Over two years ago, Syria was a relatively stable nation and Damascus, its capital (the world?s oldest continually inhabited city), was a stable city with a mixture of Christians and Muslims who lived reasonably well together. Since 1973, Syria and Israel had agreed to tolerate one another and the result was a stable border along the Golan Heights. Much of this stability was due to the brutal rule of the Assad family, an Alawite clan family that has ruled Syria since 1970. . . But that Syria no longer exists.

Twenty-five years ago, same-sex marriage was a ?thought experiment? in our culture. It was an idea promoted primarily by those on the left and other cultural radicals who saw few boundaries to personal freedom and behavior. But as the gay and lesbian movement re-framed human sexuality as a matter of personal freedom and liberty, not ethics, legitimizing same-sex marriage was not far behind. It was only 17 years ago that Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) decisively. Only a year ago, President Obama still opposed same-sex marriage. But, today, all the national momentum is behind same-sex marriage. It is now legal in nine states and the District of Columbia. . . .In effect, the definition of marriage is now on the line and legitimizing same-sex marriage seems imminent. How should we think about this momentous set of developments?

Almost exactly fifty years ago, Betty Friedan published her bombshell, The Feminine Mystique, which argued, among other things, that traditional gender roles had compartmentalized women as homemakers?both their and culture?s detriment. Arguably, Friedan?s book was the manifesto of the feminist revolution. Laws and cultural norms changed as equal treatment of and more professional opportunities for women increased. Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, has just published Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead. . . Permit me a few thoughts on this important book, for it says much about where our culture is and how our culture continues to process basic gender differences.

The conclave to choose the new Bishop of Rome, also known as the pope, is complete. The 115 cardinals in the conclave chose Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the 266th pontiff of the Church and the first non-European pope in 1,200 years. He chose the name Francis, after Francis of Assisi, the founder of the Franciscan order?the first pope known as Francis. Pope Francis is also the first pope chosen from Latin America and he is also the first Jesuit ever chosen as pope. Who is Pope Francis and what are the challenges facing the Roman Catholic Church?

Over the last few years, we have been bombarded with apocalyptic phrases such as ?fiscal cliff,? ?sequestration,? ?entitlement cliff,? and the persistent debt ceiling crisis. All of these are real issues and reflect the unwillingness of our governmental leaders to address the serious financial condition of America. But a recent article in the Wall Street Journal by Jonathan V. Last summarizes an even deeper crisis, one that captures one of the real causes of our nation?s financial crisis: A serious demographic cliff?the declining fertility rate in the United States. [The fertility rate is the number of children an average woman bears over the course of her life.] The fertility replacement rate is 2.1. Therefore, if the average woman has more children than that, the population grows; fewer children and it contracts.

There is a resistance in some parts of our culture to the idea of American exceptionalism: The conviction that America has developed differently than say Western Europe. Our political and our economic system is different than Europe?and intentionally so. Because America rejected the idea of a state church, the prolific religious pluralism of America has also influenced how it has developed as a civilization. America is different from Western Europe and much of this difference results from choices we have made as a civilization.

As I have mentioned several times on Issues in Perspective, words are important. Hence, the actual words one uses in framing a particular ethical issue are quite crucial. But, without any agreed upon set of ethical absolutes, a clever, even devious person (or organization) can use words to completely reshape an ethical issue so that people willingly embrace something they once held to be abhorrent. In other words, what was once unthinkable becomes debatable and gradually becomes acceptable . . . This clever, deceptive process is very much at work in American civilization today. And, as I stated, if there is no agreed upon set of ethical absolutes, there is nothing to stop this process of reshaping and reframing ethical issues. Permit me to present two examples.

Few would doubt that one of the publishing sensations of 2012 was The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn, senior pastor of Jerusalem/Beth Israel Worship Center in Wayne, New Jersey. A messianic Jewish congregation, Cahn?s church is probably the largest such congregation in America. Set in a fictional narrative framework, The Harbinger centers on a set of nine small clay discs (called ?seals?) which, the book argues, are from eighth century BC Israel and are directly connected with Isaiah 9:10: ?The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with hewn stones; the sycamores are cut down, but we will replace them with cedars.?

That young men and even young boys are confused about who they are, what is acceptable behavior for them and what exactly it means to be an adult male is now a given in American culture. This confusion is an unintended consequence of the feminist revolution in our culture, and two authors have been documenting this crisis for several years now. They are making a compelling case that American culture is failing its boys and that the impact of this failure is devastating. Let me explain.

The cultural left?s strategy on human sexuality is shifting?and it seems to be working. In the 1970s and 1980s, the cultural left, perhaps learning a lesson from the pro-abortion forces, began to wrap any discussion of sexuality around the treasured cover of rights, freedom and liberty. As abortion is a guaranteed right, so is being a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender person. Therefore, the government, the church, the broader culture or any religious conviction cannot suppress or deny such sexual expression. In terms of sexual activity, the only cultural prohibition seems to be rape and pedophilia; virtually everything else is permissible and acceptable.