Saint Augustine opined that the pursuit of politics was limited by our human sinfulness. He viewed the state’s purpose as creating “provisional peace” by restraining evil and providing order – very distinguishable from obtaining perfect justice or ultimate salvation.
When the left and right talk to each other these days, it feels like a measuring contest for whose morality is bigger.
Much later than St. Augustine’s life in 350 A.D., America was formed upon a premise of natural law. Our founders believed that the laws of nature and of “Nature’s God” mean that individuals are endowed with “unalienable rights” - life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
The founders based their ideal government on the premise that a government was not established to grant these rights, but instead to protect the “unalienable” rights that we all possess by default. In fact, in those days, that was damn near their only role.
The gauge of morality is thus not based upon the collective’s general opinion. It is the steady. It is the constant. Unswayed by the political leanings of the time or the next trendy culture war worth waging.
Morality and natural law are supposed to be America’s north star. How did everyone on both sides lose sight of that?
We have a duty to fight injustice. Saint Thomas Aquinas argued, “He who is not angry when there is just cause for anger is immoral.” Charles de Foucauld, a priest who was murdered in 1916, argued that “sleeping watchmen” or dumb watch dogs” are unacceptable and that one must “sound the alarm” when evil surface.
So why is it then, that the left has become so comfortable with claiming the moral high ground? Morality is morality. We know its root. God.
Calling people names for speaking the truth, threatening them, and attempting to force a politically-correct apology (as we saw in the recent Sydney Sweeny interview with GQ) is not going to do it for us.
You see, you don’t own our souls.
You don’t regulate our morality. You don’t force your sinful delusions upon us.
We stand. We write. We speak.
Satan is called the “accuser.” He uses lies and distortion. He constantly brings charges against believers of God, diverting focus to their sins and failings. Thus, it has never been more important to speak the truth, relentlessly. This can be in big ways and small ways. Don’t underestimate your own natural law. You have that spark in you that cannot be extinguished without your consent. Jesus is described as the “counter advocate.” That same holy spirit is in you.
Don’t put your belief in people.
Trump, leadership, a governor. They will all let you down. Put your belief in God. Something that is pure and true and good. Something that doesn’t involve killing and pretending to be what we are not.
When I voted for Obama in the college days, I wanted to believe that liberalism was the key to standing up for the little guy. That we were defending the different and the voiceless. Instead, I watched the empowered left exploit vulnerability and delusion for power and profit. They don’t care about you. They care about them.
Protecting our unique system grounded in natural law was paid by the lives of many who came before us. Why is it not good enough anymore?
Because Marxism was built on the premise of the assumption of conflict. Victim becomes victimizer until the proletariat wins, and then we call it “progress.” Natural law and a western civilization rooted in it can never prescribe to this flavor of ideology. It is directly counter to the premise that our neighbors are naturally our enemies.
Jesus said when our enemy slaps our cheek, we turn and give him the other one too. This is the same man who believed it prudent to flip a table and tell the politicians they were “vipers.”
So again, are you for sale? What is the price of truth? Is it worth everything or nothing at all to you? Only you can decide for yourself. That’s what free will is all about.
Cowboy State Daily columnist Cassie Craven is a University of Wyoming College of Law graduate who practices law in Wyoming. She can be reached at: longhornwritingllc@gmail.com
