The West must end its steep decline into a secular sponge that haphazardly invites and absorbs any culture. The world is not filled with people who share our goals and values. The world is, in fact, full of evil. It is a mess.
Consider the barbarians last week who mercilessly cut the heads off seventy Christians at a church in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for the victims’ mere devotion to Christ. This massacre was carried out by the Allied Democratic Forces, a violent Islamist militant group that has a history of this brutality.
In response, what do we hear from the rest of the world? Nearly total silence. There were no black squares on Instagram. There were no protests against radical jihadism. The Hollywood big names didn’t assemble to promote a fundraiser or to bring awareness. The story itself was relegated to just a few news articles. This column will likely be one of the only writings in the entire world mentioning the story. That is tragic.
Yet, Western leaders insist on importing foreign cultures without scrutinizing their utility or pitfalls. They fail to recognize the existence of foreign cultures like the one described above. What’s more, they insist on welcoming people without requirements of assimilation or adherence to Western systems of thought. These campaigns are largely promulgated by secular, self-loathing Westerners who view the prosperous civilization handed down to them by their ancestors as oppressive and superficial.
But it is not just the non-Christian Westerners who share the blame for these problems pervading the West; it is also the pusillanimous Christians who lack the courage to publicly protest discernible threats. Some Christians in the West have adopted a worldview that is closer to hippie culture than Christianity. This perversion of the faith advocates for a conciliatory approach to the world that does not critique any behaviors or habits that are bad or pernicious.
Often, these people fear standing up for their convictions because of the labels others may lob at them. They are crippled by their terror of offending others or causing discomfort. Most fail to even acknowledge that Christianity is rightfully a proselytizing religion. They have come to believe that trying to Christianize others is imposing your beliefs on someone else and overstepping boundaries. Such behavior is viewed by this cadre of Christians as a form of impropriety. Christian proselytization is, ironically, the only behavior they feel comfortable judging.
These attitudes are a recipe for self-destruction. It is a form of self-sabotage that will not only surrender Christianity’s place in the arena of thought but will also further facilitate the secularization of the West. This attitude, put simply, is anti-Christian.
Western values are rooted in Christianity. These values are good. These values involve unique quests for knowledge and discovery. They involve a unique work ethic and risk-taking attitude. From these values, Western civilization has been able to supply more foreign aid than any other civilization. These values developed the modern university system. They fostered expansive advancements in medical knowledge. They put the first man on the moon. Strictly screening migrants in light of this is not just morally acceptable but morally obligatory.
If you belong to the aforementioned group of craven believers who have remained silent on widespread anti-Christian hostility, understand that had you been in that church in the Democratic Republic of the Congo at the time of the killings, your head would have been severed with a machete, too.
To become a columnist or to submit a guest column, contact Opinion Editor Caleb Weingarten at caleb.weingarten@iowastatedaily.com
