With hedonistic pressures and so many crazy ideas surrounding children from their most formative years onward, how can we expect any of them to make it into adulthood with traditional values?

The first classroom is the home, and studies consistently show that a loving, stable marriage is the foundation of a solid family. What could be more traditional in society than marriage? Just as it’s unrealistic for parents to expect their children to develop biblical values and a strong faith by dropping them off at weekly Bible study but never going to one themselves doesn’t work, neither does preaching conservative values at home but living a heathenistic lifestyle in front of them. We must lead by example, or we’ll usually get bad results.

These ideas shouldn’t be controversial, but in our society, the people in power and most of the voters who put them there might say they agree — but then they’ll start dissembling. They’ll say that marriage is between two people who love each other. They’ll say that love is love, and the working definition of that word depends on the individual using it.

We now face many obstacles in passing down our traditional ideas to the next generation. Our kids must understand why they believe concepts are right or wrong, good or evil, before they face the world.

As California Goes, So Goes the Nation

Perhaps you’ve heard the expression, “As California goes, so goes the country.” The Golden State, where I live, has a reputation as a trendsetter. We’ve seen this happen with the wokeness already deeply entrenched in other “blue states” and schools everywhere. It’s like a mind virus that even spreads to different countries around the world in a post-Christian era — and Hollywood is Ground Zero for it.

When even our laws back up obscene social pressures, the result is the antithesis of a traditional and biblical moral code. Today, in California, the law forces businesses to take down gender-specific restroom signage even on single-use facilities and replace them with signs that say “All Gender.” Our kids now live in this reality — and perhaps that is our lawmakers’ central aim.

California law also now forces establishments to allow anyone to use whichever multiple-stall public restroom they want. Schoolkids must deal with this, even in locker rooms. The ACLU proudly cites California law as the example every other state should follow in this regard.

Primal Instincts Gone Haywire

According to a Pew Research study published in February, “Among young adults without children, men are more likely than women to say they want to be parents someday.” The polling data reveals that among those aged 18 to 34, 57% of men say they want children someday, while only 45% of women say they do.

How has this happened?

If girls learn from childhood that they should focus on a career and be independent of men (and when they get to college, learn that they must “destroy the patriarchy”), what else should we expect?

One of the results of the mind virus causes population decline – which in turn creates a dying civilization.

Defining Marriage

If you google “the definition of marriage,” you’ll see a list of links that give new, modern meanings to the term. It’s not hard to see what’s missing.

Merriam-Webster provides a good example:

1: a) the state of being united as spouses in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law

1. b) the mutual relationof married persons: WEDLOCK
2. c) the institutionwhereby individuals are joined in a marriage

2: an act of marrying or the rite by which the married status is effected

especially: the wedding ceremony and attendant festivities or formalities

3: an intimate or close union

In a paragraph below called “Usage of Marriage,” we see the definition of marriage “continues to be highly controversial.” Still, the dictionary’s definition is “broad enough to encompass the different types of marriage that are currently recognized in varying cultures, places, religions, and systems of law.”

Under “Words at Play,” Merriam-Webster gives “Ten Words that Come from Mother.” One of them is “matrimony.” Here, the authors actually, and probably accidentally, give the true definition of marriage.

“Matrimony joins two people, but that pairing is rooted in one word: mother.

Matrimony comes from mater, Latin for “mother.” This reflects the traditional role of marriage in legalizing motherhood — allowing women to produce legitimate children and heirs. (Worried that men aren’t getting a fair shake? Marital comes from maritus, Latin for both “married” and “husband.”)”

A Young Hollywood Star Sets a Good Example

Growing up on Hollywood sets and working with adults in the entertainment industry from childhood doesn’t usually lend itself to developing traditional values. Unless you toe the line —especially when you’re young and don’t have power — you can quickly lose your career. But even if you’re older and have an enormous audience and a hit TV show like Roseanne Barr, the industry can easily “cancel” you (as Barr found out).

Enter Brett Cooper. She started her acting career at age ten; now, at 24, she is also a highly successful political commentator associated with The Daily Wire. Her YouTube channel currently has more than four million subscribers. Much of her current acting work is related to Daily Wire productions.

In a recent interview with Jordan Peterson in a recent interview, Cooper said she witnessed a lot of inappropriate behavior between adults and young actresses. But she dodged that bullet because her mother — not a stereotypical stage mom — was always nearby, watching her closely.

Cooper’s mother investigated producers before letting her sign on to roles. She discussed with Cooper the scripts she received, asking essential questions: What is the writer trying to say? What is the point of this script? Is there an agenda that contradicts our values?

Cooper believes she learned more about values from seeing bad things in scripts and discovering the writer’s intentions and the characters’ motivations than from regular dinner-table discussions with her family. Her mother, a fan of Ayn Rand, taught her self-reliance and individual responsibility from childhood.

Although she wasn’t raised in a religious home, Cooper knew right from wrong and how to think and stand up for herself from a very young age. Her college friends ostracized her when they found out she was politically conservative, and that led her to seek out young conservative groups online. While working for one of them, she met her future husband — a young man of faith — and now attends church with him weekly.

Cooper is a young, married, church-going, anti-woke warrior with traditional values who is leading by example, working every day and in various ways to dispel the mind virus.

A firm understanding of right and wrong rooted in common sense and decency can put those not raised in faith common ground with Christ followers. But the best scenario is when our kids understand right from wrong because they grew up in faith-filled homes.

Love and the understanding of moral issues can defeat the mind virus.

 

James Malloy is the author of Economic Clarity or Political Confusion: The Classical Cure for Keynesian Debt & Deficits. He has a B.S. in Business Economics and has been a licensed California mortgage and real estate broker for more than 20 years.