I’m not one who jumps on the bandwagon when it comes to predicting the end of the world. The authority on the subject has already stated that we will not know the day or the hour and that it will come like a thief in the night. Considering the source, that’s good enough for me.

But, if I were a betting man trying to read something into the tea leaves of the times, I’d say the fact that a video game called “Rapelay” actually exists is as good a sign as any of the end times. Rapelay is available online for download. Once a gamer has it on his home machine, he can simulate boarding a train, groping school girls, and then raping them in front of their mothers. To solidify the effect that this is a sexual assault, the school girl rape victims even stutter in agony with lines like, “I w-w-want to die.”

Not hideous enough yet? The makers of Rapelay were way ahead of the game, anticipating a society growing more desensitized to moral outrages. The gamer can follow up his rape by simulating the taking of post-rape photos and the keeping of a scrapbook. More advanced gamers are able to take their depravity to the next level by sexually enslaving the school girls, eventually transforming them into willing and eager carnal servants. Finally, for a diabolical icing on the cake, your digital rapist may only stay alive by making sure to procure abortions for his rape victims.

The fruits of the sexual revolution have long past ripened and are now in full-on decay. You don’t have to look far and wide to see the rot and catch a whiff of the stench. When true evil starts to inexorably inch toward the status of entertainment, or a joke, or a situation for the line, “Aw, lighten up, it’s only a game,” then we are, as a culture, well on the road to putting the debaucheries of the late Roman Empire to shame. And, suffer we will for that.

Continuously I am reminded by one news story or another that politics is like an upper layer of a multi-layered wedding cake. The bottom layer though, supporting the whole cake, is the culture. If you lose the cultural element of this war, then you’ve lost the whole damn war, and the wedding cake will be one giant nuptial pastry celebrating our marriage to the devil.

If I may offer a new and updated Rules for Radicals, it would stress the value of family and children. Those who unabashedly love God, their spouse, and want very much to be blessed with many, many children, over and above the pursuit of career, material possessions, entertainments/leisure, money/financial security, et al are the real radicals, bravely and under great oppression swimming against the riptide current of modern culture. These simple moms and dads are frontline cultural warriors. On the other hand, the various progressives and self-proclaimed radicals, who trash marriage, consider sex as hobby/pleasure, and view children as punishments, are about as unique as a single blade of grass on an expansive, acres-sized lawn. To them I say, “Yawn.”

Some may argue that I’m overstating the significance of Rapelay. They will try to make the case that debauchery has not increased in our age. It’s only become more available due to technology, especially the Internet. The same group of people, who used to have to endure the embarrassment of ordering brown paper wrapped magazines stacked behind a cashier, can now view the same material online. The level of debauchery is no different, only the means of delivery have changed.

To them I say, “Bah!” Technology has its wonders and I’m a grateful user myself, but its sordid side has captured the imaginations of many who otherwise would have occupied themselves with something of a more benign nature. Sex as pure leisure and the comprehensive sexualization of the culture from children’s toys (e.g. Bratz Dolls) to the checkout line at the local supermarket (just look at the magazine covers . . . I should push for a G-rated checkout line) has certainly added to making our culture more selfish, more hedonistic, and more expecting of entitlements.  Why? Because sex is an integral part of marriage, that’s why. Ripping it from the context of traditional marriage and family (i.e. children) makes us, as a culture, a lot less likely to be able to keep commitments and recognize/value honor. What you are left with is a bunch of copulating baboons . . . poor old Darwin never figured that evolution could work in the opposite direction, at least morally speaking.

So to my fellow religiously minded conservatives, I say grab you powder and your guns. There’s a culture war on. There has always been a culture war on. But now, we are the ones on the field of battle. Your guns are your defense of marriage/family with neighbor, relative, coworker, and congressman. Your Purple Hearts are the ridicule you will probably endure for being a religious person in word and deed for all seven days of the week; you may walk away the brunt of jokes, but you know not what seeds you may have planted. Your medals of bravery are the sacrifices you make to raise a family . . . a big family . . . where God comes first, family second, and everything else third and less. Rapelay is a grotesque reminder that what you are doing is not secondary and trivial. It’s the most important thing you can ever do in this short life of ours.

Source for information on Rapelay: Salon.com