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THE SEVEN THEOLOGICAL VIRTUES
CHARITY
Better translated as Love. Agape is the word in the original Greek, the Latin equivalent Caritas became our English Charity. Charity has been dropped to mere almsgiving. Worse, most people shift their responsibility to be charitable to the government. This has a doubly bad result. First, the individual loses the opportunity for personal judgment on where and how to use his gift. Second, government is uniformly incompetent and wasteful, turning the recipients into faceless statistics. For every $100 that goes to the Food Stamps program, $28 reaches the persons needing the aid, $72 to the bloated bureaucracy.
Another result of shifting care for the poor to the government is the lack of charity in people. As Ebenezer Scrooge said in "A Christmas Carol" when approached for the poor. "Are there no debtor's prisons? Are there no workhouses? I support those through my overly high taxes. Why should I be expected to donate more to encourage indolence and lack of thrift?" Sadly this attitude is getting quite popular, as the tax bill for aiding the poor goes up each year, with no visible results except an increase in the number of people on the poor list.
FAITH
The ability to believe despite the evidence, says the Liberals. The leap into the dark unknown and unknowable hoping against all the evidence that there is something soft, and hopefully not too squishy, to land on. For another branch of modern thought in the church, Faith is the magic key to open all doors. I purposely use magic key since it is the basic rule of black magic that belief forces action. God must respond to your belief. If you believe it strongly enough, without doubt or waver, it must come true. New Agers accept this premise. If enough people believe they are gods they will become gods.
This has a nasty side effect. If you pray to be healed, or a pastor prays for you, you must be healed. God can't answer your prayer with "no" or "later". That would violate the basic laws of the universe. If you have enough faith, He must obey your desires. God has no choice in the matter. So if He doesn't heal you, it must be your fault. It can't be the pastor or elder's fault. A variant on this is the pastor prayed; you were healed on the spot. He has the gift of healing; God can't deny his prayer. Even if all the symptoms are still there, you were healed. If you acknowledge the reality of the symptoms in any way, you show lack of faith; the disease or broken bone will return, and the symptoms will then be real.
These same guys deride Transubstantiationalists [I love big words!] for being stupid enough to believe the bread and wine of communion really turns into Jesus' body and blood while still looking and tasting the same. Yet they believe a disease or of a bone break can be there with or without a real disorder, going back and forth to reality or illusion depending on whether or not you believe in a healing.
A word related to faith has also changed meaning. Propaganda now means lies. But it comes from Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (The Sacred Congregation for Spreading the Faith). This is a body of bishops who oversee missionaries and related matters for the Catholic Church. Propaganda has become such a nasty word that they had to change their title to Sacra Congragatio Pro Genitum Evangelization (Sacred Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples).
HOPE
To the "God wants you Rich!" school, Hope is a 4-letter word. And not due to spelling rules. In 1 Corinthians 13:13 St. Paul says it's one of the three things Christians should get. The "God wants you Rich!" gang teaches that Hope should never cross your lips under any circumstances.
Hope, as in "I hope so-and-so happens" or doesn't happen, is a blot on your record. If you say you hope God does something, it will never happen. Only faith counts. You must believe with every fiber of your being or you won't get it. Hoping something happens acknowledges the possibility it may not. Unless you exclude this possibility through solid belief, the reverse may slip through. Thus the hymn writer who wrote: "My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus' blood and righteousness." was a spectacular failure who should have been excommunicated.
I disagree. And apparently so does the Holy Spirit. Lets see a list of scriptures about hope that the Holy Spirit had put in the Bible. (In my book I wrote out each verse, but due to space restraints, you will have to look them up. I hope you do.
Psalms 33:18, 22: 38:15; 39:7; 43:5; 71:5; 119:81, 116, 166; 130:7; 146:5
Proverbs 23:17-18
Lamentations 3:21-25
Hosea 2:15
Joel 3:16
And just so you don't think hope is just for the pre-Christ Jews:
Acts 23:6; 26:6-8
Romans 5:2-5; 8:22-27; 12:12; 15:4, 13
1 Corinthians 13:13; 15:19
2 Corinthians 3:7-13
Galatians 5:5
Ephesians 1:18; 4:4-6
Philippians 1:20
Colossians 1:5, 23, :27
1Thesselonians 1:3; 5:7-8
2Thesselonians 2:16
1Timothy 1:1
Titus 1:1-4; 2:11-13; 3:6-7
Hebrews 3:6; 6:11, 17-19, 11:1
1Peter 1:3, 13,:21; 3:15
1John 3:2-3
Don’t know about you, but this list makes me feel very hopeful.
TEMPERANCE
Because Temperance Societies in the early 1900's pushed for the prohibition of alcohol, temperance has come to be associated with the avoidance or outlawing of drinking alcohol. In actuality, temperance is avoiding extremes. Proverbs 30:7-9 Agur son of Jakeh prays for God to grant him temperance. "O God, I beg two favors of you before I die. First, help me never to tell a lie. Second, give me neither poverty nor riches! Give me just enough to satisfy my needs. For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say 'Who is the Lord?' And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God's holy name."
Temperance is moderation in all things. Eat without gluttony, drink without drunkenness, do your work to the best of your ability, but don't be a workaholic whose family forgets what you look like. Relaxation is cool, but relaxing so much you need a nap to build up the energy to go to bed at night is excessive. Justice must be tempered with mercy. Getting so wrapped up in your day to day life you are too busy to read the Bible or take a few minutes to pray is poor business indeed.
On the other extreme, though far rarer these days, is to get so wrapped up on heavenly matters all other aspects of life suffer. Even St. Anthony in his Egyptian desert hermitage did basket weaving and other things as a break from demon fighting, austerities, and monk teaching.
PRUDENCE
Wisdom in another guise. Look before you leap. Check out charities before you give so you know your donation will be well used. Don't just dive into things, but see if there are potential bad spots attached. Patience is a big part of prudence, and modern life just doesn't encourage patience. Instant gratification, buy now, pay later (with interest attached). "Just do it!"
In modern thought Prudence is especially irrelevant in the area of sex, where the results are removed from the act in the popular mind. There was a minority of premarital sex, unwed motherhood (which is why my mother was so embarrassed by my existence, as I was proof she had done something shameful) and minuscule VD rate in America until two events occurred; improved birth control and mass sex education. Anyone can see that giving people the means, teaching them how to do it, and especially school books saying "you have a right to sex and no one has a right to tell you that you can't" or another one I saw "the only thing wrong with adultery is if the nonparticipating partner (they used to be known as the innocent victim) is too immature to see the good this can do for their marriage" is guaranteed to cause an increase in the results of sex before and outside marriage.
Instead of seeing that this increased the problem greatly, they see it as proof there is not enough sex education and birth control. Despite a 1 in 6 failure rate for condoms at preventing pregnancy, and an even worse record at preventing VD, they must be passed out in schools like candy. Grade school isn't early enough. 7-8 year olds are too old to start sex education. Start it in kindergarten. It must be increased, despite overwhelming evidence that every increase increases the problem. There is nothing prudent in splitting off the result from the cause.
Social engineering must be performed on society without checking first to see what the results will be. Good intentions are all that counts. And if the wrong result comes out, deny it vehemently, and demand increased engineering. Returning to the original status or condition is an admission of failure to be avoided at any cost.
You must decriminalize sodomy, declare any one who calls it sin insane, and spend millions on pro-'gay' propaganda and 'sensitivity sessions'. Then wonder where all the sodomites come from and why their numbers increase, especially among the teenagers you propagandize. Decriminalize abortion, propagandize for it's use, push sex before or out of marriage, then be surprised at why there are so many abortions. Illegal drug use starts to appear. Quick! Change it from drug use to drug abuse. Declare all addicts and users victims. Drop the persecution of users, making it legal to use but not sell, and then lower the penalties on selling. Now confusedly ask why drug use is rampant.
Public drunkenness was a minor problem. Decriminalize drunkenness, unless the drunk commits another crime like drunk driving, assault, or mayhem. Forbid the police to do anything to interfere with their 'chosen lifestyle'. Now be amazed at all the winos passed out on the sidewalks, panhandling, and messing up the place.
Make divorce easily accessible and victim free. Now be astonished that there are so many divorces. Declare the military sexist. Demand that the women train with the men, make the barracks coed, drop all rules against fraternization. Now sit back and ponder why so many women are discharged for pregnancy. Adultery, date rape, etc. nearly unheard of a few years back, are now ripping the military apart. Except for the Marine Corps., which has done the politically incorrect move of keeping the men and women segregated and doing no social engineering.
The single largest piece of social engineering is through taxation. As Einstein said: "the hardest thing in the universe to understand is the tax code." Not only did it confuse Einstein, but even the IRS workers can't figure it out anymore.
That's because the tax code is not designed to raise revenue for the government. It has been made to engineer society, in dozens of conflicting ways, rewarding those that go along with desired change and punishing those that don't. The largest and most intrusive change is the sheer amount of taxation. In 1950 the average husband who worked to support his non-working wife and two kids paid 3% of his income as taxes. This was intolerable. To make sure that the workplace was properly integrated with working women, government spending was greatly increased, the number of federal and state employees was increased, taxes were raised through the roof. The code was revised.
Now married women must work, since that same family of 4 has a combined state, federal and local tax burden of 52%. Many of the kids have to get part time jobs as well. Yet the government asks why the amount of savings has plummeted, and credit use among people that used to pay cash has increased to new levels. That the government takes so much money from workers that they have nothing to save, and must use credit since they can't get enough cash to buy things is vehemently denied.
Despite the undeniable fact that children turn out better in homes where the mother stays home and cares for them, this must be stopped. Get those mothers on the work force, forcing them to need day care for the kids, and then increase the taxes on what they earn to pay for the child care programs. Then wonder where all the "latch key children" come from. And marvel how they have increased juvenile crime, and other social dysfunctions.
The results of all this social engineering were fully predictable, and often were, by those exercising prudence, to no avail. Stress is up, divorce is up, juvenile delinquency is up, families collapse, crime is up, alcohol and drug use (especially tranquilizers) is up, bankruptcies are up, and all varieties of therapists are making a mint.
FORTITUDE
Bravery, stick-to-it-ness, stamina; now seen as the hallmarks of the oppressors. The only ones who can be self-reliant are those with unfair advantages. Everyone else is a helpless victim who cannot cope. No one is competent to raise their own children without the government experts telling you how to do it. "It takes a whole village to raise a child!" yells Hillary. You can't work, make a product, or run your farm the way you always have. You must have the government telling you what to believe, how to think and what to eat. You are a helpless victim who cannot be allowed to decide things on his own.
JUSTICE
Justice in modern life is nearly extinct. Those who commit crimes are misunderstood or disadvantaged victims. Punishing them is barbaric cruelty and totally out of the question. If you commit murder, you have a 1 in 33,000 chance of being executed for it. Those who are eventually executed for it are only executed after an average of 11 years on death row. Since I originally wrote this it has grown to 13 years.
Injustice can be done in the name of justice. You must tax the rich for committing the unforgivable crime of being successful and earning more than others.
1000 students go to a good school, and 1000 students go to a substandard school. Rather than keep the better school intact, and order improvements in the lesser school, you must waste huge amounts of money shipping 500 students from the better school to the substandard school, and 500 from the poor school to the better school. The result of this is still 1000 students going to a substandard school, and 1000 going to a good school. But this is seen as a great victory. After all, a different 500 students are now being cheated. And don't you dare send the better students from the poor school to the good school. No, no. And you must send the best students from the good school to the substandard school. That way the bad school will get a slight increase in scholarly standards (but only slight since they are now getting worse teachers and equipment to learn with and must spend so much time in traveling that their scholarship drops a bit). Admittedly the good school has its standards and scores drop somewhat, but that's alright, the school was full of showoffs anyway. Stuck up students were just being uppity by getting good grades anyway. We have to make the playing field level, even if we have to lower the level to do it. Suggesting that the money and effort spent on bussing would have been better spent on improving the lesser school proves that you are an insane bigot.
Sodomites repeatedly lose elections granting 'gay rights'. Whenever state legislatures or judges grant such rights they are voted down by the people in the next election. Every time abortion came before the people it lost. Every time limitations and conditions come before the voters they pass them. So the courts must grant such rights through judicial activism, finding imaginary rights implied by the Constitution. The basic premise of democracy, majority rule, must be destroyed. Minority rule is ever so much better. Better yet is the rule via 9 non elected judges who never face reelection. Justice has become the tool of the envious and the perverted.
THE SEVEN CONTRARY VIRTUES
An alternate, though less popular, list of 7 Virtues, is called the Contrary Virtues, as they are the contrary or opposite of the Deadly Sins.
HUMILITY
Humility is an accurate awareness of who and what you are. There are several components of this. Major ones are that you were created in the image and likeness of God, and God has a plan for your life, if you let Him implement it.. This is replaced by the evolutionist dictum that you are an animal, who is unworthy of existence, except for the off chance that a descendant of yours may evolve into a higher being with a right to live. Or the philosophical dictum that you are meaningless, an absurd accident in a meaningless universe. The academicians then wonder why the people they brainwash with this nonsense have problems with "self esteem".
As usual, Jesus is our best example. Philippians 2:3-11 "Don't act out of selfish ambition or be conceited. Instead humbly think of others as being better than yourselves. Don't be concerned only about your own interests, but also be concerned about the interests of others. Have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Although he was in the form of God and equal with God, He did not take advantage of this equality. Instead he emptied Himself by taking on the form of a servant, by becoming like other humans, by having a human appearance. He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, death on a cross. This is why God has given Him an exceptional honor - the name above all other names - so that in the name of Jesus everyone in heaven, on earth, and in the world below will kneel and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father."
Much of Humility is replaced with false modesty; the desire to have your modest display contradicted by the person you give the display to. If someone says "You did that well" your reply of "Oh no, It wasn't that good" translates as "Tell me more about how much you liked it!"
LIBERALITY
A branch of charity. But now the emphasis isn't on what is actually done, but on the feeling or intention. As long as you mean well, it doesn't matter what the result is. The highest form of liberality is with other peoples' money. The government can waste billions that could be spent more effectively, or not at all, because they mean well.
Speaking of efficiency in charity, here is one idea I have found very useful. When you are outside McDonald's and are approached by a panhandler who asks for a quarter to help him buy a sandwich, say no, but offer instead to buy him the sandwich. 9 times out of ten this starts an argument.
"No, no. Just give me the quarter and I'll get the sandwich."
"That's all right. What kind would you like?"
"Look, just give me the quarter."
"I don't mind in the slightest. Let's go get your food."
"@#$% you ›&*! just gimme the *&›%$#@ quarter!"
"Would you like fries with that? Or a soda?"
(Stomping off) "Tightwad %$›#& too cheap to give me a !*@&# quarter!"
On the other hand, 1 in 10 will get a momentary look of confusion, and when it sinks in that you are sincere, they will be happy as a clam, and accept your generosity. It will cost more per time they accept, but you will be guaranteed that the money you spend is going to be used correctly, and where it will actually do good. Instead of feeding a drug or booze habit.
Thus you display charity, liberality and prudence at the same time.
CHASTITY
Chastity is frowned upon, and actively discouraged. It does irreparable harm for a girl to marry as a virgin. There is an active but often subtle campaign to prevent this. During a lesson in the mandatory college course on Counseling Techniques I had to attend, something came up. The woman teacher replied "Ha, that's as funny as a 30 year old male virgin!" The class burst into laughter. I raised my hand, and asked (in my harmless tone of voice, like I didn't understand it at all) "Excuse me, but I'm a 35 year old male virgin. I don't quite get that joke. Would you mind explaining it to me?" Total silence from class and teacher. She turned beet red, hemmed, hawed, muttered something about "well, if you have religious convictions, mutter, mumble, lets switch subjects."
Sometimes it is less than subtle. The teachers unions steadfastly refuse to let abstinence before marriage be taught. Instead courses which teach that "no one has the right to tell you that you can't have sex if you want it" must be trotted out. Even though study after study shows that less than 2% of the population is homosexual, courses in schools teach that 10% of all students are sodomites and must be allowed to explore their sexuality, to learn if they are in the lucky 10%, or even better, the fortunate ones who are bisexual and can thus have sex with both men and women. All schools, boy and girl scout troops must be given "gay advisors' so the children can experiment with their sexual identity.
MEEKNESS
The Pride and Humility sections covered this one pretty well. However, Liberals use Numbers 12:3 as "proof" that Moses couldn't have written the Pentateuch (the Five Books of Moses). "Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on earth."
Anav [humble (meek in the King James)] does come from a root word (Anah) meaning afflicted or depressed, so that you might think it could mean that he was more afflicted and depressed than any one else from having to put up with the stubborn rebellious bunch he had to lead, the word itself means meek, humble, gentle or mild. And as I pointed out, a large part of humility is having an accurate appraisal; of your character and value. If Moses was indeed the most humble man on Earth, then he had to admit this or he would be lying. And as a prophet writing scripture under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he couldn't lie by playing the false modesty ploy.
TEMPERANCE
Already covered, so I will display temperance by avoiding the opportunity to overindulge in writing.
BROTHERLY LOVE
"Love your neighbor as yourself", has become you can't love your neighbor unless you love yourself first. The "Me!" generation carried this idea to the point of absurdity.
DILIGENCE
Those who work hard and succeed are evil; they get more than others. Those who work hard and fail are victims of those who succeed. Either way diligence is not recommended any more.
fficeffice" />THE SEVEN THEOLOGICAL VIRTUES
CHARITY
Better translated as Love. Agape is the word in the original Greek, the Latin equivalent Caritas became our English Charity. Charity has been dropped to mere almsgiving. Worse, most people shift their responsibility to be charitable to the government. This has a doubly bad result. First, the individual loses the opportunity for personal judgment on where and how to use his gift. Second, government is uniformly incompetent and wasteful, turning the recipients into faceless statistics. For every $100 that goes to the Food Stamps program, $28 reaches the persons needing the aid, $72 to the bloated bureaucracy.
Another result of shifting care for the poor to the government is the lack of charity in people. As Ebenezer Scrooge said in "A Christmas Carol" when approached for the poor. "Are there no debtor's prisons? Are there no workhouses? I support those through my overly high taxes. Why should I be expected to donate more to encourage indolence and lack of thrift?" Sadly this attitude is getting quite popular, as the tax bill for aiding the poor goes up each year, with no visible results except an increase in the number of people on the poor list.
FAITH
The ability to believe despite the evidence, says the Liberals. The leap into the dark unknown and unknowable hoping against all the evidence that there is something soft, and hopefully not too squishy, to land on. For another branch of modern thought in the church, Faith is the magic key to open all doors. I purposely use magic key since it is the basic rule of black magic that belief forces action. God must respond to your belief. If you believe it strongly enough, without doubt or waver, it must come true. New Agers accept this premise. If enough people believe they are gods they will become gods.
This has a nasty side effect. If you pray to be healed, or a pastor prays for you, you must be healed. God can't answer your prayer with "no" or "later". That would violate the basic laws of the universe. If you have enough faith, He must obey your desires. God has no choice in the matter. So if He doesn't heal you, it must be your fault. It can't be the pastor or elder's fault. A variant on this is the pastor prayed; you were healed on the spot. He has the gift of healing; God can't deny his prayer. Even if all the symptoms are still there, you were healed. If you acknowledge the reality of the symptoms in any way, you show lack of faith; the disease or broken bone will return, and the symptoms will then be real.
These same guys deride Transubstantiationalists [I love big words!] for being stupid enough to believe the bread and wine of communion really turns into Jesus' body and blood while still looking and tasting the same. Yet they believe a disease or of a bone break can be there with or without a real disorder, going back and forth to reality or illusion depending on whether or not you believe in a healing.
A word related to faith has also changed meaning. Propaganda now means lies. But it comes from Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (The Sacred Congregation for Spreading the Faith). This is a body of bishops who oversee missionaries and related matters for the Catholic Church. Propaganda has become such a nasty word that they had to change their title to Sacra Congragatio Pro Genitum Evangelization (Sacred Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples).
HOPE
To the "God wants you Rich!" school, Hope is a 4-letter word. And not due to spelling rules. In 1 Corinthians 13:13 St. Paul says it's one of the three things Christians should get. The "God wants you Rich!" gang teaches that Hope should never cross your lips under any circumstances.
Hope, as in "I hope so-and-so happens" or doesn't happen, is a blot on your record. If you say you hope God does something, it will never happen. Only faith counts. You must believe with every fiber of your being or you won't get it. Hoping something happens acknowledges the possibility it may not. Unless you exclude this possibility through solid belief, the reverse may slip through. Thus the hymn writer who wrote: "My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus' blood and righteousness." was a spectacular failure who should have been excommunicated.
I disagree. And apparently so does the Holy Spirit. Lets see a list of scriptures about hope that the Holy Spirit had put in the Bible. (In my book I wrote out each verse, but due to space restraints, you will have to look them up. I hope you do.
Psalms 33:18, 22: 38:15; 39:7; 43:5; 71:5; 119:81, 116, 166; 130:7; 146:5
Proverbs 23:17-18
Lamentations 3:21-25
Hosea 2:15
Joel 3:16
And just so you don't think hope is just for the pre-Christ Jews:
Acts 23:6; 26:6-8
Romans 5:2-5; 8:22-27; 12:12; 15:4, 13
1 Corinthians 13:13; 15:19
2 Corinthians 3:7-13
Galatians 5:5
Ephesians 1:18; 4:4-6
Philippians 1:20
Colossians 1:5, 23, :27
1Thesselonians 1:3; 5:7-8
2Thesselonians 2:16
1Timothy 1:1
Titus 1:1-4; 2:11-13; 3:6-7
Hebrews 3:6; 6:11, 17-19, 11:1
1Peter 1:3, 13,:21; 3:15
1John 3:2-3
Don’t know about you, but this list makes me feel very hopeful.
TEMPERANCE
Because Temperance Societies in the early 1900's pushed for the prohibition of alcohol, temperance has come to be associated with the avoidance or outlawing of drinking alcohol. In actuality, temperance is avoiding extremes. Proverbs 30:7-9 Agur son of Jakeh prays for God to grant him temperance. "O God, I beg two favors of you before I die. First, help me never to tell a lie. Second, give me neither poverty nor riches! Give me just enough to satisfy my needs. For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say 'Who is the Lord?' And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God's holy name."
Temperance is moderation in all things. Eat without gluttony, drink without drunkenness, do your work to the best of your ability, but don't be a workaholic whose family forgets what you look like. Relaxation is cool, but relaxing so much you need a nap to build up the energy to go to bed at night is excessive. Justice must be tempered with mercy. Getting so wrapped up in your day to day life you are too busy to read the Bible or take a few minutes to pray is poor business indeed.
On the other extreme, though far rarer these days, is to get so wrapped up on heavenly matters all other aspects of life suffer. Even St. Anthony in his Egyptian desert hermitage did basket weaving and other things as a break from demon fighting, austerities, and monk teaching.
PRUDENCE
Wisdom in another guise. Look before you leap. Check out charities before you give so you know your donation will be well used. Don't just dive into things, but see if there are potential bad spots attached. Patience is a big part of prudence, and modern life just doesn't encourage patience. Instant gratification, buy now, pay later (with interest attached). "Just do it!"
In modern thought Prudence is especially irrelevant in the area of sex, where the results are removed from the act in the popular mind. There was a minority of premarital sex, unwed motherhood (which is why my mother was so embarrassed by my existence, as I was proof she had done something shameful) and minuscule VD rate in America until two events occurred; improved birth control and mass sex education. Anyone can see that giving people the means, teaching them how to do it, and especially school books saying "you have a right to sex and no one has a right to tell you that you can't" or another one I saw "the only thing wrong with adultery is if the nonparticipating partner (they used to be known as the innocent victim) is too immature to see the good this can do for their marriage" is guaranteed to cause an increase in the results of sex before and outside marriage.
Instead of seeing that this increased the problem greatly, they see it as proof there is not enough sex education and birth control. Despite a 1 in 6 failure rate for condoms at preventing pregnancy, and an even worse record at preventing VD, they must be passed out in schools like candy. Grade school isn't early enough. 7-8 year olds are too old to start sex education. Start it in kindergarten. It must be increased, despite overwhelming evidence that every increase increases the problem. There is nothing prudent in splitting off the result from the cause.
Social engineering must be performed on society without checking first to see what the results will be. Good intentions are all that counts. And if the wrong result comes out, deny it vehemently, and demand increased engineering. Returning to the original status or condition is an admission of failure to be avoided at any cost.
You must decriminalize sodomy, declare any one who calls it sin insane, and spend millions on pro-'gay' propaganda and 'sensitivity sessions'. Then wonder where all the sodomites come from and why their numbers increase, especially among the teenagers you propagandize. Decriminalize abortion, propagandize for it's use, push sex before or out of marriage, then be surprised at why there are so many abortions. Illegal drug use starts to appear. Quick! Change it from drug use to drug abuse. Declare all addicts and users victims. Drop the persecution of users, making it legal to use but not sell, and then lower the penalties on selling. Now confusedly ask why drug use is rampant.
Public drunkenness was a minor problem. Decriminalize drunkenness, unless the drunk commits another crime like drunk driving, assault, or mayhem. Forbid the police to do anything to interfere with their 'chosen lifestyle'. Now be amazed at all the winos passed out on the sidewalks, panhandling, and messing up the place.
Make divorce easily accessible and victim free. Now be astonished that there are so many divorces. Declare the military sexist. Demand that the women train with the men, make the barracks coed, drop all rules against fraternization. Now sit back and ponder why so many women are discharged for pregnancy. Adultery, date rape, etc. nearly unheard of a few years back, are now ripping the military apart. Except for the Marine Corps., which has done the politically incorrect move of keeping the men and women segregated and doing no social engineering.
The single largest piece of social engineering is through taxation. As Einstein said: "the hardest thing in the universe to understand is the tax code." Not only did it confuse Einstein, but even the IRS workers can't figure it out anymore.
That's because the tax code is not designed to raise revenue for the government. It has been made to engineer society, in dozens of conflicting ways, rewarding those that go along with desired change and punishing those that don't. The largest and most intrusive change is the sheer amount of taxation. In 1950 the average husband who worked to support his non-working wife and two kids paid 3% of his income as taxes. This was intolerable. To make sure that the workplace was properly integrated with working women, government spending was greatly increased, the number of federal and state employees was increased, taxes were raised through the roof. The code was revised.
Now married women must work, since that same family of 4 has a combined state, federal and local tax burden of 52%. Many of the kids have to get part time jobs as well. Yet the government asks why the amount of savings has plummeted, and credit use among people that used to pay cash has increased to new levels. That the government takes so much money from workers that they have nothing to save, and must use credit since they can't get enough cash to buy things is vehemently denied.
Despite the undeniable fact that children turn out better in homes where the mother stays home and cares for them, this must be stopped. Get those mothers on the work force, forcing them to need day care for the kids, and then increase the taxes on what they earn to pay for the child care programs. Then wonder where all the "latch key children" come from. And marvel how they have increased juvenile crime, and other social dysfunctions.
The results of all this social engineering were fully predictable, and often were, by those exercising prudence, to no avail. Stress is up, divorce is up, juvenile delinquency is up, families collapse, crime is up, alcohol and drug use (especially tranquilizers) is up, bankruptcies are up, and all varieties of therapists are making a mint.
FORTITUDE
Bravery, stick-to-it-ness, stamina; now seen as the hallmarks of the oppressors. The only ones who can be self-reliant are those with unfair advantages. Everyone else is a helpless victim who cannot cope. No one is competent to raise their own children without the government experts telling you how to do it. "It takes a whole village to raise a child!" yells Hillary. You can't work, make a product, or run your farm the way you always have. You must have the government telling you what to believe, how to think and what to eat. You are a helpless victim who cannot be allowed to decide things on his own.
JUSTICE
Justice in modern life is nearly extinct. Those who commit crimes are misunderstood or disadvantaged victims. Punishing them is barbaric cruelty and totally out of the question. If you commit murder, you have a 1 in 33,000 chance of being executed for it. Those who are eventually executed for it are only executed after an average of 11 years on death row. Since I originally wrote this it has grown to 13 years.
Injustice can be done in the name of justice. You must tax the rich for committing the unforgivable crime of being successful and earning more than others.
1000 students go to a good school, and 1000 students go to a substandard school. Rather than keep the better school intact, and order improvements in the lesser school, you must waste huge amounts of money shipping 500 students from the better school to the substandard school, and 500 from the poor school to the better school. The result of this is still 1000 students going to a substandard school, and 1000 going to a good school. But this is seen as a great victory. After all, a different 500 students are now being cheated. And don't you dare send the better students from the poor school to the good school. No, no. And you must send the best students from the good school to the substandard school. That way the bad school will get a slight increase in scholarly standards (but only slight since they are now getting worse teachers and equipment to learn with and must spend so much time in traveling that their scholarship drops a bit). Admittedly the good school has its standards and scores drop somewhat, but that's alright, the school was full of showoffs anyway. Stuck up students were just being uppity by getting good grades anyway. We have to make the playing field level, even if we have to lower the level to do it. Suggesting that the money and effort spent on bussing would have been better spent on improving the lesser school proves that you are an insane bigot.
Sodomites repeatedly lose elections granting 'gay rights'. Whenever state legislatures or judges grant such rights they are voted down by the people in the next election. Every time abortion came before the people it lost. Every time limitations and conditions come before the voters they pass them. So the courts must grant such rights through judicial activism, finding imaginary rights implied by the Constitution. The basic premise of democracy, majority rule, must be destroyed. Minority rule is ever so much better. Better yet is the rule via 9 non elected judges who never face reelection. Justice has become the tool of the envious and the perverted.
THE SEVEN CONTRARY VIRTUES
An alternate, though less popular, list of 7 Virtues, is called the Contrary Virtues, as they are the contrary or opposite of the Deadly Sins.
HUMILITY
Humility is an accurate awareness of who and what you are. There are several components of this. Major ones are that you were created in the image and likeness of God, and God has a plan for your life, if you let Him implement it.. This is replaced by the evolutionist dictum that you are an animal, who is unworthy of existence, except for the off chance that a descendant of yours may evolve into a higher being with a right to live. Or the philosophical dictum that you are meaningless, an absurd accident in a meaningless universe. The academicians then wonder why the people they brainwash with this nonsense have problems with "self esteem".
As usual, Jesus is our best example. Philippians 2:3-11 "Don't act out of selfish ambition or be conceited. Instead humbly think of others as being better than yourselves. Don't be concerned only about your own interests, but also be concerned about the interests of others. Have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Although he was in the form of God and equal with God, He did not take advantage of this equality. Instead he emptied Himself by taking on the form of a servant, by becoming like other humans, by having a human appearance. He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, death on a cross. This is why God has given Him an exceptional honor - the name above all other names - so that in the name of Jesus everyone in heaven, on earth, and in the world below will kneel and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father."
Much of Humility is replaced with false modesty; the desire to have your modest display contradicted by the person you give the display to. If someone says "You did that well" your reply of "Oh no, It wasn't that good" translates as "Tell me more about how much you liked it!"
LIBERALITY
A branch of charity. But now the emphasis isn't on what is actually done, but on the feeling or intention. As long as you mean well, it doesn't matter what the result is. The highest form of liberality is with other peoples' money. The government can waste billions that could be spent more effectively, or not at all, because they mean well.
Speaking of efficiency in charity, here is one idea I have found very useful. When you are outside McDonald's and are approached by a panhandler who asks for a quarter to help him buy a sandwich, say no, but offer instead to buy him the sandwich. 9 times out of ten this starts an argument.
"No, no. Just give me the quarter and I'll get the sandwich."
"That's all right. What kind would you like?"
"Look, just give me the quarter."
"I don't mind in the slightest. Let's go get your food."
"@#$% you ›&*! just gimme the *&›%$#@ quarter!"
"Would you like fries with that? Or a soda?"
(Stomping off) "Tightwad %$›#& too cheap to give me a !*@&# quarter!"
On the other hand, 1 in 10 will get a momentary look of confusion, and when it sinks in that you are sincere, they will be happy as a clam, and accept your generosity. It will cost more per time they accept, but you will be guaranteed that the money you spend is going to be used correctly, and where it will actually do good. Instead of feeding a drug or booze habit.
Thus you display charity, liberality and prudence at the same time.
CHASTITY
Chastity is frowned upon, and actively discouraged. It does irreparable harm for a girl to marry as a virgin. There is an active but often subtle campaign to prevent this. During a lesson in the mandatory college course on Counseling Techniques I had to attend, something came up. The woman teacher replied "Ha, that's as funny as a 30 year old male virgin!" The class burst into laughter. I raised my hand, and asked (in my harmless tone of voice, like I didn't understand it at all) "Excuse me, but I'm a 35 year old male virgin. I don't quite get that joke. Would you mind explaining it to me?" Total silence from class and teacher. She turned beet red, hemmed, hawed, muttered something about "well, if you have religious convictions, mutter, mumble, lets switch subjects."
Sometimes it is less than subtle. The teachers unions steadfastly refuse to let abstinence before marriage be taught. Instead courses which teach that "no one has the right to tell you that you can't have sex if you want it" must be trotted out. Even though study after study shows that less than 2% of the population is homosexual, courses in schools teach that 10% of all students are sodomites and must be allowed to explore their sexuality, to learn if they are in the lucky 10%, or even better, the fortunate ones who are bisexual and can thus have sex with both men and women. All schools, boy and girl scout troops must be given "gay advisors' so the children can experiment with their sexual identity.
MEEKNESS
The Pride and Humility sections covered this one pretty well. However, Liberals use Numbers 12:3 as "proof" that Moses couldn't have written the Pentateuch (the Five Books of Moses). "Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on earth."
Anav [humble (meek in the King James)] does come from a root word (Anah) meaning afflicted or depressed, so that you might think it could mean that he was more afflicted and depressed than any one else from having to put up with the stubborn rebellious bunch he had to lead, the word itself means meek, humble, gentle or mild. And as I pointed out, a large part of humility is having an accurate appraisal; of your character and value. If Moses was indeed the most humble man on Earth, then he had to admit this or he would be lying. And as a prophet writing scripture under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he couldn't lie by playing the false modesty ploy.
TEMPERANCE
Already covered, so I will display temperance by avoiding the opportunity to overindulge in writing.
BROTHERLY LOVE
"Love your neighbor as yourself", has become you can't love your neighbor unless you love yourself first. The "Me!" generation carried this idea to the point of absurdity.
DILIGENCE
Those who work hard and succeed are evil; they get more than others. Those who work hard and fail are victims of those who succeed. Either way diligence is not recommended any more.
