One more symptom of a bankrupt culture on a search for anything to numb the pain and fill the void. When there is no good or bad and everything and anything goes, there is no good or bad and everything and anything goes. God help our children's children.

Actually I'm a Granite Stater J. I'm all for personal accountability and guarding against loss of liberty to government run amok. I do however believe that as humans we have charge from God to care for "the least of these" and God can work through governments as well as individuals. Please forgive me if I've disrupted your usual rhythm here.

Ok Cal. Whose responsibility is it to take care of widows, orphans, and people born with disabilities that leave them unable to take care of themselves?

This is the best of seen on this page in a long time. Why do people dislike the idea of do-gooders? Isn't doing good more noble than focusing on satisfying one's selfish lusts and desires?

A unidimensional definition of art as an agent of social change. Art can also be the vehicle for examining what is good, beautiful, and right. Personally I look for art that "builds up" and leads my mind to the positive.

Strip away the big words and I read "people who get along well with others get along well with others." The strength of a society is in communicating diverse, sometimes clashing viewpoints in a way that respects the humanity of others. This is different than the "all truth is relative so all opinions are equally valid" brand of political correctness we frequently see in todays culture.

A great quote-and one that can be applied whatever one's position is. I believe thoroughly that the key to real success is in having the attitude of a servant. The "higher up" ones position, the more important this attitude becomes.

Nice observation Waffler-I'm chuckling. I didn't know this many people paid attention to this site. Maybe some of these folks with thumbs down can shed some light on how to deal nicely with people that will literally cut off your head with a steak knife for being American. Unless that is, they think we deserve it.

With God anything is possible.

Certainly jibes with my experience.

Hey thanks for the response Waffler, but when you back up your schema with Planned Parenthood idealogy it just goes further down the road that our deathmaking culture has been on for the past sixty years. Deconstruct the messages of Planned Parenthood my friend and you are left with clinical, innocent sounding language that promotes killing babies in the name of convenience and "life style". I don't know if you have fathered children yourself but seeing the miracle of a normal birth, let alone the birth and survival of a premature baby that is at the same stage of development as aborted fetuses makes "choice" ring hollow indeed. Thanks again for the dialogue.

Profound but not, I think, in the way he intended. It reminds me of another quote one of you may have heard "a man's charecter is revealed in what he does when no one is looking."

Call me a simple country boy Waffler, but when you start talking about policies that regulate who can reproduce and who can't it sounds like man stepping in to Gods place. Sometimes things that sound ok in the cold laboratory of the rational can be positively diabolical at their essence.

This quote is an absolute lie pandering to our childish desires to do whatever we want whenever we want. That being said, I disagree with the concept that morality cannot be legislated. All laws are enforced cultural morality, the morality that the majority of people agree upon at any given point. The truth that morality, manifested in boundaries of conduct and behavior that are right (not just easy or feel good), leads to true joy and freedom is less eagerly heard by most of us.

Amen Archie!

Amen dornth and Waffler!

Pretty fuzzy and very debateable. This sounds like the emotional appeal that begins the descent into moral relativism and the "whatever makes you happy is ok" mentality. I agree with dougmcr8 on this one.

Excellent dialogue everyone! One point that I would suggest is that the concept of not "legislating morality" misses the mark. All laws are based on what the particular culture they evolve in considers "moral behavior." Seen in this way, every law is a "legislated morality." Additionally, while the Christian faith doesn't have a lock on positive moral values, and I fully believe that there should never be a state religion, examples of corporately aetheistic cultures (ie; Communist Soviet Union) are sure not something I would suggest modeling a government after!

Amen! This is one of the great truths Satan doesn't want us to recognize.

The question shifts then to "what is the root?"

Who does Roger Williams think he is? God?