Welcome back to Common Sense Civics and Citizenship. If you are receiving this newsletter on a new day/time, that is intentional as we grow and welcome new readers to the blog. This past week, I heard that today everything is debatable. If our culture continues to adopt that belief, nothing is sacred, and there are no truths or traditions. Let’s take a look at this issue from a citizen perspective.
Is everything debatable? That’s the question I wrote on the whiteboard for my high school juniors and seniors. They weren’t sure how to answer. You see, we have gone from a society that says there is no absolute truth to one that believes “everything is debatable.” Since belief determines behavior, if you believe everything is debatable, even your existence is debatable, according to today’s cultural drift.
Our Founders did not think that way. They believed that there are self-evident truths, such as all men (humans) are created equal, they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights (like life, liberty, and property, a.k.a. the pursuit of happiness), that governments are instituted to protect our God-given rights, and government gets its power from the governed. The Founders agreed on these tenets. These self-evident truths were not debatable then or now. However, the current culture would like you to believe that the bedrock of America’s founding is debatable. In fact, to them, everything is arguable, even your existence and subsistence.
No wonder our children go off into the world and soon reject freedom, along with faith and family! After being under our care, the culture lures them in to believe:
-some people are “more equal” than others
-government exists to promote specific, not the nation’s general welfare
-life, liberty, and property do not necessarily belong to you but to another’s will
-government gets its power from the powerful, not the governed.
We find our kids debating the foundations upon which our country was built to favor a new narrative. In the process, they may reject us, too.
In conversations, let’s address this issue by asking the other person, “Is everything debatable?” “Is there is such a thing as absolute truth?” Ask, then listen. You will learn a lot. Stand on a firm foundation, not cultural drift. Continue to live out what you believe, for belief determines behavior. Some things are not debatable.
This is Common Sense Civics and Citizenship.🇺🇸
