An Apparent Moral Demise
by Nils A. Haug • November 6, 2024 at 5:00 am
"Jewish people brought morality to the world thousands of years ago, and some people are still mad about it." — Safra Catz, CEO of Oracle, ynetnews.com, January 27, 2024.
Pope Francis, spiritual head of Roman Catholics globally, and Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, leader of the Church of England, for instance, have seemingly denied the "connection of Jewish people to their Holy Land" by apparently endorsing "replacement theology." Many in the Church believe that they are the true inheritors of certain biblical promises made to the Jews.
"Archbishop Welby should know that Jerusalem was the capital of Israel before anyone heard of Britain." — Rabbi Warren Goldstein, Chief Rabbi of South Africa, jns.org, August 27, 2024.
The dirty little non-secret is that anti-Zionism actually is an expression of anti-Semitism. To deny that Jews have no right to a state -- especially in light of four countries, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Mauritania and Iran, highlighting "Islamic Republic" in their names -- would appear on the face of it fundamentally biased. This list does not even include the other 53 members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), that declare themselves Islamic, even if their names do not herald it.
Genuine Bible-based faith has long been under threat of marginalization or, in some instances, elimination. The main problem might be identified as the gradual secularization of society –the view that G-d is no longer required in the public square. Blame might also be directed at the creeping influence of other faiths, some religious, others not.
In Western culture, suggests David Bonagura Jr., a professor at St. Joseph's Seminary in New York, various ideologies such as "Marxism, progressivism, multiculturalism and now wokeism" have emerged to compete with the traditional Judeo-Christian moral ethos of society. Once principles of morality have been removed from the public arena, then associated precepts of truth, justice, freedom, democracy -- and the equality and dignity of all persons --become compromised and sidelined in favor of whatever is the fashionable wisdom-of-the-month.
