Who is primitive. . .

Before they were organized into a systematic theology, natural theology or natural law provided a common basis for truth and life.  There was a time when the mark of civilization was order, an order provided in no small way by the common truth and common morality that defined far more than right and wrong.  It was the basis of their common life and it transcended culture and even religion.  Sure, there were nuances of difference but, by and large, the things shared were far more significant and abundant.  Though we categorize the ancients as primitive, it might be the judges who have become primitive.

There was a time when being male and female, when fact and truth, when order and morality were largely unquestioned -- even when they were uncomfortable.  We just assumed these rules.  We did not vote on them or approve of them -- they simply were.  Now, under the guise of progress, we live in a time when there are no rules and even no definitions.  We cannot even define the basic binary shape of humanity as once was ordinary and routine.  What is a woman?  What is a man?  We cannot even agree on what is fact and truth.  Facts are felt rather than heard or read or told.  Truth is in the eye of the beholder -- and only the beholder.  Truth is one person wide and one person deep unless others choose to hold the same thing.  There is no such thing anymore as objective truth that orders all -- we get to decide what will order us.  I guess politically that is what happens when you win votes.  Order was once a given -- boys were to become men who became husbands and fathers and girls were to become women who became wives and mothers.  The job of the parents and homes, indeed all of the institutions of society, were to prepare them for these roles.  Everything revolved around this primary order.  Not today.  Everything, including gender, has become a choice and optional.  Like gender and sexual desire, marriage and family have become mere options on a plane of other equally valid and right options.

The mark of progress was once order -- order that was just but order that preserved the sacred shape of our common life.  The lack of this shape or order calls into question our progress.  It could be said that we have regressed.  We have become primitive for whom nothing is sacred or ordered unless we feel it or choose it to be.  This is a war not simply against the family or marriage but against humanity and, therefore, against the God who made us in His image and for His pleasure.  It is a war against God and religion.  It arouses the most primitive parts of our selves -- self-pleasure, sexual desire, and selfish choice.  These have become the currency of our advancement but in reality are the signs of our decay and our death.  In South Korea, there is not only a war against marriage and children (birth rate .78 children per fertile female) but there is an order which routinely discriminates against men and those over 40 or so -- in addition to children.  The child free, men free, old free zones of South Korea are the logical outcome of what is now unfolding among us.  Even Europe is not so sure that this is wise or salutary for humanity but in America we have boldly gone where our ancestors (meaning every society and person up to the last generation) refused to go.  It is now progress or liberality but regress and the fascism of the individual and the individual's desires and wants.  The joke is not so funny.  We are the neanderthals of today.