This is certainly some better news. I can’t quite call it good news, seeing as how 41% of Americans think it’s okay to kill an innocent human being without proper justification. But compared to what it was in the 1990s, the pro-life movement has made massive strides. Part of this is because the pro-life movement has logic, science, and ethics on its side. The pro-choice side has selfishness and…well, that’s about it actually.

Someone on Twitter posted a comment that said opposition to gay marriage is at an all time low at the same time that support of abortion is at an all time low, and that any conservative would make that trade. I agree (see my previous post, for example). But we can’t forget that that’s just choosing the lesser of two evils. Better is that opposition to gay marriage and support of the pro-life movement are at record highs. Still, I will choose the lesser of two evils every time, if I have to have an evil.

Obviously, this shouldn’t minimize the fact that homosexuality is a sin, and gay marriage is a bad idea. However, I’ve written before that not all sin is the same, and that God Himself views some sins as worse sins than other things. And the fact is, abortion takes the life of an innocent human being without proper justification, and that is a much worse crime than homosexuals sleeping together. In fact, reading Romans 1, I conclude that rampant homosexual behavior is the result of God’s judgment on society itself, rather than the cause of that judgment.

Again, we cannot condone sinful behavior, and it is right for the church to oppose the mainstreaming of homosexuality. Nevertheless, it remains that our church today is failing to uphold Christ’s words in Matthew 23:23 (ESV): “These [minor things] you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.”

The problem that I see happening is this. Christian churches rise up with righteous indignation against homosexuality, and think that they have now done all that they need to do. Meanwhile, Christian families send their children into public schools where they are indoctrinated into a hedonistic worldview, where they can get an abortion to get rid of any messy consequences. They divorce their own spouses at a rate that rivals that of the secular masses (mainly because many of these Christian families are actually secular families that just happen to go to church). They become functionally indistinguishable from pagans, believing truth to be relative. In all this, they have a faith with no root, which persecution then causes to whither away.

I believe that homosexual advocates do have a valid argument, in that most who claim the name “Christian” do oppose homosexuals out of bigotry rather than out of what the Bible says. (Granted, these homosexual advocates believe the Bible itself is bigoted too, which I oppose.) I would be surprised if even a quarter of Christians who oppose homosexuality can actually quote a single passage of Scripture that addresses the topic—and if that is the case, then it just about has to be bigotry that motivates them to oppose it. Truly, if Christians had a Biblical worldview in the first place, they would have already seen the important issues affecting society as a whole long before Obama became America’s First Gay President (a label given to him by homosexual activist Andrew Sullivan). So to suddenly become concerned about Obama now really does smack of hypocrisy.

Naturally, that doesn’t mean that a Christian who is just now realizing that he has been living a double standard cannot become consistent in his beliefs. In fact, I would implore such Christians to do so. The best first step would be to actually read the Bible we have. There’s plenty of stuff in there that applies to our everyday lives right now, that show us how we should interact with our culture. The Greek and Roman culture that shaped the world that Christ lived in was worse than the culture we have by any objective standard, and living a righteous life enabled the church to flourish during that time.

Christians, do not call what is evil good, nor call what is good evil. Live your lives as holy, unto the Lord. Be prepared for the backlash, and stand up for the truth. That’s the formula for success in the Bible. But to do so requires consistent, constant living. It requires us not to be conformed to the image of the world, but to be transformed into His likeness. If bigotry has moved you to oppose evil, then exchange your bigotry for a truthful opposition to that evil. (You will be condemned either way so it is best not to allow them to condemn you for actual evil.) Do not just stand up against homosexual marriage as if that’s the worst thing that could happen to us. It’s not! Worse things are already condoned and need to be addressed.

The battle is not just against homosexual marriage. That, ultimately, is just a symptom. It’s the judgment of God being poured out on our society. The reason for that judgment is what we ultimately need to address, and that can only be done as we turn our hearts back to Christ.

To help mitigate against possibly violating the copyright by quoting too much of the text, I’m only displaying the text in my commentaries while it appears on the main page of this blog. Once it’s off the main page, I’ve been editing the posts to delete the text and add in a link to their website instead. Typically, there wouldn’t be a problem with me doing commentary every day, but since we’re in the middle of Job and I’ve been quoting large passages of text at a time in order to get the entire thought out (for instance, today we’re looking at two entire chapters), then I have decided to slow down the number of posts that appear to ensure that enough of the chapters fall off the main page and become links to keep me from going over the 1,000 verse mark.

Please keep in mind that the ESV is well within its rights to limit the use of its text in such a manner. Translations cost a lot of money and take a lot of time to produce, especially when it’s as high quality as the ESV is. As an author myself, I know the importance of protecting intellectual property and keeping one’s copyright secure. I am grateful for the extent to which the ESV graciously allows me to quote from in the first place.

With that, let’s look at today’s text.

Then Job answered and said:

“I have heard many such things;
miserable comforters are you all.
Shall windy words have an end?
Or what provokes you that you answer?
I also could speak as you do,
if you were in my place;
I could join words together against you
and shake my head at you.
I could strengthen you with my mouth,
and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.

“If I speak, my pain is not assuaged,
and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?
Surely now God has worn me out;
he has made desolate all my company.
And he has shriveled me up,
which is a witness against me,
and my leanness has risen up against me;
it testifies to my face.
He has torn me in his wrath and hated me;
he has gnashed his teeth at me;
my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.
Men have gaped at me with their mouth;
they have struck me insolently on the cheek;
they mass themselves together against me.
God gives me up to the ungodly
and casts me into the hands of the wicked.
I was at ease, and he broke me apart;
he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;
he set me up as his target;
his archers surround me.
He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare;
he pours out my gall on the ground.
He breaks me with breach upon breach;
he runs upon me like a warrior.
I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin
and have laid my strength in the dust.
My face is red with weeping,
and on my eyelids is deep darkness,
although there is no violence in my hands,
and my prayer is pure.

“O earth, cover not my blood,
and let my cry find no resting place.
Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven,
and he who testifies for me is on high.
My friends scorn me;
my eye pours out tears to God,
that he would argue the case of a man with God,
as a son of man does with his neighbor.
For when a few years have come
I shall go the way from which I shall not return.

“My spirit is broken; my days are extinct;
the graveyard is ready for me.
Surely there are mockers about me,
and my eye dwells on their provocation.

“Lay down a pledge for me with you;
who is there who will put up security for me?
Since you have closed their hearts to understanding,
therefore you will not let them triumph.
He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property—
the eyes of his children will fail.

“He has made me a byword of the peoples,
and I am one before whom men spit.
My eye has grown dim from vexation,
and all my members are like a shadow.
The upright are appalled at this,
and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.
Yet the righteous holds to his way,
and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger.
But you, come on again, all of you,
and I shall not find a wise man among you.
My days are past; my plans are broken off,
the desires of my heart.
They make night into day:
‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’
If I hope for Sheol as my house,
if I make my bed in darkness,
if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’
and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
where then is my hope?
Who will see my hope?
Will it go down to the bars of Sheol?
Shall we descend together into the dust?” (Job 16-17 ESV)

Job’s comforters have not been very good at all, and the cycle of escalation we’ve seen up to now continues unabated.

Question 1: What are the propositions of the passage?

1) Job answers Eliphaz’s second comment to him.
2) Job points out that his friends have been no help at all, calling them “miserable comforters.”
3) He asks if their “windy words” will ever end.
4) Job points out that he could answer the same way as they do, if their roles were reversed.
5) Job points out that speaking does not assuage his pain.
6) Furthermore, he says that if he doesn’t speak, his pain still remains.
7) He claims God has worn him out and made him desolate.
8) Job says God has shrivled him up, “which is a witness against [him]”.
9) Job says that God has done this in wrath.
10) Job says that God “hated me.”
11) Job says men have openly “gaped” at him and have struck him “insolently on the cheek.”
12) Job believes God has given him up to the ungodly, cast into the hands of the wicked.
13) Job says he was at ease before God broke him apart.
14) He says God has set him up as a target for His archers.
15) He says God breaks him “with breach upon breach” and runs upon him like a warrior.
16) Job says his face is red with weeping, and his eyes are darkened.
17) He says this all happened though he was innocent.
18) Job appeals to the earth to not cover his blood, and that his cry finds no resting place.
19) He says he still has a witness in heaven.
20) Job says his friends scorn him.
21) Nevertheless, Job hopes that God will hear his argument.
22) Job points out that soon he will die.
23) His spirit is broken and he is ready for death.
24) Job points out that God has closed the hearts of Job’s enemies so that they cannot understand, and as a result God will not let them triumph.
25) Still, God has also made Job into a byword.
26) Job points out the upright are appalled at this.
27) He points out the righteous still holds to his way.
28) Job says the man with clean hands grows stronger and stronger.
29) Job then declares he cannot find a wise man among his friends.
30) He utters despair that his days are past and his plans have come to ruin.
31) Job points out with rhetorical questions that there is no hope for him in Sheol (the grave).
32) He asks who will see his hope in death, with a negative answer implied.

Question 2: What does this passage teach about God?

We see that Job has a couple of misconceptions about God here. He believes that God is acting toward him in anger, and furthermore that God actually hates Job. As we saw from the prologue of Job, God is not acting in anger or hatred. He is acting because Job is righteous.

We also see yet again that Job is still convinced that God is the one who is doing this to him. It is apparent that all the characters in the narrative believe that God is responsible for what has happened to Job—including God Himself—even though we also know that God allowed Satan to actualize the inflictions upon Job. Again, this doesn’t seem to make any sense outside of some form of compatibilism.

One interesting note is that even though Job says that God hates him, he still believes that God will be an advocate for him in heaven. Job is still convinced that he has done nothing wrong—and we know from the narrative that his assessment is correct. As a result, we see that Job is convinced that even though God is doing this to him, God still has a nature such that He will acknowledge Job’s innocence in heaven.

Question 3: What does this passage teach about man?

Job’s friends are labeled as “miserable comforters.” Job has consistently told them what he is looking for, and they have responded by doubling down on the very things that Job has asked them not to do. As a result, Job is not improving at all. If we are trying to comfort another person, then we need to listen to the feedback they give. Naturally, we should not always give in to the demands of someone who is hurting—it still takes wisdom to know what is appropriate. But if someone tells you that you are a miserable comforter, you should take the opportunity to rethink your tactics. In this case, given the history of what we’ve already seen about Job’s friends piling on more and more, we can predict that they will not change their tactics at all.

I tried to stop myself from responding, but not very well. “I hate to break it to you, but you’re completely useless in a non-post-apocalyptic world too.” And since my zombie-destroying skills are up to snuff, there wasn’t anything he could do in response to that (note to self: remember to come up with plausible excuse for Human Resources about why I needed that 12-guage at my desk again—“I blame Bush” might not cut it this time.)

In any case, it reminded me of my previous post about the so-called eclipse that I have decided was a myth because EMPRICISM™ (and if you doubt me, then you’re a RACIST™!). Since I concluded that this means the Mayan Apocalypse is true, and since my aforementioned coworker was talking about a post-apocalyptic world, then obviously correlation = causation (or some such) resulting in yet more affirmation that the end of the world will be in December of this year. There is no longer any reason at all to deny it. I mean other than logic and reason in the first place, but seriously, who are you going to believe: me or your own lying brain?

And no, this isn’t just a way for me to try to get more money from you. In fact, I don’t want your money anymore. Money is worthless. That’s why I’m asking that you first convert your money to gold before you send it to me. Actually, silver might be even better than gold since in the coming apocalypse I surmise I will probably need a lot of silver bullets. (Zombies are like werewolves, right?)

Now some people tell me that I’m being a little bit paranoid here. To those people, I say, “Mom, Dad: it isn’t being paranoid if they really are after you.” I mean, look at it this way. My coworker just today made it necessary for me to have to come up with an excuse for HR for why I was using firearms at my desk again. Don’t you see what I have to put up with here? If it wasn’t for Congress requiring them to keep me hired because of DISCRIMINATION™, I’m certain they’d even try to fire me now! It’s almost as if they haven’t even heard of GLOBAL WARMING™!

Sheesh. You know what? I think a good apocalypse every now and then is actually PATRIOTISM™. Didn’t Thomas Jefferson once say, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of zombies and vampires”? He didn’t cross the Delaware River on Christmas to conquer New Jersey simply to have his great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandchildren give away the country! And you shouldn’t either.

Friends, there is only one way to avoid the coming apocalypse. And I will tell you that way after just six easy payments of $9.95, payable in gold or silver only, because RON PAUL™. Simply send your e-mail address to ISwearIWontSpamYou@thisemaildoestooexist.info.com.net.org and get my newsletter today. For the children!

I wish that last sentence was funnier. Because of how it mirrors the tactics of leftists, though, it’s actually too realistic to be all that funny. It does, however, get to the heart of something I was thinking about earlier, which is that it may be too late to be able to use good arguments alone to win political debates. Now it takes good marketing and slogans that you can hammer people with. The left is good at this, since it’s the left that created the “thought” process resulting in bumper sticker philosophy in the first place. After all, thirteen years of indoctrination in public schools yields graduates who can only think in thirty-second spurts. If you can’t reduce a complex idea like voter fraud into a bite-sized chunk, slapping the label “racism” on works instead. We are trained that “racism” = bad, and therefore if we can insist that X = racism, then X = bad too. Even if X happens to be shooting someone of a different ethnic minority than you are for the sole reason that he is bashing your head into the sidewalk and punching you while you yell for help. That’s too many variables to think of. “Racism” cuts through the clutter and lets people express their rage by randomly beating up other people of different races instead of going after the person responsible for the original offense in the first place. In other words, slapping the label “racist” on the crime has given a free pass to retaliate against all other people of a different race, in the name of “justice.” Slapping “racism” on the original crime allows people to actually be racist towards others…

The weather in Colorado is now getting pretty nice, too. Yesterday, I even had the wind at my back for most of the trip home, which was a pleasant change from the usual. As anyone who rides a bike for any length of time knows, the wind is always in your face. This is just physics. If Schrödinger had put a bike in with the cat, we’d know which direction the wind was blowing even if we didn’t know whether the cat was alive or not. I’m just saying.

Next up, my wife bought me a new wallet which I was given yesterday. This was definitely a good thing as my old wallet was being held together by my pockets and nothing else. Although I discovered today that I somehow forgot to transfer my debit card into my new wallet—thankfully I don’t need to buy anything while at work, though. It does go to figure. Of the two things that I actually need to have in my wallet (my ID and my debit card), I had half. But I also had my hunter safety card, so there is that.

Finally, I think that Conservatives own Twitter. I know there are a lot of Liberal types on there, but when even Comedy Central is whining Conservative hashtag games are ruining Twitter, then I think it’s safe to say Liberals are losing. The biggest thing is that the media no longer has a monopoly on what news stories are out there. I get far more interesting news stories, and far quicker access to them, by reading the Twitter feed than even some of my favorite blogs. If you want to circumvent the Lamestream Media, following conservatives on Twitter will do it.

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:

“I will show you; hear me,
and what I have seen I will declare
(what wise men have told,
without hiding it from their fathers,
to whom alone the land was given,
and no stranger passed among them).
The wicked man writhes in pain all his days,
through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless.
Dreadful sounds are in his ears;
in prosperity the destroyer will come upon him.
He does not believe that he will return out of darkness,
and he is marked for the sword.
He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’
He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand;
distress and anguish terrify him;
they prevail against him, like a king ready for battle.
Because he has stretched out his hand against God
and defies the Almighty,
running stubbornly against him
with a thickly bossed shield;
because he has covered his face with his fat
and gathered fat upon his waist
and has lived in desolate cities,
in houses that none should inhabit,
which were ready to become heaps of ruins;
he will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure,
nor will his possessions spread over the earth;
he will not depart from darkness;
the flame will dry up his shoots,
and by the breath of his mouth he will depart.
Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself,
for emptiness will be his payment.
It will be paid in full before his time,
and his branch will not be green.
He will shake off his unripe grape like the vine,
and cast off his blossom like the olive tree.
For the company of the godless is barren,
and fire consumes the tents of bribery.
They conceive trouble and give birth to evil,
and their womb prepares deceit” (Job 15 ESV).

After Job’s response to his friends, Eliphaz rebukes him, and as you can tell, his words have become much harsher than they were during his first statements to Job.

Question 1: What are the propositions of the passage?

1) Eliphaz responds to Job.
2) He begins with a question that’s really an accusation that Job’s words are as substantive as the wind.
3) Eliphaz accuses Job of “doing away with the fear of God” and “hindering meditation.”
4) Eliphaz claims Job is speaking iniquity, and that it’s his own mouth that is condemning him.
5) Eliphaz asks what Job knows that his friends do not already know, implying a response of “nothing.”
6) He responds to Job’s claims by asserting that the fathers (tradition) are on his side.
7) He claims, again via attacky questions, that Job believes God’s comforts are “too small.”
8) Eliphaz asserts that Job has truned his back on God.
9) He agrees with Job’s assertion that man cannot be pure or righteous, having come from an impure source.
10) Eliphaz asserts again that God does not trust his own holy ones (echoing back to his former statements, which he claimed were revelation from God).
11) Eliphaz concludes since even the heavens are impure in His sight, how much more impure is corrupt and evil man.
12) Eliphaz says he will show Job what he has seen, and what tradition agrees with.
13) He says it is the wicked man who writhes in pain and suffers torments.
14) The wicked man endures this because “he has stretched out his hand against God and defies the Almighty.”
15) As a result, God punishes the wicked man for his sins, to the same extent that Job is now being punished.

Question 2: What does this passage teach us about God?

Like before, we see that Eliphaz still believes that bad things only happen to bad people. He is firm in his belief that God would not bring suffering to Job unless Job were guilty and deserving of the suffering. This we know is not true because the narrative shows us that Job was innocent. Therefore, this serves as more evidence that God does bring suffering to the just and not only to the wicked.

Question 3: What does this passage teach us about men?

The pattern is continuing. Not only has each friend of Job gotten progressively harsher in their dealings with him, but now Eliphaz tops himself. It’s not just new people getting harsher, in other words. This sort of thing can, and does, happen when we try to counsel others, and we must be on guard for it. It’s especially true when we offer advice we think is obvious and it gets spurned by the one we are addressing. Human nature is to then up the ante, as if to punish the one who we were speaking to for ignoring our infinite wisdom.

Eliphaz would have done well to have listened to Job and believed his protestations that he was innocent. Instead, Eliphaz believed that God could not possibly bring suffering to an innocent person, and because that filter was in place he was deaf to Job’s imploring words.

One thing is for certain. Truth < -----------------> Obama

First, let us look once more at the structure. As you recall, the first two chapters (constituting the prologue) had this structure:

A. Job is blameless.
B. Job goes through a trial (family and possessions destroyed).
A. Job remains blameless.
B. Job goes through another trial (his health destroyed).
A. Job remains blameless.

Thus we see a cycle of increasing trial, but Job remaining steadfast. Then his three friends arrive, and we find this new cycle:

C. Job laments and longs for death.
D. Eliphaz gives a gentle rebuke.
C. Job defends himself, laments, and longs for death.
D. Bildad gives a strong rebuke.
C. Job defends himself, laments, and longs for death.
D. Zophar gives a scathing rebuke.
C. Job defends himself, laments, and longs for death—but still has hope in God.

As we shall soon see, this cycle will itself occur in a cycle (but I won’t say too much on that yet, as we are still going through the “blank slate” view of Job). Some things that we can note from this cycle is that the C parts (i.e., Job’s responses) tend to be much longer than the D parts (i.e., his friend’s statements). Most of the D sections are single chapters, while the C sections are two or three chapters long.

Furthermore, we see that the D sections are intensifying in the level of the rebuke given toward Job. This manifests itself in the way that more and more emphasis is shifted toward blaming Job for his circumstances. While Eliphaz begins gently, it is obvious that each of the friends assumes that Job has sinned greatly for what is happening to him. It does not occur to any of them that Job is telling the truth when he insists he is in the right. Indeed, it may be that Job’s insistence on his innocence is provoking his friends to increase their rebuke. It is probable that had Job agreed with Eliphaz from the start and said he was deserving of what he was receiving, the other friends would not have piled on as strongly. Of course, Job could not admit to what was false, and as a result his friends appear to need all the more to pull him down.

Job’s defenses follow a similar track. They begin with fairly straightforward claims of innocence, but then more further and further into accusations toward God and demanding answers from the LORD. As a result, both the C and D sections are escalating, even as they cycle over the same material.

One thing that does separate Job from his friends is that Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar talk about God—but Job also talks to God. This shows us that Job’s faith is quite strong even as he longs for death.

It is also interesting the each of the characters, including Job and even God Himself, maintain that God is the one who is causing the disasters. On that, they agree. The only disagreement is on why God is doing that, with Job’s three friends assuming Job must be guilty of some sin and Job believing God will punish both innocent and guilty alike. We know, on the other hand, that God was doing this for a different reason—namely, He was doing this because Job was righteous and his faith was not based on any blessings God had given him. God was demonstrating that first to Satan, but then also to us who would read the text.

Remember again that this is the first revelation God has given to man in Scripture. This is how God wanted to be known first. This is not the way the majority of modern Christians would have chosen to have God reveal Himself. In fact, the majority of modern Christians would probably prefer that Job was not even in the Bible, because it so clashes with their other beliefs. But if you want to be a Biblically-based Christian with a competent worldview, you must find some way to square your theology with what happens in Job. If you cannot do so, then that is probably a good indication that your theology is man-centered instead of Bible-centered.

But being a political junkie, no matter which side of the aisle you fall on, results in a skewed view of how the average American thinks of politics. See, the people who I read on blogs are the people who care about politics. Even the pages that are linked to from people who I disagree with are still people who care about politics. Thus, even reading “the other side” only gets me the other side of the politically obsessed.

The fact of the matter is, if we truly look at the numbers of people who follow politics to this extent, I doubt it would constitute even twenty percent of the population. The vast majority of people in America don’t care about politics. They just want to go home and play video games, eat junk food, and have fun. They don’t want to worry about spending bills in Congress, the national debt, or Socialized healthcare. They don’t care about executive orders, three branches of government, or what the Constitution actually says. None of this genuinely interests them.

My wife is a political junkie of sorts, too. She is currently reading a lot of books on the economy and has decided that one of the best things we can do is end the Federal Reserve. I happen to agree with her that the Federal Reserve is harming the economy quite a bit, and that its continued existence will only do more damage. Yet very few people—even those who would agree with us politically—care about the Federal Reserve, or even want to take the time to figure out basic economic theory. Theory is hard. It takes thinking. That’s no fun for most of us.

So what happens? We have a small minority of people on both sides of the issues who are extremely vocal and passionate, and a wide range of people in the middle who just want to live their lives, have fun, and make a little money. Most of them vote based on family traditions (whether they keep in line with their family or rebel against it). They’re not interested in the actual facts of debate. It’s why presentation on TV is better than trying to follow arguments. It’s why Mitt Romney is the candidate for the GOP—because he looks good on TV. That’s the same reason Obama is currently president, too.

The majority of us don’t care about policy or principals, and they look at those who do care about such things with equal disdain. Republicans and Democrats are both seen as too extremist. About the only universal agreement is that everything is bad and no one who’s currently involved in politics does any good at all.

I realize that I do speak with generalities here; yet I think they are fairly sound generalities. A culture that’s interested in The Jersey Shore and still thinks American Idol features talent is a culture that doesn’t care about the Federal Reserve, abortion, or gay marriage on the whole. It also means that, unfortunately, well-reasoned arguments are not going to be effective in bringing about change (at least not at first). People now are too ignorant of logic and reasoning to even tell what a good argument is in the first place. If you don’t believe me, just spend a half hour reading YouTube comments.

If we want to be effective at changing our culture, we have to actually affect the culture itself. I’m not sure exactly how to do all of this myself, of course. But I do know that our public schools, the entertainment industry, and our media are designed to facilitate the lessening of quality thinking. If we want to salvage our culture, it has to begin with a renewing of our minds.

And that renewal isn’t just mental knowledge, but a heart change as well. The single most effective technique to alter culture still remains religious beliefs, because what one believes in his heart is what will come out in his behavior. I, for one, do not find it unusual that America is becoming less thoughtful and more intolerant precisely at the point we abandon Christianity. And as Europe is demonstrating, one simply cannot replace Christianity with the moral vacuum of relativism and materialism that comes from rejecting God altogether.

In the end, a liberal utopia is when the masses of uneducated fools, who are deluded into thinking they are wise, vote in lockstep with all the other deluded people into perpetuating the existence of the very institutions that made them uneducated fools in the first place, because they have been tricked into thinking what they are doing is good. This will happen in America given enough time. Indeed, it is well on its way already. It may no longer be possible to fight using only good arguments. To one who believes propaganda, the truth is a lie.