Message to America
Dysfunction Within, Problems In The West
By Tommy Garrett
Sep 18, 2011 - 10:34:56 PM

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Ask yourself what a dysfunctional family does when questioned or subjected to questioning? Just take a look at Dr. Phil’s exclusive interview with George and Cindy Anthony, and the answer is right in front of you. Dysfunctional families never look inside their own four walls for the answer to their problems. Not only do not look outside of their own dysfunctional unit to find solutions, but they most often don’t even find the problems exist within their family at all, they always have fingers wagging and pointing at everyone else for why there is any turmoil within the familial unit. America and the West suffer from the same problems that plague so many dysfunctional households in human history.

Within the past decade Americans have searched to the East to find the fault with the world. Yes, there are plenty of problems in the East, especially within the Islamic and Arab world. From utter dysfunction to dictatorships and Al Qaeda, the Islamic world is filled with strife, blame and downright disastrous plans to fight for what they believe is freedom from their oppressors; Israel and the United States. Ask the British what the 20^th Century felt like to them. Like the Israelis, they were attacked constantly by Ireland, while they listened on in horror as American politicians and the American people said, “Well, Ireland is just fighting for its independence.” Sure, they were, but they used terror to do so, and we disguised it as freedom fighting in our political discourse and by the American media. We never call a problem within our borders or within our western culture what it actually is. We seek to excuse it away and say, “Those other people are so much worse than we are.”

Ask a person whose house burns down whether they feel any more or less homeless or empty as the person whose house was flooded during Hurricane Irene, which recently hit the east coast. The answer is a simple, no. Pain, emptiness and despair are universal. We all bleed when cut.

That being said, we in the U.S. like to argue how the Islamic world lacks any empathy for women and children. Those who make that argument, and I often do myself, are correct. However, just because the Vatican is much prettier, filled with our own religious history, and the Pope wears vestments we find a bit more attractive than a head scarf or turban, does not mean that the evils within the walls of The Holy See are any less detrimental to our society than the Saudi Arabian scourge (Mecca) is toward women and children in the East.

Last week, the Vatican and Pope Benedict were sued by victims of sexual abuse in an international court for alleged crimes against humanity. The Hague is probably the only place where such a case could receive any level of fairness. Even though the political right in the U.S. hates any international body, and has such disdain and hatred for it, that they feel nothing but isolationism within their own hearts and minds. We forget that this very view of isolationist caused two world wars and countless other acts of genocide and plight on weaker nations around the world, until the League of Nations and then later the United Nations were created. No, that does not mean that the United Nations is perfect. Far from it, but so are we.

In our country our efforts in the realm of religious freedoms, has created a pedophile sect originating from the Mormon Church in the nation’s Southwest, and a very deviant lifestyle by many Catholic priests due to the absolute power the Vatican has held over its flock, yes, you and me. Is what the Taliban and the Arab world are doing to women and children any less painful or more painful than a child within the Catholic Church being violated? Our children still feel the isolation, loneliness and despair as those people in power abuse them, not once, but sometimes even after they report it to the proper authorities. Priests have been trafficked like mafia dons across state lines and in some cases, when the law enforcement was close to seeking justice, the Roman Catholic Church itself has invited the prodigal priest to live within the nation that exists called the Vatican, and those priests and bishops and yes, even cardinals have been protected from the justice system in the U.S. and Europe we all claim to value so much. However it takes cases in the legal system such as, O.J. Simpson and Casey Anthony being acquitted of alleged murders before we find any outrage within ourselves. And God forbid any Muslim commit a crime, then our moral authority kicks into overdrive.

Why do we not have the same outrage from within? Why do we not see that children need to be protected in our own society just as they do in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Syria? The pedophile priests scandal has gone from the front pages to the back pages of newspapers around the nation. Our outrage is palpable whenever we feel anyone outside of our nation attacks us. That is just and right. However, our righteous indignation should also be evident to others around the world when our own culture, religious powers and morality is being destroyed or attacked from within as well. Teddy Roosevelt once said of the United States, “That we should speak softly and carry a big stick!” That, of course, was strongly ignored during the Bush Administration in the U.S. However, President Roosevelt meant in his famous statement, not just in a military sense, but also to seek solutions for our own domestic problems, not just to preach across continents to others who we differ with. Or maybe your grandmother told you what mine taught me, To clean your own house before judging someone else’s.

Wouldn’t America be a better place if we could start working on ourselves, solving our own problems and looking at our own society’s ills for what they are, and to stop looking at the rest of the world as our enemies and inferiors? On the latest lawsuit against the Pope and the Vatican. In typical legal fashion, not withstanding the right or moral thing to do or say in response to being sued. This is what the Vatican officially said in reaction to a lawsuit filed by victims of alleged pedophilia, that should shame every Catholic leader around the world. “No comment.” The Vatican would definitely not have the same statement or lack of statement if anyone offered the morning after pill to a raped woman in Afghanistan or in Iraq. Isn’t it amazing how moral authority is thrown out the proverbial window when the scandal and the immorality is within, not outside?

Please pray for all the American troops and our allies in Afghanistan and Iraq, who are fighting for our rights as well as those of the free world. May our troops return home soon and safely. Godspeed.