After the mid-term elections and what is being dubbed the “red trickle”, many conservatives are experiencing the frustration expected. Inflation is at the highest levels in a half century, and we are in a recession with no seeming end. The southern border has been overrun, including not only the roughly five million illegal migrants, but corresponding Fentanyl and organized crime. Military recruitment is at the lowest point since the start of the all-volunteer military a half century ago, with the perception of the military as being woke to many. Crime has exploded. Progressive radical gender ideology has brought a 100% increase in the number of our young identifying as transgender, with minors undergoing “gender affirming” permanent physical alteration surgery. The botched withdrawal from Afghanistan was only a year ago. This seemingly gave Republicans their best shot ever for a red wave. The reality is that politics is downstream from culture, and the progressive left has virtually captured culture for their ideology. It’s time to follow the example of William Wilberforce in recapturing the culture to change politics. Let me explain.
William Wilberforce was born in England in 1759, and elected to Parliament in his early twenties. Partly through the influence of famed preacher and theologian “Amazing Grace” John Newton, Wilberforce became a born-again Christian in his mid-twenties. As he wrote in his diary on October 28, 1787 about God’s call: “God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the Slave Trade and the Reformation of Manners” (Note Wilberforce’s “Manners” meant the morals in Great Britain). Wilberforce’s work for two decades in Parliament ended the slave trade in 1807. He continued his work until slavery throughout the British Empire ended in 1833, the year Wilberforce died. Because the British Navy controlled the major sea lanes, he effectively ended the slave trade throughout the Western World. This was an incredible accomplishment, but most today do not know of the equally great part of Wilberforce’s influence. That of reforming his nation’s culture, of which ending slavery was included.
It’s important to understand the depravity British Society during the Georgian period of the 1700s. Noted historian W. Robert Godfrey has lectured and written about the level of immorality among all classes of British society during the 1700s, and summed it up thusly: “Can you imagine a society so degenerated? Widespread sexual immorality, cruel sports, gambling, drunkenness; it’s hard to imagine a society in such a state, but that’s where England was early in the eighteenth‑century.” Evangelists Whitfield and Jonathan Edwards helped bring the “Great Awakening” to the American Colonies through the middle of the 1700s. and this created a huge chasm in values between Great Britain and America. This helps explain a major “culture” factor leading to the American Revolutionary War.
To accomplish his goal of reform, William Wilberforce put together the “society for the reformation of manners”, and received a royal charter from King George III. In 1797, Wilberforce published what became and international bestseller and influenced all British society “A Practical View: Of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians in the Higher and Middle Classes of Society, Contrasted with Real Christianity”. The substance and intent of the book was directly in line with his goals of reformation: “Wilberforce’s book confronts his fellow countrymen as ‘nominal’ Christians, complacent in being Christian in name only. By accepting the Christian creed, but failing to live the Christian life, the spiritual foundation of English society was rotting away at its core. Wilberforce’s influential book challenged readers to center their life, both public and private, on Christ’s redeeming work and teachings.” As with his efforts to end the slave trade, Wilberforce was passionately driven throughout his life to help bring cultural reform to the United Kingdom.
Wilberforce is credited by many with having made the impact he sought with reforming Great Britain. Within under two decades of his death, Great Britain entered what historians dub “the Victorian era”, which most date from the Great Exhibition of 1851 to Queen Victoria’s death in 1901. The morality of the British had reformed: “The term Victorian morality is often used to describe the values of the period, which included sexual proprietary hard work honesty, thrift, sense of duty and responsibility towards the less well off….. It changed England totally by altering the very thread of social interaction, mores and traditions.” In Wilberforce’s influencing of British culture, the political impact on the United Kingdom cannot be overstated. Victorian era values ended much of the elitism and corruption in the leadership and the middle class. It brought the franchise from the few to the many. Importantly, it brought political stability to the UK under the Constitutional monarchy while so many other European nations fell into Revolution.
Following Wilberforce’s example requires patience and determination. Wilberforce influenced the reformation of morals primarily through appeal to Christian values/ethics and it took time to change one person and family at a time. Importantly, Wilberforce’s reforms changed the politics of his nation, but only indirectly through the change of culture. American conservatives have a steep challenge in this progressive cultural environment, yet similar to that faced by Wilberforce. The ubiquitous undermining of family, marriage, gender and religion is pervasive, so it’s time to start. Let the example and determination of Wilberforce guide us.
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The “Like” button doesn’t work – otherwise, I’d have given this 5 stars.
Yes! Moral regeneration is what’s needed and is the ONLY thing which will work. For one thing, have you noticed how almost everyone lies all the time? They have no conception of “Truth” – all they care about is what they want and what they don’t want and they say whatever they need to say to justify what they want or don’t want.
You’ve seen the personification of Justice: A beautiful woman wearing a blindfold, holding a pair of scales in one hand and a sword in the other. She doesn’t care who you are (Jew or Greek, highborn or lowborn, male or female, black or white, etc., etc. ). With the scales, she weighs the Law and the Facts.
But during 1970 or so, one of my Law Professor told us that when Judges decide cases, they decide on the result THEY want and write an Opinion to justify that result. Well, that’s what almost all Americans do these days. They don’t care what the Constitution says – they care only about what they want the fed gov’t to do or not do. And they all want unconstitutional bundles of lovely “money”. And this lying extends to all aspects of Americans’ lives – they are saturated with lying and they love it.
THERE IS NO POLITICAL SOLUTION TO OUR PROBLEMS: Moral regeneration is the only solution Oddly enough, the Bible suggests the same thing: If you will repent of your sins and seek my face, then I will heal your Land. And they can begin by STOPPING THE LYING. See Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s essay, “Live not by Lies”.
Yet those vile people pushing for an Article V Convention tell us that the solution to all our problems is to have an Article V Convention where we will get amendments to the Constitution. Yeah, right.
Repentance is needed – not a new Constitution (such as the one already co-authored by Law Professor Robert P. George, who is on Mark Meckler’s “COS” Legal Advisory Board.)
I love the movie, “Amazing Grace” – it’s about Wilberforce.
This is a great article, but it is in no way applicable to the situation we are in today. The vast majority of Americans do not agree and are actually opposed to the transgender propaganda, illegals flooding the border, dirty politicians, etc. Do you truly believe we had a “red trickle” or do you believe the election was rigged/stolen? If you believe 2020 or 2024 we legitimate elections, I can see your point. I believe the majority of Americans are disgusted, but so beat down they feel powerless to fight back against a system that has been corrupted by a small number of people that just so happen to be occupy all the right positions. When people are constantly bombarded with news, entertainment and social media pushing a degenerate agenda 24/7 by this small group, people tend to feel overwhelmed and isolated in their views. This feeling of isolation and impotence is exactly the result the propagandist are aiming for. If the American public were truly immoral, there would be no need for the constant brainwashing. The problem is we have grown weak and complacent. We have realized this small group is so entrenched it is going to take another American Revolution to get this country back on track and quite frankly, we do not have the stomach for it. The powers that be know this. That is why they openly steal elections, open the borders, have men dressed as women reading gay porn to our children in school, attack the nuclear family… They do not fear the people. This is not a morality issue with the majority of everyday Americans. We have just lost the will to fight. While we sit idle, this small group will continue to overwhelm the population with immorality and in a generation or two, they will succeed. Once they are successful, this article will become relevant.
Our country’s in a bad place. On most levels it is sad, frightening, and disheartening. This definitely is time for greater morality and for great courage. But also, we might more often share the JOYS of traditional living. Surely enticement to happiness would prove highly effective.