Seems as if my desire to relocate to another part of the world has left some of you with an inaccurate picture. I am sorry if i gave the impression that my motive for going elsewhere was to preserve some personal purity (what personal purity?) from the corruption of our culture.
I try to make a fine distinction between distancing myself from the culture (the prevailing or ascendant assumptions and expectations about behavior, etc.) and rejecting society itself. I am, after all, a social animal; i need other people, and maybe some of them need me. Hermits in the desert have this sense of connectedness, perhaps more than most others.
To be sure, the moral decay of Western culture is inarguable; in fact, that culture is now wrong about almost everything. Beginning with the holocaust of abortion on demand, and willingness of decent folks to accept it or at least ignore its magnitude, and, from there to other issues, our modern society is clearly going in the wrong direction.
Please know that this was a very traumatic realization for me. I grew up loving America, and being proud of my national heritage; to acknowledge that she was morally rotten was a difficult admission, but one that i had to make. I identified as well with the Democrat party and with its liberal ideology, and so it was hard to admit here, too, that those ideologies had become morally bankrupt and the party platform a murderous one. I was proud to be a member of the generation of hippies, flower children, and peaceniks, and it was gut-wrenching to have to admit that that generation was now responsible for some of the greatest evil in history.
But none of that would suffice for making me want to leave my native homeland. I would still be willing to continue living here, but for a couple of things:
First, the fact that our government is not content with simply abandoning legal protection for the pre-born, but requires all taxpayers to underwrite the holocaust. I do not pretend to be morally pure by any means, but i still have a conscience, and i still cannot willingly be an accomplice to the murder of innocents. As Thomas Jefferson opined, "To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." Jefferson was just referring to ideas; what i'm being forced to do is cooperate with government mandated murder!
This is no longer confined to Title X abortion funding. With the re-election of Governor Doyle, Wisconsin taxes will likely soon be used to perform human embryonic stem cell research. Similar conditions exist in most of the states. American tax dollars are used for anti-life measures internationally as well, including forced or coerced sterilization, aggressive population control measures, etc. I may not be able to escape the evil in our world, but i think i might still find a place to live without having to fund murder and genocide with my taxes.
Secondly, i might be inclined to stay and resist, but the acceptance of this holocaust by otherwise decent people leads me to sadly acknowledge no remedy within reasonable sight; it has seemingly become an established part of the culture. True voter sentiment must be reflected in the aforementioned government policies, else, how do these politicians keep getting elected? And how is it that even so-called pro-life government leaders continue to support the funding of these things? And that church-going Christians increasingly accept and sometimes even approve of what they formerly would have called serious sin? No, this travesty is evidently embedded within our very collective consciousness. I no longer puzzle over how the good people of Germany allowed that holocaust to happen; with too few exceptions, the same phenomenon is happening right before my eyes.
The growing acceptance of same-sex unions, and homosexual 'rights' would not, in itself, be a motive for leaving, since that ideology does not (so far) require my material cooperation. But this phenomenon does underscore the concern just mentioned. Namely, that it indicates the gradual abandonment of moral standards by otherwise decent people, and thus indicates a systemic malady, very difficult to remedy. (Indeed, no remedy is possible where there is no recognition that a problem exists.)
Please understand that i do not hate or fear sinners. Indeed, i am one. Returning to the original theme, it is not due to some personal purity that i feel compelled to start afresh soon. I am a sinful man, and i freely acknowledge that. In fact, one of the signs of a healthy culture would be that my sins also would be recognized as evil, and not readily excused. For my own salvation, i need to live where some standards are upheld.
Some say it is better to stay and resist the evil. (Many of those saying this are not resisting the evil themselves, and many are major contributors to it!) Be that as it may, my current strategy within this country of passive tax resistance seems to be the best i can manage, but is becoming more and more futile.
I suppose i could stay and become a civil disobedience outlaw, perhaps engaging in an Operation Rescue or some such active resistance. But i couldn't do this solo, and i honestly don't see any such opportunities in sight. (Maybe somebody reading this will tell me of some!)
Perhaps this 'Slouching Towards Gomorrah' is, ironically, its own remedy. The more hopelessly depraved our culture becomes, the more quickly it is likely to implode completely, which may be the only ultimate remedy.
The coward in me says i might just as well go someplace where i can live a somewhat normal and quiet life for the final third of my lifespan. Somewhere where i could make a living without materially supporting murder via my taxes. Somewhere where standards of decency and morality are still recognized, even if not always followed.
So, the sense of entering into a new chapter of my life soon has almost nothing to do with a personal need to escape (or personal 'need' of any kind). It has a great deal to do with the increasing futility of my current strategy of passive tax resistance. I apologize for my apparent incoherence, and hope this clarifies any misunderstanding. I welcome any comments, and may expand upon these and other thoughts in future posts.
As to where and when i may go, i cannot tell the specifics, because i don't know them yet myself. I sense the transition may be near, but will have to see how things unfold, in God's sovereign way.
pax et bonum
Jerry
