The Restorationist Rebellion

(Excerpts from an article written by a 17-year-old.  Full article here)

Evil does not shock anyone anymore. The world does not gasp in dismay as Britney Spears discards another article of clothing. People do not recoil in shocked disbelief as an Eminem song pollutes the airwaves. Polite society does not cross to the other side of the street as Madonna walks by. The filth that spews daily from television barely provokes a shrug. Those clinging to morality may be saddened and sickened, but not shocked.

Degeneracy as a form of rebellion is trite today. We have not changed the definition of rebellion in 25 years. My generation tries hard to be edgy and rebellious, but they encounter difficulty when Mom and Dad are being rebellious in the exact same way using the exact same methods. Degenerate rock music is so integrated into the culture that grocery stores play it — can it still be described as revolutionary or counterculture? Men with long hair were a staple of the hippie generation. Today, this look is associated both with aspiring rebels on college campuses and portly middle-aged motorcyclists who grow a braid down their backs to disguise the paucity of hair on top. Look through your parent’s college yearbook at those hopeful little rebels. You will find their duplicates at a high school near you, still idealistically convinced that they can shock a jaded world. Glance through headlines from 1973; talk to a parent and discover that immorality, premarital sex, and partying are assimilated parts of the culture rather than venues of rebellion.

A growing number of young people are discovering the thrill of breaking out of society’s mold. “Counterculture” might be an apt term, but the enemies of freedom and decency grabbed the term first, so perhaps “counter-immorality” or “restorationism” is descriptive. We, a small but growing minority, spurn the conventional trappings of our generation. Not for us the multiple piercings of our peers. We disregard our relatives’ stares of disbelief as we purchase season tickets to the symphony. We ignore the public prating about “safe” sex and resolutely maintain our chastity.

Restorationists did not spring from nowhere. Many of us graduated as homeschoolers; we are the products of parents who finally rebelled against their generation’s lifestyle. Rather than be exposed to the routine and formulaic depravity promoted as the only lifestyle choice by “conventional” teachers in public schools, we explored unconventional education. Restorationists have developed the desire to break away from our generation. Homeschoolers in particular desire a lifestyle in defiance of the current mores. We are attracted to our grandparents’ standards of morality, and we reject the lifestyle of our parents’ generation.

Our parents, the baby boomers, began and ended as pawns of the establishment they rebelled against. They were sacrificed to manipulators who used them to overturn moral standards. Many explored alternative lifestyles, which led to broken homes, disease, and general unhappiness. Those formerly idealistic hippies who did not die young from drugs or disease became cynical and pragmatic. Again they played into the enemy’s hands with their indifference — “it’s the economy, stupid!” became their rallying cry. Their wives were sent to work, their children languished in day care, and they drove shiny cars, bought big houses, and played with increasingly expensive toys. They believed they were prosperous, as they increased their credit card debt. A few of them agitate on the far left, a few reject the generation’s lifestyle and have migrated to the right, but most of the baby boomers do not want to learn anything that will rock their solid, slightly-left-of-center position.

A counterculture teen may differ from his peers in his tastes, but a restorationist is much more than a person who despises decadent music, piercing, and obscene clothing. Restorationists are primarily defined by an unshakeable passionate resolve. Our values are not mere intellectual ideals. Our resolve consists of an ardent zeal united with a strong character that motivates us to act on our beliefs. Because we believe in God, we are resolved that we will maintain our life of virtue despite the temporary pleasures we may sacrifice. Because we believe in family, we are resolved that we will maintain a single-income, home-educated household despite the resultant economic hardships. Because we believe in our country, we are resolved that we will uphold the Constitution and work to restore it, despite the sacrifice we make in time and effort.

We are only rebels in the tongue-in-cheek sense. We rebel only as we reject the typical norms of our culture. We do not seek to topple society, as the term counterculture originally implied; we only seek to protect ourselves from the ill effects of current culture. We do not demand that our peers conform to our ways, and we do not conform to their ways. We desire to change people’s minds and hearts, because our “rebellion” is so dramatically superior to the same-old, same-old patterns of immorality. Numbers of thinking people are rejecting their Dark Ages upbringing and joining this new Renaissance of virtue. There are already signs that our numbers are growing. Someday we will be numerous enough that magnificent decency will be the norm and evil will be shocking again.

Posted by jonjayray on Sunday, April 3, 2005 at 04:18 PM in Social Conservatism
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