Whoever said living a moral life is easy apparently hasn’t struggled with our pop culture. It’s not easy walking the moral road when everyone around you is so easily swayed. That’s why I always find it so conflicting when folks who claim to be conservative can laugh and joke about sexual matters as if they don’t fit into this moral circle. For some reason, a lot of folks like to cordon off our sexual appetites from the realm of judgments about what is and isn’t appropriate behavior. It’s like the guy who gets a number of women pregnant out of wedlock and then professes to be living a Godly life and quotes the Bible every few minutes. Something doesn’t fit.

For example, Fox News tries to portray itself as being conservative and a moral step above the rest, yet ends each of it’s Pulse News programs with as much T & A video as it can muster. Can you be conservative and still salivate like a dog in heat at a gal in a bikini? Fox entertainment programs are as voyeuristic as any I’ve ever seen on the air. What happened to the moral high ground? Aren’t these the same people who believe that our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and equality are endowed in each of us by a divine creator? And doesn’t this divine creator also have moral laws that we are required to follow? And doesn’t sex fit into those laws?

It’s the same thing that happens when generally moral people start making excuses or partake in the adult entertainment industry, or at least turn a blind eye, because they don’t see anything wrong with having just a little fun. It’s okay to tell a few dirty jokes and lust after younger women, and on and on. In my opinion, this is incredibly inconsistent and tends to weaken any argument conservatives present on their behalf to those of the liberal persuasion.

That’s the same reason many argue the modern day feminists have faded away into insignificance. They chose to ignore the outrageous sexist treatment by Hollywood and TV and the repression of women in Arab nations and instead continue to focus all their efforts on the abortion issues. The right to choose supercedes all other concerns. Their views are so inconsistent their lack of action on some issues negates their vocalizations on others.

Now, before you think I’m a total stick in the mud or some kind of Puritan freak hear me out. I’ve been bothered by this notion of selective morality for a long time. And, it seems to be bothering me more as I see young men and women sacrificing their lives over in Iraq. Are we worthy of their sacrifice?

I believe one of the reasons our culture went drifting so far away from our founding principles is because we allowed compromise to dilute our moral imperatives. We couldn’t, or chose not to live up to our own moral expectations. Instead of attempting to correct ourselves when we saw the error of our ways, it was easier to turn our heads and look the other way. In fact, the media and Hollywood have encouraged us over and over again to drop our “hard-line” of what we know is wrong in favor of an ever bizarre moral down turn. And each time we turn away from absolute right and wrong it gets harder and harder to return to our center. That’s what drives some outspoken liberals bonkers about George Bush. To quote a liberal friend of mine, “For God’s sake Bush can’t see any shades of gray. Everything is either black or white to him. He’s completely myopic.” Yes, and that’s why he’s such a good leader!

Compromise is sooooo deceptive. Many in our society put a greater value on compromise than they do holding to core values, as if compromise requires more intelligence. That’s why so many folks buy into the line that diplomacy has a higher moral value than going to war. War is immoral; therefore anything we do besides going to war is of greater social significance.

That is such a crock! There are times when war is the right choice of moral people who commit themselves to living by the rule of law. Living our lives according to a code that includes democracy for all people is the highest calling that any human could hope to achieve. Our forefathers knew that when they wrote the constitution. Who are we to deny those inalienable rights to the oppressed of the world? There are ideals that are worth dying for.

I don’t know, maybe I’m wasting my time trying to iron out these inconsistencies that suddenly seem like such a big deal. After all, what do out of wed lock babies and sexual immorality and being a conservative and Fox TV and pop culture and compromise and the War in Iraq have to do with each other?

Nothing, except the very center of our core beliefs that either reveal the wisdom of the choices we’ve made or the folly in changing our compass every time the going gets a bit tough.

Al Ruechel, Copyright 2003, All Rights Reserved

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