Braod Torgeson is an author: his books (to my taste) are a bit hit and miss, but he makes a good point here. The First Moral Majority was overtly Christian, and fell apart because of (ahem) money and adultery. The second moral majority is secular, its megachurches are televised awards ceremonies, and it is falling apart because of sexual predation.
And both were evil.
I am old enough to remember when Moral Majority 1.0 visibly fell apart. It was when all the televangelists got busted for money and sex scandals. These guys had been ramping up their high-dudgeon fire-and-brimstone sermonizing, from the 70s through the 80s. Then the lid blew off, because Bakker and Swaggart and others couldn’t keep their fingers out of the collection plate, nor their zippers zipped. They were just hypocrites: in it for the pussy, the cash, and the prestige. There was nothing holy about any of them. Wolves in sheeps’ clothing.
I suspect we may now be witnessing the fall of Moral Majority 2.0—and for eerily similar reasons too.
This time, the pulpits are over at the secular megachurches of the entertainment awards shows: all those pious celebrities with their proper lapel pins, talking de rigueur noise about feminism, gay rights, racial equality, and compassion—the media there to eagerly provide the microphones, while fundraiser cash flows like nectar to the correct politicians and the anointed activism committees.
Except, the whole thing is a put-on. A very expensive, elaborate sham.
This game we’re witnessing—and its unraveling—has played out in civilization after civilization. Era after era. There is absolutely nothing new about any of it. Merely the theme and content of the popular doctrine has shifted. The mode remains eternal: the ones who make the biggest show of their virtue—by whatever standards have become trendy, for the time—are usually the ones who have the biggest sins to hide.
And so the grand, gold-leaf-laminated, holier-than-thou entertainment media political complex, gradually begins to fall apart. Beneath the weight of its own sanctimony, excess, and double-standards. Too many young women and young men made to do horrible things for the gratification of horrible people, while the so-called guardians and truth-tellers were willfully blind and mute, handsomely paid off, or made to cower in silence.
In case you are not aware of the scandal that is Hollywood, a quite secular author, John Ringo, explains how it works, using an analogy of the cheerleader and the need to put out for the football team. The cost of being in the “in” crowd is moral corruption. Ringo has seen this up close and personal: he’s about my age and saw the nasty side of life in middle east and among the eurotrash far too young.
And he is the father of daughters. Who he does not want despoiled.
And when it’s her time to be the Varsity Cheerleader and some newbie freshman wimp is crying and sulking she tells her: Welcome to the bigs, sis. Now shut up and act.
And when that cheerleader finds a convenient nerd target (herein played by… oh, choose the R target of choice) she makes his life hell. Because she can. And she has to get the rage out somehow.
It’s all part of abuse syndrome, people. I’d wondered about it for some time but the ‘revelations’ about Harvey Weinstein just make it crystal clear. People who are subject to long-term abuse MUST find an outlet for the anger that bubbles in them all the time. They don’t, dare not for various reasons, lash out at their abusers. Think of children in abusive homes. How can they lash out at their parents who are abusing them? They are powerless. So they become bullies in turn.
Conservatives are an easy target. OBVIOUSLY they are worse than the ‘good’ and ‘decent’ liberal men who talk about how important feminism is all the time. Then abuse them. Conservatives HAVE to be worse! They HAVE to be! It’s just not getting reported, just as the abuse they are subjected to by the Harvey Weinsteins of the world is not reported. And since the people around them are ‘their’ tribe, they must, for various psychological reasons, be ‘good’ or at least ‘better’ than the enemy tribe.
This doesn’t mean there aren’t conservatives just as shitty as Harvey Weinstein. There probably are. But they are MUCH more likely to be outed by the news media. (Think of Newt Gingrich and divorcing his dying wife or for that matter the Access Hollywood tape. Interesting that name keeps coming up don’t you think?) Do you really think if a Republican senator was charged by a woman with groping her or masturbating into a plant, that the New York Times would kill the story?
In that way the liberal bias in media can be considered a God send to conservatives and Republicans. It polices our ranks. It is a major weakness for the Democrats and liberals because it refuses to do so. Thus you get the Harvey Weinsteins, the Weiners, the Spitzers who are all ‘protected’ classes until they can’t be protected anymore.
So do liberal actresses and models and all the rest really think conservative men are the worst human beings in the world?
Yes. Yes, they do. Because they have to work every day with some of the ACTUALLY worst human beings in the world. And they have to believe conservative men are worse. Otherwise, there’s no point to being on the ‘good’ side.Thus when Donald Trump said some needlessly crass things and alleged to have groped women, they immediately saw in him not just Harvey (all the rest of the abusers in Hollywood High not to mention Billy ‘I did not rape that woman’ Clinton) but WORSE THAN HARVEY.
Because Trump has to be worse. They can’t really be slaves to some of the most vile human beings on the face of the planet.
Got news for you ladies: Yes, yes, you are. You enable them every day and by doing so you not only support the abusers, you directly or indirectly tell all the hurt new cheerleaders: Welcome to the bigs, sis. Now shut up and act.
There are some temptations that are common to all. You send teenage boys and girls away on a camping trip — and you better expect romance to blossom if you are lucky: if you are unlucky there will be predation. In the entertainment industry there has been predation.
The question then is: what happens to these women? What happens to these cheerleaders? Because they know that they did wrong: though they were predated upon, they feel the guilt. They want to return to righteousness: and in the time of Jesus this division was brutal. You can see this in the first passage, and again in the second.
36One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table. 37And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. 38She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment. 39Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him — that she is a sinner.” 40Jesus spoke up and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” “Teacher,” he replied, “Speak.” 41“A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?” 43Simon answered, “I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt.” And Jesus said to him, “You have judged rightly.” 44Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. 45You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. 46You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. 47Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” 48Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” 50And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
1Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: 2“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. 4Again he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.’ 5But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, 6while the rest seized his slaves, maltreated them, and killed them. 7The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. 8Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ 10Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, 12and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. 13Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14For many are called, but few are chosen.”
What we are left with is that there is only one person who can ameliorate our sin, and that is God, for he is the person we always offend when we do evil. We are not invited or called because we are virtuous. We are called out of love. What we need to be is cleaned, clothed, and ready to celebrate as Christ returns.
We are cleaned by the blood of Christ. We are clothed by the Spirit. And only in this way we can celebrate: otherwise we are fools, calling for our own deserved destruction.
Some will hear this, though many are called, not all will listen. And here lies the paradox: our natural self wants to believe the pretty lies that we use to justify our actions. It is only by the work of the spirit of God that we can realise our state, and thus our need for Christ. Once chosen, we are preserved in Christ.
But do not think that your good acts and religious piety can save you. It cannot. For you are fallen, and only God can rescue you. His way of doing this is Christ.