The American Spectator

Reader Mail

(Page 3 of 13)

What a beautiful piece! I am so happy to be reminded of WFB's statement. Is that from God and Man at Yale?

p>One small error. I understand that she has for 6 years been a member of an independent Bible Church, no longer Assembly of God. (I've heard she said the AofG was getting a little weird.) br> -- H. Hardcastle br> Maine /p> p> Jeffrey Lord's article struck an eternal chord. Not only is it, as Lord quotes Buckley, a "duel between Christianity and atheism," but also, a more defining spiritual battle between God and His forces and the ones so bitterly in opposition to Him -- Satan and his minions. The Apostle Paul in his letter to the church at Ephesus made the astute and divinely inspired observation that "we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, ...powers, ...rulers of the darkness of this world, ...spiritual wickedness..." (Ephesians 6:12). For those of us who are orthodox Christians, this is a basic and accepted scriptural tenet. This then makes the Sally Quinns, Matt Damons, and Andrew Sullivans of the world unwitting agents of spiritual darkness and, ultimately, Satan himself. Unfortunately for them, this is a notion they would deride as much as they do Sarah Palin. br> -- Jeff Vowell br> Memphis, Tennessee /p>

Thank you very much for Jeffrey Lord's latest; I could not agree with him more that the U.S. culture war is, indeed, being fought between believers and unbelievers. The fury and disdain exploding forth from liberals over the candidacy of Gov. Sarah Palin is a bracing reminder about what we believers are up against as we attempt to persuade the country that abortion is wrong; that the U.S. military has been and is a force for good in the world; that same-sex relationships should not be normalized through marriage; that schools should teach our children traditional virtues; and so forth.

I am, surprised, however that Mr. Lord didn't connect one last set of dots.

Just one week ago, he wrote a piece that introduced us to Sally Quinn -- doyenne of the smart set in Washington, D.C., a woman who first got ahead by sleeping with one very powerful man. Her adulterous liaison with Ben Bradlee of the Washington Post, apparently breaking up his marriage, worked wonders for her career and social life -- but is not the kind of thing that churchgoers tend to look upon kindly. The reason? Our God -- as revealed through scripture -- teaches that such behavior is sinful.

Sally Quinn, and others like her (secular statists and/or atheists), desperately want to minimize the cognitive dissonance (aka "guilt") they feel for their sins. But that is impossible so long as God-fearing people like Sarah Palin take the scriptures seriously and live according to their teachings. Author E. Michael Jones wrote a whole book about this, a fascinating study called Degenerate Moderns: Modernity As Rationalized Sexual Behavior. Among his many brilliant insights, he writes: "People plagued by guilt really have only two choices: they can adjust their behavior to suit their morality, or they can adjust their morality to suit their behavior."

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