letters so that his Majesty could now read his name without glasses and could now double the reward. Ben Franklin wryly noted: “Indeed we must all hang together, otherwise we shall most assuredly hang separately.”

Fat Benjamin Harrison of Virginia told tiny Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts: “With me it will all be over in a minute, but you, you will be dancing on air an hour after I am gone.”

These men knew what they risked. The penalty for treason was death by hanging. And remember, a great British fleet was already at anchor in New York Harbor.

They were sober men. There were no dreamy-eyed intellectuals or draft card burners here. They were far from hot-eyed fanatics yammering for an explosion. They simply asked for the status quo. It was change they resisted. It was equality with the mother country they desired. It was taxation with representation they sought. They were all conservatives, yet they rebelled.

It was principle, not property, that had brought these men to Philadelphia. Two of them became presidents of the United States. Seven of them became state governors. One died in office as vice president of the United States. Several would go on to be U.S. Senators. One, the richest man in America, in 1828 founded the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. One, a delegate from Philadelphia, was the only real poet, musician and philosopher of the signers. (It was he, Francis Hopkinson not Betsy Ross who designed the United States flag.)

Richard Henry Lee, a delegate from Virginia, had introduced the resolution to adopt the Declaration of Independence in June of 1776. He was prophetic in his concluding remarks: “Why then sir, why do we longer delay? Why still deliberate? Let this happy day give birth to an American Republic. Let her arise not to devastate and to conquer but to reestablish the reign of peace and law.

“The eyes of Europe are fixed upon us. She demands of us a living example of freedom that may exhibit a contrast in the felicity of the citizen to the ever-increasing tyranny which desolates her polluted shores. She invites us to prepare an asylum where the unhappy may find solace, and the persecuted repost.

“If we are not this day wanting in our duty, the names of the American Legislatures of 1776 will be placed by posterity at the side of all of those whose memory has been and ever will be dear to virtuous men and good citizens.”

Though the resolution was formally adopted July 4, it was not until July 8 that two of the states authorized their delegates to sign, and it was not until August 2 that the signers met at Philadelphia to actually put their names to the Declaration.

William Ellery, delegate from Rhode Island, was curious to see the signers’ faces as they committed this supreme act of personal courage. He saw some men sign quickly, “but in no face was he able to discern real fear.” Stephan Hopkins, Ellery’s colleague from Rhode Island, was a man past 60. As he signed with a shaking pen, he declared: “My hand trembles, but my heart does not.”

“Most Glorious Service”

Even before the list was published, the British marked down every member of Congress suspected of having put his name to treason. All of them became the objects of vicious manhunts. Some were taken. Some, like Jefferson, had narrow escapes. All who had property or families near British strongholds suffered.

• Francis Lewis, New York delegate saw his home plundered — and his estates in what is now Harlem — completely destroyed by British Soldiers. Mrs. Lewis was captured and treated with great brutality. Though she was later exchanged for two British prisoners through the efforts of Congress, she died from the effects of her abuse.

• William Floyd, another New York delegate, was able to escape with his wife and children across Long Island Sound to Connecticut, where they lived as refugees without income for seven years. When they came home they found a devastated ruin.

• Philips Livingstone had all his great holdings in New York confiscated and his family driven out of their home. Livingstone died in 1778 still working in Congress for the cause.

• Louis Morris, the fourth New York delegate, saw all his timber, crops, and livestock taken. For seven years he was barred from his home and family.

• John Hart of Trenton, New Jersey, risked his life to return home to see his dying wife. Hessian soldiers rode after him, and he escaped in the woods. While his wife lay on her deathbed, the soldiers ruined his farm and wrecked his homestead. Hart, 65, slept in caves and woods as he was hunted across the countryside. When at long last, emaciated by hardship, he was able to sneak home, he found his wife had already been buried, and his 13 children taken away. He never saw them again. He died a broken man in 1779, without ever finding his family.

• Dr. John Witherspoon, signer, was president of the College of New Jersey, later called Princeton. The British occupied the town of Princeton, and billeted troops in the college. They trampled and burned the finest college library in the country.

• Judge Richard Stockton, another New Jersey delegate signer, had rushed back to his estate in an effort to evacuate his wife and children. The family found refuge with friends, but a Tory sympathizer betrayed them. Judge Stockton was pulled from bed in the night and brutally beaten by the arresting soldiers. Thrown into a common jail, he was deliberately starved. Congress finally arranged for Stockton’s parole, but his health was ruined. The judge was released as an invalid, when he could no longer harm the British cause. He returned home to find his estate looted and did not live to see the triumph of the Revolution. His family was forced to live off charity.

• Robert Morris, merchant prince of Philadelphia, delegate and signer, met Washington’s appeals and pleas for money year after year. He made and raised arms and provisions which made it possible for Washington to cross the Delaware at Trenton. In the process he lost 150 ships at sea, bleeding his own fortune and credit almost dry.

• George Clymer, Pennsylvania signer, escaped with his family from their home, but their property was completely destroyed by the British in the Germantown and Brandywine campaigns.

• Dr. Benjamin Rush, also from Pennsylvania, was forced to flee to Maryland. As a heroic surgeon with the army, Rush had several narrow escapes.

• John Martin, a Tory in his views previous to the debate, lived in a strongly loyalist area of Pennsylvania. When he came out for independence, most of his neighbors and even some of his relatives ostracized him. He was a sensitive and troubled man, and many believed this action killed him. When he died in 1777, his last words to his tormentors were: “Tell them that they will live to see the hour when they shall acknowledge it [the signing] to have been the most glorious service that I have ever rendered to my country.”

• William Ellery, Rhode Island delegate, saw his property and home burned to the ground.

• Thomas Lynch, Jr., South Carolina delegate, had his health broken from privation and exposures while serving as a company commander in the military. His doctors ordered him to seek a cure in the West Indies and on the voyage, he and his young bride were drowned at sea.

• Edward Rutledge, Arthur Middleton, and Thomas Heyward, Jr., the other three South Carolina signers, were taken by the British in the siege of Charleston. They were carried as prisoners of war to St. Augustine, Florida, where they were singled out for indignities. They were exchanged at the end of the war, the British in the meantime having completely devastated their large landholdings and estates.

• Thomas Nelson, signer of Virginia, was at the front in command of the Virginia military forces. With British General Charles Cornwallis in Yorktown, fire from 70 heavy American guns began to destroy Yorktown piece by piece. Lord Cornwallis and his staff moved their headquarters into Nelson’s palatial home. While American cannonballs were making a shambles of the town, the house of Governor Nelson remained untouched. Nelson turned in rage to the American gunners and asked, “Why do you spare my home?” They replied, “Sir, out of respect to you.” Nelson cried, “Give me the cannon!” and fired on his magnificent home himself, smashing it to bits. But Nelson’s sacrifice was not quite over. He had raised $2 million for the Revolutionary cause by pledging his own estates. When the loans came due, a newer peacetime Congress refused to honor them, and Nelson’s property was forfeited. He was never reimbursed. He died, impoverished, a few years later at the age of 50.

Lives, Fortunes, Honor

Of those 56 who signed the Declaration of Independence, nine died of wounds or hardships during the war. Five were captured and imprisoned, in each case with brutal treatment. Several lost wives, sons or entire families. One lost his 13 children. Two wives were brutally treated. All were at one time or another the victims of manhunts and driven from their homes. Twelve signers had their homes completely burned. Seventeen lost everything they owned. Yet not one defected or went back on his pledged word. Their honor, and the nation they sacrificed so much to create is still intact.

And, finally, there is the New Jersey signer, Abraham Clark.

He gave two sons to the officer corps in the Revolutionary Army. They were captured and sent to that infamous British prison hulk afloat in New York Harbor known as the hell ship Jersey, where 11,000 American captives were to die. The younger Clarks were treated with a special brutality because of their father. One was put in solitary and given no food. With the end almost in sight, with the war almost won, no one could have blamed Abraham Clark for acceding to the British request when they offered him his sons’ lives if he would recant and come out for the King and Parliament. The utter despair in this man’s heart, the anguish in his very soul, must reach out to each one of us down through 200 years with his answer: “No.”

The 56 signers of the Declaration Of Independence proved by their every deed that they made no idle boast when they composed the most magnificent curtain line in history. “And for the support of this Declaration with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”

My friends, I know you have a copy of the Declaration of Independence somewhere around the house – in an old history book (newer ones may well omit it), an encyclopedia, or one of those artificially aged “parchments” we all got in school years ago. I suggest that each of you take the time this month to read through the text of the Declaration, one of the most noble and beautiful political documents in human history.

There is no more profound sentence than this: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness…”

These are far more than mere poetic words. The underlying ideas that infuse every sentence of this treatise have sustained this nation for more than two centuries. They were forged in the crucible of great sacrifice. They are living words that spring from and satisfy the deepest cries for liberty in the human spirit.

“Sacred honor” isn’t a phrase we use much these days, but every American life is touched by the bounty of this, the Founders’ legacy. It is freedom, tested by blood, and watered with tears.

It’s cool to see you post about this…

I have the blessing and the curse of being a libertarian (insert pause for gasps and raised eyebrows). I say that to preface the following.

I think you are right on when stating that the “culutre war” is just now being sold in regards to this election. I believe in previous elections the “culture war” has been much more pervasive. There is a couple of interesting articles in this week’s issue of The Economist about how cultural polarities have played a part in presidential elections since the Nixon Era. I also believe that the nomination of Palin, has started the ball rolling on the “culture war”. It was a brilliant move by the Republicans, and has really turned the campaign around for them. They have effectively turned the attention away from the issues and toward a war hero and a hockey mom who can field-dress a moose.

Unfortunately, I think “culture wars” are the only thing that will effectively win votes for either side. Let’s face it, Joe Sixpack isn’t going to take the time to really delve into what each candidate plans to do about investment banking reform, short selling, and economic regulation and de-regulation. He’s probably not even aware of the fact that the Chinese central bank, more than likely, owns his mortgage. However, he can understand the propaganda of an elitist, Ivy-League educated, big city liberal pitted against a maverick war hero, and an attractive hockey mom. This is what people see, and they will vote accordingly. This race is going to be a lot closer than I expected it to be back in July.

I tend to think like you do. (concocted tempest created in teapot to sell coffee). I was interviewed by a Christian radio station after watching Ben Stein’s “Expelled,” a movie troubling for the 100% support of every Christian I met, and the 100% outraged, frenzied condemnation by atheist fundamentalists, while most average people never heard about it at all. I found myself being pigeonholed as “us or them?” in the conversation, and fought this fairly heavily. I feared if I was “us” then I had to agree with everything or lose “us” status, and if I were “them” then I’d be annoyed and bothered with preaching and questions intended to produce a questioning of my them-ness. Was tough. I dropped the name “Don Miller” in and got “The Blue Like Jazz guy? I know about him. He’s pretty out there, isn’t he?” And I realized “I don’t think Don’s ‘out there’ at all. I think he’s extremely middle-of-the-road usual in his views. What does that make me?” “Us” but out there enough to be approaching “them” I suppose. The shibboleths were put out there. I said them with an Australian accent, I think.

Check out James Morone’s book, Hellfire Nation: the Politics of Sin in American History. It is an an interesting read. A long read though. The central argument is that political dialogue in the US has been shaped by a recurring “us vs. them” theme. It was very popular in academia a couple years back.

Hi Don,
It had been a while since I took a look at your blog…but today I did, and I’m so glad to see the discussion that you’ve started here! I’ve been feeling very frustrated and disappointed at all of us who call ourselves Americans for allowing the political process of choosing a new leader for our country to become just a feast of empty rhetoric. I ride in a vanpool most days to and from work, and we’ve been listening to the debates on the radio. The comments I have heard come from everyone around me while one or the other candidate speaks have been making an impact on my view of this entire, so called ‘Democratic’ process. The ability to have a voice and a choice in who becomes our next President is a privilege that I fear is being grossly disrespected and underestimated. I hear people choosing sides, and depending on the side they align themselves with, the language I hear them using next is depressingly predictable! How can we accept this process as Democracy?! I want to see people objectively listening to what each candidate has to say, taking stock of how clear what they actually said is, and then deciding whether their point is valid or not. What I see actually going on is people taking sides, and then their chosen person can say/do no wrong.
This worries me. Whatever happened to independent thinking, and carefully weighing someone’s words and actions based on the merit of the content and not just the ‘assumed correctness’ I see people so freely bestowing on “Their Man/Woman”? I hear such irresponsible things being said by both the candidates and their supporters! We must hold ourselves up to the standards we so easily apply to ‘the other guy,’and not be so quick to approve of someone just because of what we think they represent, nor judge those who we deem to be in opposition to our own ’side.’ I have personally grown disgusted of both main political parties, and consider myself an Independent in the true sense of the word.(not in affiliation with the Independent Party at all). I feel encouraged to look for others who see the folly in the current way this is being done when I see the type of open discussion that is taking place here on your blog. If we are not all much more careful with the way we go about exercising our democratic freedoms, we may very well end up losing them. And that to me is too great a tragedy to just stand by and watch it happen! We really need to think through what isn’t working and find ways to fix things so they more closely reflect what the founding fathers had in mind when they established this great nation.
Sadly when I express my ideas about this, I’m most often dismissed as a hopeless idealist. How terrible that even trying to express individual ideas, and challenge people to their highest potential as thinkers, has become no much more than a cliche label of idealism! Keep the conversation going, it’ll only bring out more of what is actually important!
Thanks Don for your courage in taking on this topic.

When God created us He included free will. He must have a purpose in that. Maybe this is evidence of His purpose?