THE LONG DARK NIGHT OF AMERICA'S SOUL

The bodies of the innocents of Newtown Conn. are barely cold but that has not stopped the progressive secularists from turning the slaughter of a madman into an attack on the second amendment. The fact should not be lost that many of these howling for the banning of guns from sane, law biding people are also the ones screaming the loudest for stopping the NYPD from using "stop and frisk" to take illegal guns from criminals. That they in this time of national shock, should choose to turn this horror not into just another good crisis that should not be wasted but into a tragedy that should not be wasted, is disgusting and more evidence that they remain at the root of a national calamity rooted in the exile of faith and values from our everyday lives.

Over the last 40 years American has fundamentally transformed itself into a secular society. This has been done in the name of enlightenment and has less to do with issues of social or economic justice than it does of placing justice in a context devoid of spirituality and time honored moral values for ideological and political reasons. Today religion, plays little or no part in the lives of over 40% of Americans. The "Golden Rule" and the Ten Commandments are either ignored or ridiculed by many based on the belief that they are quaint anachronisms from an unenlightened superstitious time. The fact that they can still exist in a secular context with as much validity and importance as they can in a religious one, is lost or distorted by those who want to replace absolute moral beliefs with moral relativism.

 By rejecting these moral absolutes, society creates a moral vacuum where good and evil are banished as existential realities. Explanations of horrific behaviors are then conjured up as the result of societal pressures resulting in everyone becoming a victim at one time or another to a social order that produces inequality of opportunity as well as inequality of material acquisition. Because of this, we end blaming the gun and not the gunman. The gunman is just another victim who if unarmed would have not acted on his murderous impulses. This is similar to the claim that the "video" not the evil of terrorism, caused the death of four Americans in Benghazi on 9/11/2012.

  We also as a society, now value the avoidance of making judgements about the behavior and actions of others, thereby allowing individuals who are sick and deranged to escape both critically needed treatment as well as the consequences of their actions. Our reluctance to acknowledge the existence of evil results in the expansion of evil due to a feeble or nonexistent response to it. The fact is that some people are crazy and there are times when that craziness turns into evil.

 History is replete with examples of what can only be described as evil yet modern secularists insist on denying this fact and instead blame society for the actions of individuals. In this brave new world no one is responsible for their actions and the social and moral chaos that ensues because of this leads to individuals who behave with reckless abandon as Dr. Jeckyl and demonic savagery as Mr. Hyde.

Individual rights come directly from the Christian/Judaic belief in the sacredness and uniqueness of the human soul. The progressive secularist belief that we are instead creatures of a society of inequality and privilege with rights bestowed upon us  from government as opposed to a society that has shared ancient moral beliefs emanating from free will and unalienable rights emanating from nature. In the days and weeks ahead we will hear much from politicians about what has to be or must be done to stop this plague of violence that shows no mercy even to innocent babies. Few will demand that we examine the toxicity and poverty of our culture. Few will dare to demand that we restore religious values to a place of honor in our schools and other parts of the public square. Few will demand that we begin again to make value judgements accompanied by consequences or punishment for behavior at an early age that may predict potential catastrophe at a later one.

Civilization requires rules that are rooted in reason, values and an understanding of human nature. If we do not do this, we continue the death spiral of the spirit that is enveloping the west. We as a nation, over the last weeks following the election, have been absorbed and fretful about the nation going over a fiscal cliff. On Friday December 15th, 2012 we discovered to our horror, that we have already gone over a spiritual one!

We need as St. John of the Cross wrote in his immortal poem "The Long Dark Night of the Soul" to begin the restoration of God and faith not simply in our lives but at the center of our lives.

"Once in the dark of night, Inflamed with love and wanting, I arose (O coming of delight!) And went, as no one knows, When all my house lay long in deep repose..."

May the blessed souls of the innocents be embraced by a loving God

ERLANDSSON .