My whirlwind trip through Europe is now at an end, with my last days being spent in the UK before heading home. While revisiting Europe has been great in so many ways, it has also been quite depressing in other ways. The beauty, charm, history and heritage remain overwhelming, but so much of what made Europe great simply is no more.
What we have today is secular, decadent Europe. It is the first continent on earth to tell God to get lost and to live with the sordid consequences of that decision. Morality in all forms has especially suffered. If Europe today is in many ways a no-God zone, it is also a no-morality zone.
Anything now goes, and the more gross and perverse the better, it seems. Two very recent examples simply can be mentioned here, in addition to hundreds of others. By now you may have heard about the winner of the Europerversion – I mean Eurovision – Song Contest.
It seems the winner was an Austrian bearded drag queen named Conchita Wurst. While the surname may be quite fitting here, it is perhaps to be expected that this is where Europe is headed. It seems to have been a political choice as much as anything, with voters wanting to snub Russia because it has been cracking down on homosexuality of late.
And not much better – indeed, perhaps even worst – was yet another depraved “performance” by resident sleazeball Miley Cyrus. The headline is about all I can share here: “Just when you thought she couldn’t get any more outrageous… Miley Cyrus performs with a giant blow-up penis at London’s G-A-Y”. I will let you explore the pics – if you dare – at the link below.
Homosexuality is of course a big part of the decline of Europe. In many ways it is leading the charge in fact. The activists have pretty much managed to destroy a whole continent, and they are close to knocking off the rest of the West as well.
A new piece on the US homosexual scene by Robert Oscar Lopez could equally be applied to Europe and elsewhere. He does a good job of describing the decadence of “Gays Gone Wild”:
Ever heard of the “Gay ’90s?” The 1890s saw a fin-de-siècle cult of aesthetical excess that allowed promiscuous cads, homosexuals, demimonde solicitors, and pornographers to flourish in wealthy cities like Paris and Chicago, while the poor lived twenty to a room and the masses starved.
Back then, the term “gay” didn’t mean homosexual, but the ties between the two words were already being forged. “Gay” meant devil-may-care, a bit self-indulgent, irreverent, the bon vivant of the party who downs cocktails, engages in forbidden pleasures, and charms his way out of trouble.
The reference point to “gay” was fun tainted by dishonesty and callousness. It is quite appealing, unless you’re Oscar Wilde and society’s backlash catches up with you. “Gay” men were serial bachelors, deadbeat dads, bisexuals, homosexuals, drifters, gamblers, cross-dressers, opium addicts, and circuit boys. In the twentieth century, somehow all these forms of gleeful decadence became reduced to the mere question of homosexuality.
Some homosexuals quite foolishly took it upon themselves to carry on the tradition of perversion and excess by making their subculture ground zero for old patterns of social breakdown. Remember, we aren’t the first ones fooled. We are just the generation that got hoodwinked by this toxic mix when it was packaged as celebrating the wholesome liberation of same-sex love.
This is a lifestyle involving risky and dangerous behaviour:
At every turn, the show must go on. In the face of overwhelming evidence that things are going badly for gay people – there’s HIV, suicides caused by romantic cruelty from other gays, intimate partner violence, eating disorders, high addiction rates, high divorce rates, rampant sexual assault, syphilis, emotional abuse – personal interest stories are trotted out to distract people from unflattering statistics from the Urban Institute, the CDC, and the Department of Justice, while the public is pounded over the head with comparatively unimportant, and in any case shoddy, statistics showing that kids with gay parents get okay grades in school and have acceptable levels of self-esteem. (So it’s okay to rip them away from one of their biological parents forever?)
I was talking to a group of ex-homosexuals in Amsterdam just a few days ago, and they asked me if we can turn things around in Europe. I said things were looking pretty grim at the moment, but I raised the story of Wilberforce and what he faced a few centuries earlier.
He succeeded against all the odds in his war against slavery, and by God’s grace it is possible things on the sexual front can turn around in Europe. With a lot of work, prayer and costly love, it is most certainly possible. And in the meantime, on various fronts, we are seeing some things turning around in Europe.
One recent article offers a glimmer of hope here. It begins:
It has taken a long time, but many people in Europe are finally waking up and are coming to see what kind of spiritual battle is raging. The conflict between the secular worldview and the Christian worldview has finally been realized by an increasing number of people. But even some who are not close to Christianity understand that there are ideological manipulators at work here trying to form the culture in a way that stands contrary to common sense.
These cultural threats include gender-ideology, the promotion of so-called homosexual “marriage,” the early sexualization of children in preschool, contrary to legitimate parental rights, and finally the attempt to turn abortion into a human right through legislation.
The pressure groups and individuals promoting this agenda probably thought it would be easy to bring about, and they have achieved many victories, but those resisting this agenda are getting increasingly well organized. A few months ago on January 19, 40,000 people took to the streets in Paris in order to raise their voices against abortion, euthanasia and other anti-life practices. Further demonstrations have already been planned. The French people became alarmed because the socialist president, F. Hollande, forced on them aggressive anti-life policies. More than one million people have demonstrated on the streets multiple times in order to protest against homosexual “marriage.”
At the same time the Veilleurs, mainly young students and their sympathizers, have given witness to the dignity and beauty of life, despite repressions, through their quiet, peaceful sit-ins in the middle of Paris during the night. In other European countries such as Belgium, Czech Republic and Romania, major pro-life rallies were held successfully.
The piece concludes with these words: “The great Cardinal John Henry Newman used to say: The tide will turn. Yes, that is true. For the truth remains the truth, and the truth is stronger than all lies.” Yes quite right. And it does not take the masses to turn things around. As Alexander Solzhenitsyn put it: “The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. One word of truth outweighs the world.”
So Europe is in many ways one big cesspool. But as long as God is on the throne, and his people champion the truth, anything is possible – even a renewed and revived Europe.
18 Replies to “European Decline, European Renewal”
Good piece, Bill. Living our lives opposite and separate – yet always visible and unashamedly Christian, brings the brightest light to these issues.
The light cannot be snuffed, changed, disguised, muffled, reversed or covered – it will always burn bright – regardless of the twisted course suggested.
It’s like there is no shame anymore and perversions are to be indulged– the more shocking, the better.
On another note, our 2 children who attend the local public high school came home saying that there’s a mufti day tomorrow where they have to wear purple and pay money. This money is to go towards supporting homosexual causes and “diversity”. Nothing has been said by the school about it in writing (of course).
My kids said they are attending in uniform to make it obvious that they don’t support it and won’t be paying and they will say it’s against their religious beliefs.
One of my children sadly said, “Mum, I will miss out on being a prefect for this as the whole school will know I don’t support it and they won’t see me as a fit person to represent the school.”
Please keep this anonymous as I don’t want further repercussions for my children if my name is used.
How many States in the US have now introduced SSM please?
Rather than the safe haven for the gospel it has previously been, Europe has become a bastion of the Marxism it fought against only decades ago. The state has replaced God and one wonders how long it will be before the EU begins to really exert its strength over the people. Of course, they seem at unawares that the equally totalitarian ideology Islam is well into building its own strongholds.
My hope is that the inevitable conflict that arises here will soften the hard ground and the good news will once more sound like good news across Europe. And moreover, that Australia, The US, and company will observe and learn the lesson of Europe before we find ourselves all the way down the same destructive path.
Thanks Dunstan. A number of states have introduced bills for SSM, but only around 14 so far have approved them.
Great article Bill. If only there were more of you!!
The British are too tolerant of all things gay. Even church-going people are now knuckling under and believing that maybe God got it wrong. I won’t attend mine any more and I’ve given my reasons.
Our political parties are utterly devoid of Christianity; sadly, even UKIP, who actually sit on the fence between gay and Christian issues, trying to appease both. They’ve been infiltrated and it won’t be long before their identity merges with the other three….all singing from the same EU hymn-sheet.
It needs a complete destruction of the political systems. They’re all corrupt. I can’t see any alternative. The Lord’s return may be closer than we think.
I don’t believe that Islam will oppose homosexuality in the West. Lord Waheed Ali presiding in the House of Lords is a queer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys3k52L9nJw
And his partner Charlie Parson owns Gaydar a gay dating site where you can bare – backing.
The gay agenda and Islam are running along parallel tracks to destroy the Church and Christian marriage
David Skinner
In regard to the Eurovision winner, two things really struck me:
Firstly, most of the news reports I saw referred to Conchita as a ‘bearded lady’, rather than describing Conchita as a man posing as a woman. As if we can really alter our gender and change who we inherently are.
Secondly, after the win Conchita stated regarding homosexuals that ‘We are unity, and we are unstoppable’. This language steals from the church for who the statement is actually true.
Dear Bill, Thank you for your article and your observations about Europe.
European fashions and trends always end up in Australia but later and we are well on track to catching up.
The trouble is we badly need some outstanding Christian leaders but for the life of me I can’t see any on the horizon.
In regards to the “bearded lady” winner of Eurovision,
The word conchita is regarded as female conception in Spanish. (Some definitions are attached to female genitalia)
The word wurst is of course, sausage in German
Female sausage
So symbolically, “her” name sums up the state of Europe
Man/woman combo as a sexual winner
Bill,
Just a brief note to commend Sid Avery on his perceptive comments re the “bearded lady”, and the “unstoppable” church.
The language of the male poser is the Marxist language of “inevitability”. Such language was used during the Vietnam conflict , eg; “it is an unwinnable war”, to break Western morale. Repeated often enough and unchallenged, it induces apathy and non-resistance in the attacked society, and ONLY thereby becomes a reality.
In contrast, I think the only real “inevitability” is in what God has promised will happen.
One of the things He has promised is that before Him, every mouth will be stopped, eg; Rom. 3:19, and every knee shall bow, Phil 2:10, Isa. 45:23. The “unstoppable” will be stopped completely.
From knowing that, we should gain courage, tempered with Godly humility.
Finally, as I was reading, it occurred to me that in this hostile and depraved world that allegedly values “diversity”, the only authentic diversity is in those who affirm Christ and His character.
A pity that such diversity is rejected and attacked, as the Cause of our diversity (or better still, difference) offers the only way out of the arrogance, bigotry and emptiness that seems to characterise so many of them.
Kind regards,
Robert Greggery.
Homosexuality is merely one of the devil’s tools. Over two centuries ago, James Hutton proposed the idea that geologists could assume that the Earth was shaped by the same processes we see today, over long periods of time, which directly, albeit implicitly, contradicted the biblical account of the flood shaping much of the young Earth’s geology. This idea was taken up and spread by the lawyer Charles Lyell who used it “to free the science from Moses”. By this means, the Bible became more disconnected from the real world in people’s eyes.
Charles Darwin read Lyell, and applied the principles to living things, widening further the disconnect between the Bible and the real world.
As a consequence, by 1949 Oxford curator F. Sherwood Taylor said that “… I myself have little doubt that in England it was geology and the theory of evolution that changed us from a Christian to a pagan nation.”
Pastor Josef Ton, after leaving communist Romania, researched why the church in the west wasn’t stronger. He said “I came to the conclusion that there are two factors which destroyed Christianity in Western Europe. One was the theory of evolution, the other, liberal theology …. Liberal theology is just evolution applied to the Bible and our faith.”
It is in that environment that the homosexuals have been able to wield so much influence.
Homosexuality is of course a big part of the decline of Europe. In many ways it is leading the charge in fact. The activists have pretty much managed to destroy a whole continent, and they are close to knocking off the rest of the West as well.
That’s the “gay agenda” for you. They could have taught the National Socialists a few tricks!
-M
With the way the world is going it won’t be long until the entire world falls into total anarchy and chaos and that is probably what will happen in the last days before Jesus returns.
Islam for the death of the spirit, evolution for the death of the soul and homosexuality for the death of the body, why should they not work together, they all have the same master and the same goal.
But Jesus, the life is at the chore of His creation, He and His word and those clinging to Him can never be destroyed.
Many blessings
Ursula Bennett
We can live in hope as it is never too late for truth, and truly amazing what can be achieved by a small number of committed determined people who will stop at nothing to see that truth come to light.
Also, I’d like to point out that there is a noticeable gap between those that enforce Sharia law upon a populace and those that actual follow sharia law. What is good for the goose is obviously not quite up to scratch for the gander. Interesting to note that Sultan of Brunei is implementing Sharia law for his country and yet he lives the most hedonistic life you could imagine. There are high levels of homosexuality in Turkey, ostensibly a fundamentalist Islamic nation. Just a guess, but I’d say that if anyone was to do some digging the instance of homosexuality amongst prominent Islamics would be a lot higher than expected.
“Unsinkable” and “unstoppable” tend to be gross exaggerations when they come up against the “Unchangeable”.
It seems the winner was an Austrian bearded drag queen named Conchita Wurst. While the surname may be quite fitting here, it is perhaps to be expected that this is where Europe is headed. It seems to have been a political choice as much as anything, with voters wanting to snub Russia because it has been cracking down on homosexuality of late.
Good piece, Bill. Living our lives opposite and separate – yet always visible and unashamedly Christian, brings the brightest light to these issues.
The light cannot be snuffed, changed, disguised, muffled, reversed or covered – it will always burn bright – regardless of the twisted course suggested.
It’s like there is no shame anymore and perversions are to be indulged– the more shocking, the better.
On another note, our 2 children who attend the local public high school came home saying that there’s a mufti day tomorrow where they have to wear purple and pay money. This money is to go towards supporting homosexual causes and “diversity”. Nothing has been said by the school about it in writing (of course).
My kids said they are attending in uniform to make it obvious that they don’t support it and won’t be paying and they will say it’s against their religious beliefs.
One of my children sadly said, “Mum, I will miss out on being a prefect for this as the whole school will know I don’t support it and they won’t see me as a fit person to represent the school.”
Please keep this anonymous as I don’t want further repercussions for my children if my name is used.
How many States in the US have now introduced SSM please?
Rather than the safe haven for the gospel it has previously been, Europe has become a bastion of the Marxism it fought against only decades ago. The state has replaced God and one wonders how long it will be before the EU begins to really exert its strength over the people. Of course, they seem at unawares that the equally totalitarian ideology Islam is well into building its own strongholds.
My hope is that the inevitable conflict that arises here will soften the hard ground and the good news will once more sound like good news across Europe. And moreover, that Australia, The US, and company will observe and learn the lesson of Europe before we find ourselves all the way down the same destructive path.
Thanks Dunstan. A number of states have introduced bills for SSM, but only around 14 so far have approved them.
Great article Bill. If only there were more of you!!
The British are too tolerant of all things gay. Even church-going people are now knuckling under and believing that maybe God got it wrong. I won’t attend mine any more and I’ve given my reasons.
Our political parties are utterly devoid of Christianity; sadly, even UKIP, who actually sit on the fence between gay and Christian issues, trying to appease both. They’ve been infiltrated and it won’t be long before their identity merges with the other three….all singing from the same EU hymn-sheet.
It needs a complete destruction of the political systems. They’re all corrupt. I can’t see any alternative. The Lord’s return may be closer than we think.
I don’t believe that Islam will oppose homosexuality in the West. Lord Waheed Ali presiding in the House of Lords is a queer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys3k52L9nJw
And his partner Charlie Parson owns Gaydar a gay dating site where you can bare – backing.
http://www.gaydar.net/
Pav Akhtar is. or was, responsible for the professional development of 40, 000 teacher in Britain.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTwR5LCem3M
The gay agenda and Islam are running along parallel tracks to destroy the Church and Christian marriage
David Skinner
In regard to the Eurovision winner, two things really struck me:
Firstly, most of the news reports I saw referred to Conchita as a ‘bearded lady’, rather than describing Conchita as a man posing as a woman. As if we can really alter our gender and change who we inherently are.
Secondly, after the win Conchita stated regarding homosexuals that ‘We are unity, and we are unstoppable’. This language steals from the church for who the statement is actually true.
Dear Bill, Thank you for your article and your observations about Europe.
European fashions and trends always end up in Australia but later and we are well on track to catching up.
The trouble is we badly need some outstanding Christian leaders but for the life of me I can’t see any on the horizon.
In regards to the “bearded lady” winner of Eurovision,
The word conchita is regarded as female conception in Spanish. (Some definitions are attached to female genitalia)
The word wurst is of course, sausage in German
Female sausage
So symbolically, “her” name sums up the state of Europe
Man/woman combo as a sexual winner
Bill,
Just a brief note to commend Sid Avery on his perceptive comments re the “bearded lady”, and the “unstoppable” church.
The language of the male poser is the Marxist language of “inevitability”. Such language was used during the Vietnam conflict , eg; “it is an unwinnable war”, to break Western morale. Repeated often enough and unchallenged, it induces apathy and non-resistance in the attacked society, and ONLY thereby becomes a reality.
In contrast, I think the only real “inevitability” is in what God has promised will happen.
One of the things He has promised is that before Him, every mouth will be stopped, eg; Rom. 3:19, and every knee shall bow, Phil 2:10, Isa. 45:23. The “unstoppable” will be stopped completely.
From knowing that, we should gain courage, tempered with Godly humility.
Finally, as I was reading, it occurred to me that in this hostile and depraved world that allegedly values “diversity”, the only authentic diversity is in those who affirm Christ and His character.
A pity that such diversity is rejected and attacked, as the Cause of our diversity (or better still, difference) offers the only way out of the arrogance, bigotry and emptiness that seems to characterise so many of them.
Kind regards,
Robert Greggery.
Homosexuality is merely one of the devil’s tools. Over two centuries ago, James Hutton proposed the idea that geologists could assume that the Earth was shaped by the same processes we see today, over long periods of time, which directly, albeit implicitly, contradicted the biblical account of the flood shaping much of the young Earth’s geology. This idea was taken up and spread by the lawyer Charles Lyell who used it “to free the science from Moses”. By this means, the Bible became more disconnected from the real world in people’s eyes.
Charles Darwin read Lyell, and applied the principles to living things, widening further the disconnect between the Bible and the real world.
As a consequence, by 1949 Oxford curator F. Sherwood Taylor said that “… I myself have little doubt that in England it was geology and the theory of evolution that changed us from a Christian to a pagan nation.”
Pastor Josef Ton, after leaving communist Romania, researched why the church in the west wasn’t stronger. He said “I came to the conclusion that there are two factors which destroyed Christianity in Western Europe. One was the theory of evolution, the other, liberal theology …. Liberal theology is just evolution applied to the Bible and our faith.”
It is in that environment that the homosexuals have been able to wield so much influence.
That’s the “gay agenda” for you. They could have taught the National Socialists a few tricks!
-M
With the way the world is going it won’t be long until the entire world falls into total anarchy and chaos and that is probably what will happen in the last days before Jesus returns.
Islam for the death of the spirit, evolution for the death of the soul and homosexuality for the death of the body, why should they not work together, they all have the same master and the same goal.
But Jesus, the life is at the chore of His creation, He and His word and those clinging to Him can never be destroyed.
Many blessings
Ursula Bennett
We can live in hope as it is never too late for truth, and truly amazing what can be achieved by a small number of committed determined people who will stop at nothing to see that truth come to light.
Also, I’d like to point out that there is a noticeable gap between those that enforce Sharia law upon a populace and those that actual follow sharia law. What is good for the goose is obviously not quite up to scratch for the gander. Interesting to note that Sultan of Brunei is implementing Sharia law for his country and yet he lives the most hedonistic life you could imagine. There are high levels of homosexuality in Turkey, ostensibly a fundamentalist Islamic nation. Just a guess, but I’d say that if anyone was to do some digging the instance of homosexuality amongst prominent Islamics would be a lot higher than expected.
“Unsinkable” and “unstoppable” tend to be gross exaggerations when they come up against the “Unchangeable”.