Thoughts?
If we go by Jefferson’s words then wouldn’t that support most of the social “progressive” issues? It would support the change & expansion of marriage, the government support of transgender surgery and gender neutral bathrooms?
Not necessarily. I don’t think Jefferson was saying that change is good regardless of the change. The key to this issue is determining what is legitimate progress versus what is corruption, which is also change, but not progress. The abolition of slavery and establishment of equal legal rights for all Americans is true progress. The re-definition of marriage from the logical man-woman union which produces children and forms the basic unit of society to an arbitrary contract between any two consenting adults is not.
Doesn’t this play off of “all men are created equal”?
All men are created equal in rights, being endowed which such from the same creator. This is all very biblical. But no one in their right mind would claim that all human beings are equal in all faculties. Clearly, some human beings are more intelligent, others stronger and so on. Some are born into a family with high status, some are born into poor families. In those ways, we are clearly not all equal, and never will be.
It’s just a matter of political & legislative support for traditional morals and status quo to be set aside to let room for “the new normal.” As the poster wrote, Jefferson’s words “demand progress” and “We are not to be a nation of conservative thought, repression & inaction, but acceptance, forward thinking & evolution.”
Yes, we need progress. A true conservative understands this. Conservatism, properly defined is not about things staying the same, but rather about staying true to the principles of freedom. More importantly, the Catholic church has embraced most new technologies and many social changes in the world as good. But it still draws the line at things that separate us from God and our humanity, like contraception, same-sex marriage and abortion. For genuine progress to be made, we must be able to separate the legitimate from the corruption.
The United States has never been a nation of inaction. “Conservatives” support new technologies and social changes. They just don’t accept all change as legitimate.
This seems to be a classic example of “living Constitution” vs Originalism.
I think, like the Bible, we should not take any one quote in isolation and out of its context, but look at Jefferson’s complete published works and statements before coming to any conclusion.
But, worse comes to worse: What if Jefferson did believe this? What if he would have supported same-sex marriage. I would be very disappointed, but it wouldn’t change much, objectively. The founders were not gods. They were generally wise men, but imperfect, fallible men creating a nation during the anti-Christian age of “enlightenment”. I think they did better than anyone could have imagined. But certainly they were not perfect nor infallible. Most were not even Catholic.
If “living,” as one person puts it, “Bigotry always loses in the end. Losers.”
And yet bigotry is exactly what we Christians and many others are more frequently experiencing from those who purport to hold the higher moral ground (and yet have no rational foundation for their system of relative “morality”), based on what some elites have pushed upon society with all their political and social/media influence.
Perhaps America was destined to be the Utopian Dream, and that, maybe, ‘conservative’ thought is on the wrong side of history.
If you define “conservative” as simply “the way things were done”, then sure. If you use the prior, more logical definition, then no. Whatever they would have said about same-sex marriage, I don’t think the any of the founders would have supported a shift to socialism or communism. In this, at least, I think its reasonable to say that they would be “conservatives”.
America has been a “Utopian dream” for many. It has given opportunities to many millions who would have otherwise not had any. Now we are shifting from opportunities to entitlements, which trumps the former.
As for the wrong side of history: We shall see who and what ends up on the “wrong side of history” on the other side of eternity.
