Guest Opinion: Star Parker, We Have a National Crisis in Character

By Star Parker
11/20/2012
CURE: Center for Urban Renewal and Education (www.urbancure.org/)

What does it say about America when its president thinks it should be legal to kill a live, fully formed infant?

For those who see social conservatism as an annoyance and argue that Republicans must purge this agenda from their party to survive, I say: "Think again." If Republicans want revival, we need an honest focus on what's really wrong in America and what must be done to assure that a great nation will be standing for our grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Star Parker

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WASHINGTON, DC (CURE) - Here's an excerpt from a letter I received the other day from a college professor:

"Throughout this election I discussed with students the differences between ideologies. The majority of them are on federal financial aid. They are fine with more taxes as long as they will be taken care of. It is disturbing to hear that they are willing to spend their own money on tattoos and cellphones but cannot buy the book for class until the financial aid comes in."

For those who see social conservatism as an annoyance and argue that Republicans must purge this agenda from their party to survive, I say: "Think again."

If Republicans want revival, we need an honest focus on what's really wrong in America and what must be done to assure that a great nation will be standing for our grandchildren and great grandchildren.

This kind of thinking is different from polls and focus groups and clever schemes to manage media and voter turnout.

Leadership is about identifying the truth, believing it and telling it in a way that people can grasp. Then they will respond and follow.

The professor's letter provides a snapshot, a hint, of what America's most basic problem is today. It's a problem of character and values.

Having lectured on more than 180 college campuses over the last 20 years, I have seen exactly what the professor is talking about.

Of course, government is too big. But how did it get this way? Americans vote every two years. They voted every two years during the whole period over which government grew to its current unwieldy size.

With the majority of the country now on one kind of government program or another, does anybody really think we can change this without talking about the human attitudes and values that produced it?

Democrats have a much easier problem than Republicans. They are not trying to change America. The trends and attitudes that got the whole country on welfare, that produced the moral relativism that is destroying our families and character, is the platform of the Democratic Party.

Democratic politicians have just one job: Deny the patient is sick.

Republicans, if they are going to be a real opposition party, have a much tougher job.

With all the talk about this last election being driven by demographics and turnout, the most basic point is the party and its candidate did not step up as a serious, principled opposition party.

We can't save Medicare and Social Security. They are bankrupt. Did we hear this from the Republican candidate? We heard wishy-washy words about reforming these systems so we can save them.

Did we hear anything about how our public schools -- controlled by unions whose agenda is growing their benefits and promoting moral relativism among our youth -- are destroying our children and our future? No.

When Ronald Reagan was first elected in November 1980, 18 percent of our babies were born to unwed mothers. Today 42 percent are. Anyone who thinks this is not a crisis of the first order can just as easily vote for a Democrat as a Republican.

Americans just re-elected a president who opposed the Supreme Court decision banning partial-birth abortion. The leader of our nation thinks it should be legal in America to kill a live, fully formed infant. What does this say about America today and our future?

There may be Republicans who think that we can ignore the crisis in character and values that underlie our fiscal crisis. There may be Republicans that think if we have a better tax system it doesn't matter if we have a country of single mothers, sexually ambiguous and confused men, and abortion and euthanasia on demand.

Ignoring these things would mean not just the end of the Republican Party but also the end of our country.

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Star Parker (parker@urbancure.org) is an author and president of CURE, Center for Urban Renewal and Education. Visit her important work here. http://www.urbancure.org/

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CURE is a 501c3 Non-Profit Think Tank founded and led by Star Parker and dedicated to fighting poverty and restoring dignity through faith, freedom and personal responsibility. This article is used with permission.

Keywords: Star Parker, Pro-Life, Morality, CURE, Right to Life,

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1 - 7 of 7 Comments

blacksheep09
5 months ago
Beltway politics have morfed the two party system into one, look at the matching primary schedule. The Republican Nominee has not been selected by Christians in 30 years. "Red States" have overcome many trials and always come to God first, thay are not even in the run of canidate selection. The RNC sets up the most moronic debate system, Iowa sucks the life out of coffers (don't touch the mountain of PORK!), and we have open primaries! We as Republicans are stupid, it's our primary everyone else GO HOME! NY, MA, NH, FL, OH, MI pushed the Mitt to the win do they even have any Christian's and will they vote Republican in the general election? The RNC only gives eye service to the LORD, they are a party crippled by personal power and loved being bound to the world. Look at the primary run; everybody came after Herman Cain, did they know he's a former KC Fed guy? The two Catholic candidates were fighting Congressional memebers who pulled the "Brutus", does anybody remember the former speaker was on the phone with the current speaker in "Florida" all those years ago? God did step in and strike Gov. Perry with a big "Ooops!", I love my Gov and Texas and the rest of you heathens are not worthy of him; when this country falls apart Texas will stand with God and Rick Perry will once again lead the state!
vance
6 months ago
Star Parker has many good points. The greatest tell-tale sign was God getting booed 3 time at the Marxist Democrat National Convention. The person who strongly represented those who booed got elected by 52% of the Catholic Vote. There is a crisis in character of our nation because there is a crisis of character in the USCCB.
Bill Sr.
6 months ago
Which brings me to this prayer today.
An American’s Prayer for Forgiveness
Heavenly Father, we as Americans have lost our way, we have forsaken your love and gone our own way into self indulgence through our desire for personal gratification in every aspect of our lives.
We have lost our grip on your eternal truth. We have chosen comfort over compassion; want over worship, pleasure over perseverance, personal satisfaction over eternal salvation, and now entitlements over personal efforts or sacrifice. Many now depend on the words, power, and promises of “Caesar” more than your eternal word.
We want to come home to you as prodigal sons and daughters seeking your mercy upon us and our nation that we may be forgiven for our many offenses marked by our willingness to permit evil intent and false doctrines espoused by our own leaders to creep into our lives and society.
We have not been vigilant, we have hidden our lamps under the bushel, and we have often remained silent as your tenants were judged unworthy by our authorities. As your word and laws were being removed from public buildings and our schools within the sight of our children we mumbled to ourselves rather than witness our faith to those who deny you. We’ve allowed evil to infiltrate our culture one “benefit” or “right” at a time.
We seek through your mercy and forgiveness that within our nation your truth may at last be saved from corruption by those evil forces that care not for your law or love.
We ask through this prayerful petition that for the sake of all the faithful here and in heaven that you might come to us as did the prodigal’s father and lead us back into your graces and grant that our beloved America may yet be returned to the one nation under God it once was and our founders intended it to be.
Amen
mike robertson
6 months ago
A major problem is forgetting both God and the Judeo-Christian ideals which were the foundation of the country. We see far too many Catholic democrats with dollar signs in front of their eyes voting for a party and candidate for President void of decent morals. The candidate Catholic democrats support favors legal killing of baby girls and boys even after they are no longer in their moms' womb. They survived the attempt to kill them when they were in their mom's womb. The Catholic democrats' candidate says God is wrong and he is right as to what constitutes marriage-which is a God-ordained Sacrament. Catholic democrats showed what can charitably be described as masochism when they voted for a candidate who is waging war against the Church and her institutions under the guise of health care. All this is done while this candidate gets Catholic democrats into a sadistic mood and thinking that soaking "those evil" rich people will make things right. We could take 100% of the money from the wealthy and run the government for only months. What to do then? Neither the Catholic democrats nor their candidate with the morally corrupt social policy have an answer to that question.
Sum Nemo
6 months ago
The truth is that the Republican Party, particularly the conservative "base", cannot make an argument. Their "one size fits all" vision of America (White upper and upper middle class) does not take into consideration that there are those who have had a totally different American experience. These are people who have worked just as hard, or harder, than the Bill Gates', Steve Jobs' or Ralph Laurens of the world just to break even, and these are often non-white and/or non-males. And worse, the Republican response to their election loss is that these people are looking to the government for gifts, which is a gross example of the "skillet calling the kettle black" as conservative Republicans are looking to government for gifts as well (Welfare for the wealthy or corporate welfare) and, despite their argument for less government, to legislate morality/ethics (Legislating morality is not less government). While I no longer support the Democrats, I am equally adamant in my refusal to support the Republican Party, but both sides are guilty of "cafeteria" Catholicism (And I say this fully recognizing my own shortcomings).

The author of the above article is right about a lot of issues that she raised (I disagree with her regarding public education as it is too easy to blame the unions because it somehow absolves us of the fact that we are becoming increasingly anti-intellectual as a nation) and I feel she was spot on when she said "Leadership is about identifying the truth, believing it and telling it in a way that people can grasp". But the reality is that nobody, particularly our legal system, is really interested in "the truth"; we are only interested in those truths that support our particular prejudices or serve our short-term needs. Therefore, the author should have written that leadership is about identifying the complete truth and educating people to look at a more complete picture of the truth rather than cling only to those truths that support popular prejudice. Finally, truth is more than sanctimonious platitudes.

Back to leadership, the author needs to add another element to leadership. Rather than "preach to the choir", or "shoring up the base", leadership is about extending a hand to those who vehemently disagree and letting them know that they are an integral part of the dialogue as they identify the details that are sometimes overlooked when formulating solutions. As it is, one can raise very good issues that need our national attention, but as long as we are shaking our fists at one another, it is no more than interesting reading.

Finally, while the author raised very good issues, we have an incredibly large number of experts raising very good issues, but I do not see a lot of people willing to sit and, in a civil manner, discuss truly just solutions. Back to leadership once more, we need leaders to stop "preaching to the choir" and start extending a hand to all. There are those who say Bobby Jindal is totally unrealistic about going after 100 percent of the vote (One suggested that we need only go after 50.1 percent of the vote, or, in other words, continue divisive politics), but at least he appears willing invite the opposition to join the dialogue.
Rob
6 months ago
I think author is leaving out a crucial assessment of both parties, that neither one of them is interested in doing anything for America. Our two parties have devolved to nothing more than machines to maintain power. I know we always have these long, drawn out conversations about the collapse of western civilization, the collapse of morals and the rising tide of secularism, but it all really is much easier than that. We need only follow the money. There are folks on both ends of the political spectrum getting filthy rich off taking this country off a cliff. Whether it's hospital chains, pharmaceutical giants profitting from government health programs or defense contractors lining their pockets or wall street firms lining theirs, they all get the government they are buying.

The author cites some comments from students who basically want something for nothing. I agree, it's a problem. But no more of a problem when the rich and powerful buy the same breaks, loopholes etc. It's all a way to get something for nothing. Heck, that is become the American way. No difference between those who are poor and choose to live off the government and the rich and powerful who exploit all for ill gotten gains. Same thing.
Spiritus Gladius
6 months ago
Nice article!

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