Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive. To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more. For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.
Yours portly sometimes gets a bit strident when sharing his views, particularly when it comes to immigration. I do believe that immigration—both legal and illegal—is one of the major problems facing the United States and Europe today. I also believe that not all cultures are created equal, and that Western Civilization is, broadly speaking, the best and highest form of cultural and civilizational expression ever achieved.
A great deal of that greatness—indeed, so much so that, like a fish in water, we don’t even realize how subsumed in it we are—comes from Christianity. So much of the morality we take for granted in the West comes from Jesus Christ’s Teachings: charity, patience, love, and—perhaps most importantly—forgiveness. Christ Died on the Cross to pay for our sins—not His. He Is the Spotless Lamb, Sacrificed to take on the burden of our sin once and for all. He Was Resurrected and will Return.
That idea of forgiveness—merely ask and believe, and Christ Will Cleanse you of your sins and Welcome you into His everlasting Kingdom—is hugely powerful, and often cuts against human nature. “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:30-31) is probably the hardest teaching in Christianity, especially when “your neighbor” includes loving your enemies (Matthew 5:44). And, boy, do enemies abound in these blasphemous times.
I struggle mightily with the injunction to love my enemies. Indeed, I’ve been feeling a great deal of conviction about it lately. The enemies of Goodness and Righteousness and Truth are many, and they are cruel. But as Nietzsche put it (proving, too, that Truth can emanate even from those who are lost), “He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” Gulp!
To read the rest of this post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.


