Dale Glading's Blog

America Is Dying on the Vine

Tuesday, November 14, 2023

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On average, cut flowers last anywhere from 7 to 12 days. There are a few tricks of the trade that florists and their customers use that can extend that lifespan such as cutting off the stems at an angle to facilitate water absorption, pruning extra leaves, picking the right vase, changing the water regularly, and avoiding exposure to direct sunlight.

However, no matter how closely a person follows those instructions, eventually the flowers wilt, the petals drop off, and everything turns brown. Do you know why? Because from the moment the flower was separated from its root system, it died. It may have taken a week or so for the appearance of death to be visibly evident but rest assured that a cut flower is a dead flower.

And so it is with America. From the outside, we may look like we are in full bloom, but in reality, our beloved country is dying on the vine.

It is hard to trace the exact date when the United States was separated from its moral and ideological root system, but it may have been in 1962, when the Supreme Court outlawed school sponsored prayer in its Engel v. Vitale decision, or the following year when SCOTUS likewise prohibited daily Bible reading in Abington School District v. Schempp. In 1980, the high court overturned a Kentucky law requiring all public schools to post the Ten Commandments and in 1985, SCOTUS ruled that an Alabama law requiring a daily moment of silent meditation was unconstitutional, although the U.S. 5th Circuit of Appeals permitted such a moment of silence in 2009 as long as it was for secular purposes (frankly, I am not sure how that works).

Regardless of the actual date or dates, there is no denying that atheists, agnostics, liberals, Progressives, and other America-hating and God-despising people have been wildly successful in demanding that the United States become 100% secularized. Yes, we may still recite “one nation under God” as part of the Pledge of Allegiance, but those words ring hollower with each passing year. We, as a country, have officially kicked God to the curb... and are now suffering the consequences of doing so.

Ronald Reagan, paraphrasing French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville, often said that “America will cease to be great when it ceases to be good.” The Gipper also said that “Politics and morality are inseparable. And as morality’s foundation is religion, religion and politics are necessarily related.”

In other words, if you cut our Judeo-Christian founding principles off at the knees, you amputate America greatness, glory, and God-given potential in the process.

Sadly, Reagan’s words were eerily prophetic because the stripping away of every semblance of religion and public faith in our society has resulted in soaring crime rates, the sex trafficking of women and children, and rampant drug abuse that has caused more than 70,000 fentanyl deaths in the last year alone. Simply put, if there is no such thing as absolute truth and a universally accepted moral standard for personal behavior, then all bets are off and Katy may as well bar the door.

Why is murder a crime? Because the Sixth Commandment says it is a sin. Why is stealing wrong? Because the Eighth Commandment prohibits it. And so, if you remove the 10 guiding principles that form the foundation of modern civilization – and which have prevented anarchy from overtaking our culture for centuries – you are left with every man, woman, and child operating as a moral free agent who is accountable to no one but themselves.

Why were 63 million preborn babies murdered by their own mothers while still in the womb over a 49-year period from 1973 to 2022? Because the Supreme Court said it was a woman’s constitutional right to do so, a ridiculous legal argument that has had catastrophic results. Freed from the consequences of an unintended pregnancy, women and men are now encouraged to engage in irresponsible sexual behavior, resulting in a record number of STD’s, HIV, and cervical cancer.

The institution of marriage – which is the fundamental building block of our society, Western culture, and civilization in general – has likewise been attacked and systematically dismantled by well-meaning policies such as welfare and no-fault divorce. Because traditional marriage is now considered passe if not obsolete, people of the same sex can legally marry anywhere in the United States, co-habilitation is more the norm than the exception, and pedophiles are lobbying for the right to sexually abuse and even marry minors.

The lid to Pandora’s box is no longer ajar. It is now wide open and becoming almost impossible to close. As a result, gangs rule our inner-city neighborhoods, rampaging teens think nothing of looting stores, and parents willingly allow their sexually confused children to self-identify as transgender, gender fluid, or some other perversion of their true birthright… going so far as to approve of permanent bodily mutilation otherwise known as gender-reassignment or gender-affirming surgery.

Sorry folks, but you’re still either XX or XY when it comes to chromosomes.

OK, Dale, put aside your minister’s hat for a minute and let’s talk about the secular aspects of America’s root system. Gladly, because the great social experiment that is the United States was founded on the twin and forever cojoined concepts of personal freedom and personal responsibility. If you remove personal responsibility from the equation, then there are no societal guiderails to prevent our citizenry – individually and collectively – from driving over the proverbial cliff.

And so, drug addiction isn’t a person’s fault or the result of their own poor decision-making… which means that we should provide them with free syringes and safe houses – all at taxpayers’ expense – to shoot up to their heart’s content. Who was the liberal lunatic who developed that public health policy and why didn’t someone in authority stop them in their tracks?

Can you imagine George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, or any of our Founding Fathers worshipping at the altar of personal victimhood? On the contrary, they staked everything they had not only to win our independence, but also to establish America as the world’s first constitutional republic.

John Adams famously said that “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Tragically, the Progressive counter argument is to say that since we are no longer a moral and religious people, we should abolish the Constitution itself.

Out with the Bible first and the Constitution second. There goes America’s root system, once and for all.

If you think I am exaggerating, just give it a few years. If I’m wrong, I’ll gladly buy you lunch!

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