I think the most telling thing about General John Kelly's press briefing last week was when he lamented the things no longer held "sacred" in our country today.  When speaking of American soldiers dying on the battlefield, General Kelly rightly declared:

And I thought at least that was sacred. You know, when I was a kid growing up, a lot of things were sacred in our country. Women were sacred, looked upon with great honor. That's obviously not the case anymore as we see from recent cases. Life – the dignity of life – is sacred. That's gone. Religion, that seems to be gone as well.

Gold Star families, I think that left in the convention over the summer. But I just thought – the selfless devotion that brings a man or woman to die on the battlefield, I just thought that that might be sacred.

The secular usage of "sacred" is derived from its religious meaning.  In Scripture, something sacred was something "set apart" or "holy" – something like God and apart from the world (or the "profane").  "Sacred" in the secular sense – the usage employed by General Kelly – simply means highly valued, or important, or held in high esteem.  As General Kelly implies, you can tell much about a person by what he rejects as sacred.

Women, life, religion, marriage, family, hard work, the military, et al. are no longer widely held sacred in American culture because the values that demand such have largely been abandoned and attacked by the modern left.  Rejecting the laws of the Lawgiver, the left long ago decided that it was time for human beings to write their own rules and decide for themselves what is and is not "sacred."

Especially targeted are any values deemed "Christian."  Never mind the actual words and deeds of the Founding Fathers, and the words and deeds of the early Americans who actually lived in that era – references to God and His Word in the public square have been under assault in the U.S. for generations.  Hollywood, the mainstream news media, and the kindergarten-through-university government school system in the U.S. at least ignores, and more often mocks, what is truly sacred.

Entertained by the vulgar, informed by the ignorant, and educated from a godless Darwinian worldview, it should come as little surprise that tens of millions of Americans have little to no idea what is supposed to be sacred.  How can a culture that's been taught to slaughter – or at least support the slaughter of – the most helpless and innocent among us expect to honor those who've made the ultimate sacrifice on the battlefield?  What can a foolish clown of a woman who has long reliably supported "sacrificing" an unborn child in the selfish name of "choice" know about real sacrifice?

What can those who kneel for a lie understand about truth and justice?  How can we trust those who have waged a relentless war on the oldest and most sacred of all human institutions to grasp what is truly holy, healthy, and good for humanity?  How can we trust the precious fourth estate to individuals who rarely hesitate to lie and distort in order to keep those of like mind in power?  How can we expect those who peddle goods for votes in order to maintain power to serve sacrificially and keep the nation's best interests at heart?

Even more revealing than what one rejects as sacred are the things a person holds sacred.  To find out what is sacred among today's liberals, look no farther than the "deeds of the flesh."  Whether supporting and promoting fornication, pornography, homosexuality, transgenderism – and virtually any item from the sick LGBT agenda; whether killing children in the womb and demanding that employers pay for such; whether waging war on the family, and – through judicial fiat and, again, with little to no regard for the lives of children – redefining the oldest institution in the history of humanity, the left has abandoned truth and taken the profane and made it "sacred."

If you want to find out just how sacred, take a public stand against what is "set apart" by the left, or refuse to allow your business to participate in what used to be deemed perversion, or speak out – or attempt to speak out – on a college campus against modern liberalism.  Do so, and you might just face violence or massive fines, lose your job, lose your business, and so on.

In addition to undoing the work of our founders – often "interpreting" the U.S. Constitution beyond recognition –  for decades, the Democratic Party has worked hard to ensure that Americans be governed according to what modern liberals hold as "sacred."  Aided and abetted by the efforts of their like-minded allies in the media and academia, through the courts, Congress, and the White House, American Democrats have given legal legitimacy and political cover to the profane.

Unable to take comfort in or direction from any righteous power beyond this world, political power has been the dominant instrument by which today's leftists have forced those unwilling into acquiescing to sacred leftist dogma.  Whether a minority or a majority, American leftists have been able to implement their agenda.  While constantly lamenting the "legislation of morality," liberals have forced (especially through the courts) their immorality upon hundreds of millions of unwilling Americans.  Thus, along with the pleasures of the flesh, political power is of utmost importance to contemporary leftists.

C.S. Lewis was right.  In the end, there are only two kinds of people: "those who say to God, 'Thy will be done,' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'Thy will be done.'"  To find out in which camp an individual currently resides, look at the things he finds sacred.

Trevor Grant Thomas: At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor is the author of the The Miracle and Magnificence of America.
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com