“THE WHOLE WORLD is divided between … pagan brutality and the Christian ideal. We choose human freedom which is the Christian ideal.”

These words were uttered by Franklin D. Roosevelt on May 27, 1941, as the world was watching Hitler’s forces march across Europe, as well as the increasing aggression of Japan.  Roosevelt framed the conflict as a clash between two opposing worldviews – paganism and Christianity.  This is the main theme of my book Modern Paganism; except the conflict I describe is the modern culture war. 

What makes this quote startling is that Franklin Roosevelt is considered one of the heroes of the Democratic party, basically inaugurating the era of big government.  However, if he were alive today, and were to say something like this, he would be shamed by his own party, as the Democratic party has declared war on just about every Christian value we’ve inherited. 

Roosevelt correctly understood that freedom is part of that heritage, because freedom for all men comes from the idea that all men are equal, which is the radical idea Christianity brought us.  Ancient paganism knew nothing of equality, and modern pagans only believe that people with the ‘right ideas’, or in Hitler’s case, the right race, should be considered equal.  Others should be canceled or worse.   

Much deserved praise has been given to the generation that heroically stormed the beaches of Normandy some eighty years ago.  It took tremendous courage.  Courage for the most part proceeds from the sense of the righteousness of the cause.  The cause becomes more important than life itself.  Then, the cause was freedom, which Roosevelt said then, and we say now, is the “Christian ideal.” 

Many that day lost their lives to defeat the dark forces threatening the freedoms given to them by their Christian heritage.  We today do not have to pay nearly the price they had to pay, nor take the risks they did.  They did so because they were not morally confused.  Neither should we be.  We can have the same courage to refuse to be shamed for our Christian beliefs, to refuse to allow modern pagans indoctrinate our children, and attempt to obliterate our history.  It’s our turn to fight.