A modest suggestion: the Christian Republic of America!

Since the rise of the Taliban, al-Qaeda and ISIS, and the beginning of the Gulf Wars, American presidents have routinely told the sheeple that the jihadis are trying to kill us because they hate us. Why so? Democratic presidents say it's because the USA has freedom and democracy and equal rights for wimmin and gays and vizmins, yada yada yada. Republicans say it's because the camel jockeys are jealous of America's wealth, high standard of living, freedom and democracy, yada yada yada.

There is some truth in all of that, but the real reason why the Islamic terrorists are so devout, so strong in their Muslim faith that they're willing to die for it -- never mind about the 72 virgins -- goes deeper than that. It has to do with Islamic values, in which they believe, as contrasted with Christian values, which we say we believe, but really don't.

I was thinking about that on Sunday when Father Duffy was preaching a good Lenten homily about turning away from sin and turning back to the Gospel. (That's what priests in the mainstream Church say nowadays when they make the Sign of the Cross on your forehead with ashes. What ever happened to "Remember man ["person"? Ed.] that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return!" But I digress...)

I confess that my mind wandered a bit from what the good Father was saying to a passage I read in The State of Africa, by Martin Meredith (rev. 2011, Simon & Schuster), a worthwhile analysis of how the Dark Continent (including, in this case, the Arab north) came to be in its present parlous state. In Chapter 25 [It's not a short book. Ed.], "In the Name of the Prophet", the author introduces readers to Sayyid Qutb, "an Egyptian intellectual-activist whose writings influenced generations of radical Islamists.

"Once an admirer of the West and Western literature, he...turned into a formidable critic as a result of a two-year stay in the United States in the late 1940s, appalled by what he saw as its moral decadence, its materialism, racism and sexual depravity. Returning to Egypt in 1951, he became a leading figure in the Muslim Brotherhood...."

"Moral decadence, materialism, racism and sexual depravity." Indeed. And that was in the 1940s! Before the hippy-dippy `60s, when, IMHO, our Western society really began to fall apart. Those things -- particularly moral decadence and sexual depravity -- are all contrary to the values and principles of life taught by Our Lord Jesus Christ and enjoined by His Church. Yet today, those are hallmarks of our so-called Christian society.

Sayyid Qutb became one of the leading voices of the Islamic revolution, calling for the establishment, by force if necessary, of a pan-Arab theocratic state -- an Islamic republic -- in which the evils of Western society would be rejected and a society established which would be run according to the strict Islamic principles of Sharia law.

A theocratic state, like today's Islamic Republic of Iran, in which the Seven Deadly Sins are punished not just in the next world but here on earth. What would it be like, I thought, if the Ten Commandments were strictly followed in Western society. If, say, people had their  hands cut off for stealing or were stoned to death for adultery, as they sometimes are under Sharia Law.

The thought made me cringe. Here in the "Christian West" we can do what we want. We can make all the graven images we want. Or commit "serial monogamy", which is really just adultery licensed by the state. Or kill millions of innocent children and be paid by the state for doing it. Or perform every kind of what used to be called "unnatural acts".

The state doesn't care. The mainstream Church herself has pretty much stopped preaching against these sins, because... well... "everybody's doing it". Those bemoaning the fact that our Western society has "lost its moral compass" might well consider the alternative presented by Islam -- a theocracy, a confessional state with a state religion and strict laws against all those things which we know are wrong but tolerate in ourselves and others because we don't want to appear old-fashioned and (horror of horrors) religious!

How about establishing "the Christian Republic of America"? That's my brilliant idea for a better society:"One nation under God." Oh... wait... Really??? But I didn't think it would look like this!

Recommended reading: Freedom Under God, by Ven. Fulton J. Sheen, republished 2013 by Economic Justice Media. For "Communism", against which Msgr. Sheen was arguing, substitute "Islamism". Click here to read the Goodreads review. Key thought: Individual life as well as marriage and the family are also in grave danger as the State continues to expand its power to fill the vacuum left by the growing powerlessness of ordinary people.