U.S. needs to return to a culture that doesn’t lead to sadistic violence and lewdness

OPINION:

The themes of Yom Kippur, which begins Sunday evening, are repentance and forgiveness. Both seem increasingly archaic in a culture that says “It’s not my fault,” “Why should I apologize?” and “Are you trying to shame me?”

There’s an old rabbinic saying: “No man is beyond redemption who can still blush.”

This is a society that doesn’t blush easily.

On Yom Kippur, in the Al Chet prayer, we confess specific sins (“for the sin we have committed before You by disrespect for parents and teachers”) and ask forgiveness. Since it’s a communal prayer, we even take responsibility for sins we didn’t commit, but perhaps could have prevented by speaking out.

But today, nothing is anyone’s fault. If we do something reprehensible, we’re not to blame — unless we’re White, heterosexual and male. Otherwise, it’s our family, society, White supremacy, homophobia, the patriarchy, capitalism, addiction, the availability of guns — you name it.

Conduct from which society used to recoil can now be condoned if the perpetrator is a member of a certified victim group.

Susanna Gibson, a Democratic candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates, livestreamed sex acts with her husband on an adult website and solicited “tips” from viewers.

When exposed, the mother of two played the gender card. Those who reposted the videos had invaded her privacy, Mrs. Gibson charged.

How does someone who performs live sex acts for cold cash define “privacy”?

Mrs. Gibson says Republicans are out to get her because she’s an outspoken woman and abortion access advocate. There we go again, blaming the victim.

Rep. Lauren Boebert, Colorado Republican, was kicked out of a performance of the musical “Beetlejuice” after she and her boyfriend got frisky in a packed Denver theater, among other breaches of etiquette.

The boyfriend owns a nightclub that features drag shows. Ms. Boebert has said such displays can damage adolescent psyches. She did apologize for “falling short” of the values she professes, but she may have had no choice, given that she represents a conservative district.

After former Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump and former Rep. Anthony Weiner, we no longer expect politicians to be models of propriety. But Mrs. Gibson’s case raises an intriguing question: Are there any limits on the behavior of those seeking public office? Perhaps she’ll perform on stage at the next candidates night.

Freud told us that shame is unhealthy and we should embrace our urges, lest — God forbid — we give ourselves a guilt complex. People are urged to “own” their emotions. It might be better if some disowned their emotions, or at least kept them under wraps.

The decline of faith is at the root of a tidal wave of immorality, criminality and plain old bad behavior. A sense of guilt comes from recognition that our actions have offended God and man.

Without the guidance of religion, morality is laissez faire. If you think abortion is wrong, don’t get an abortion. If you think X-rated performances are degenerate, don’t engage in them. But don’t tell me what to do.

Language is sanitized to be as nonjudgmental as possible.

The people we used to call bums or vagrants are now the sainted homeless. All those who have entered the country illegally are asylum-seekers. Prostitutes are sex workers. Addicts “abuse drugs.” And criminals are “persons involved with the law.”

All of this adds to society’s misery index.

In 2020, many Democrats condoned the George Floyd riots — including arson, looting, assault and murder — in the name of protesting racism.

Today we have flash mobs, women being brutalized in the streets, and prosecutors who refuse to charge all but the most heinous offenses.

In Las Vegas last week, a retired police chief who was out bicycling was run down and killed by teens in a car, a crime recorded on a phone. One passenger is heard telling the driver, “Yeah, hit his ass.”

At the Patriots’ Gillette Stadium in Boston, in the course of a melee, a man was punched twice in the head, which may have led to his death. Apparently, he did nothing to provoke the attack but wear the wrong jersey.

This is what a world without an understanding of sin or an acceptance of the need to repent looks like.

Yom Kippur is about admitting our faults and seeking forgiveness. In Judaism, to repent is to do “teshuvah” — literally, to return.

Our society desperately needs to return to a culture that doesn’t lead to acts of sadistic violence and livestreamed lewdness.

• Don Feder is a columnist with The Washington Times.