IMHO: This is the most predominant reason for leaving Santa Barbara, PERIOD!
Being a white conservative Christian, Republican in Santa Barbara is parallel to being a black man trying to eat at a white only lunch counter in Selma AL in the 60’s. Any opinion or life style opposed to the openly liberal or gay community is irrelevant and shunned. Silence was expected and no discussion of other opinions so as to not offend their sensitivities. Santa Barbara was and is still naturally beautiful but the spirit of wickedness paints the city with darkness!
My reply to Mr. Smythe and Mr. Campbell on the "Moral Collapse" of the State of CALI and of Santa Barbara County and almost every other CALI County.
It is the Corruption of the entire State that is the ISSUE and crime of the CALI Leaders>
"When most people think of moral collapse, they picture places like Los Angeles or San Francisco. They picture open-air drug markets. Crime. Chaos. Lawlessness. Broken streets. Broken culture."
Look at the pervasive Corruption in Contra Costa County exactly as in Santa Barbara and the FBI just raided the Contra County Assessor SOUND FAMILIAR it should>
Wall Street Apes on X: "FBI raids and executed 3 search warrants at the Contra Costa County Assessor’s Office in California It was found The Assessor’s Office handled property valuations for taxes across 380,000 parcels and was full of corruption. They made improper assessments, favoritism and inside https://t.co/v2L3wPslUM" / X
Summer on X: "@WallStreetApes @Lauren_Chris This is exactly the kind of local Democrat corruption that’s been rotting California for years. Improper property tax assessments, favoritism for connected people, and even a $1 million sexual harassment payoff — all while regular homeowners get screwed on their taxes. FBI raids" / X
FBI Busts Corrupt Law Enforcement in Contra Costa County California | Tully & Weiss Attorneys at Law
District Attorney Diana Becton’s Statement on Police Corruption Cases
Judge: Federal bribery case against Contra Costa County homebuilders to proceed to trial in 2027
Former Contra Costa County Sheriff's Deputy Sentenced to Prison | Danville, CA Patch
Attack on Corruption: ‘Contra Costa County Three Judge Recall’ Launched by Parents - California Political Review
Brian thank you for writing this article. I know you will get some flack for it but you have hit the very reasons for our counties decline. We can point fingers here and there or we can just move, neither of which is a solution.
This is the territory each of us has had entrusted to our care. Regardless of someone’s stance or beliefs, if we just apply some basic moral applications, like law enforcement and guidelines of our constitution we will be so much better off and hey if we will take some time to to read and understand our rights given to us through our Constitution we will become an empowered people instead of victims.
Though it may be slow coming I am beginning to see a rising up, not one of violence or rebellion, but an awakening from a deep slumber. “We the people” realizing, if I don’t protect whats mine “they” are going to take it.
You mean like the “moral clarity” poster? That’s as hypocritical as “party of the people “ while they continue to support the humanitarian crisis of homelessness. Equating those sleeping in the side of the freeway, foaming through trash fir food in the same category as the snowy plover. Free range homeless. Let them exist in their “natural habitat “ do not interfere with them.
Or how about planned murder. I mean planned parenthood that has no mention of being a parent but lots of abortion rhetoric.
Science says life begins at fertilization. Look it up.
As a LIFE-LONG Santa Barbarian, I have never read about so much crime taking place as it has been here recently ! Shootings, stabbings, robberies..were an anomaly. Now, it's almost daily.
You love a good cinematic narrative, don't you? You've painted a dramatic picture of a country sliding into decay, using Santa Barbara’s arrest rates as a spooky warning sign and offering up religious nationalism as the magical cure. But once you scratch past that shiny rhetoric, your argument falls completely flat. It's packed with bad history, statistical gymnastics, and a honestly mind-boggling double standard. Let's break down exactly why your thesis falls apart.
1. You warn your readers not to "ignore history," but then you serve up a totally white-washed, selective version of it. You pull quotes from George Washington and John Adams to imply America was built as a Christian state. Sure, individual founders had faith, but they deliberately built a strictly secular republic. Read the Constitution again—carefully. It doesn't mention Jesus, Christianity, or God even once. Its only religious callouts are exclusionary: Article VI explicitly bans religious tests for public office, and the First Amendment drops a hard boundary forbidding the government from establishing a state religion. If you want to know what the Founders actually intended legally, look at the Treaty of Tripoli. George Washington started it and John Adams signed it into law in 1797. Article 11 states it bluntly: "As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." The Founders watched centuries of bloody European wars sparked by state-mandated religion. They built a secular wall for a reason: to keep the government out of the church and to keep church politics from corrupting the state.
2. Blaming Santa Barbara County’s juvenile arrest rates on a study calling the region "post-Christian" is a classic logic fail. It’s the old post hoc ergo propter hoc trap—assuming that because two things exist at the same time, one caused the other. Crime rates don't care about church attendance; they're driven by complex, well-documented realities like local policing budgets, enforcement strategies, and deep economic gaps hidden behind wealthy zip codes. Claiming a teenager got busted because his neighbors skipped Sunday service is statistically baseless. You also lean heavily on political dog whistles. You take a swipe at California for "subsidizing illegal immigration," turning vulnerable migrants into a convenient moral scapegoat. By insisting American identity is strictly "biblical," you basically relegate millions of Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, and secular citizens to second-class status. That's not patriotism; it's erasing the exact pluralism that makes this country function.
3. The most hypocritical part of your piece is your glowing praise of Donald Trump as a champion of "faith, prayer, and trust in Almighty God." You wonder why a president speaks more boldly about God than modern churches do. Come on. It’s not because he’s a devout man; it’s because he knows exactly how to weaponize religious nostalgia for personal power and cash. You lecture your audience about "moral absolutes," but you totally sanitize the track record of your chosen spiritual hero. You act like Trump is a beacon of righteousness while ignoring that a federal jury found him civilly liable for sexual abuse and defamation against E. Jean Carroll. Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan even noted the jury's findings fit the common understanding of rape. Treating him as a moral standard is an insult to abuse survivors everywhere. Furthermore, his well-documented, decades-long social ties to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein completely wreck the illusion that he protects the vulnerable or cares about biblical ethics. This isn't a holy awakening; it's a business transaction. Trump literally prints and sells $60 "God Bless the USA" Bibles—which were actually printed in China—for personal profit and campaign branding. Whether you're just terrified of cultural change or you're cynically manipulating your readers, you've chosen to blink away a blatant disregard for humility, marital fidelity, and truthfulness. You're falling for hollow words just because they sound nice.
You closed your essay by quoting Mark 7:9, where Jesus rips into religious leaders for rejecting the commandment of God to keep their own tradition. You might want to look in the mirror on that one. By using the Christian faith to prop up a leader who systematically violates its most basic moral rules, you’re doing exactly what that verse warns against. You’ve traded actual virtue for partisan idolatry, using the language of God to chase raw political power. True moral collapse doesn't just look like San Francisco or Santa Barbara. Sometimes, it looks like a writer tossing their own religious principles into the trash just to support a political candidate. It's ironic that you fear progressive values, because the entire principle of modern progressivism is built on the very things you claim to miss: the simple idea of live and let live, the command to truly love thy neighbor without judgment, and the responsibility to care for the earth we all share. If you’re looking for a "moral anchor," you might find it there—in empathy and kindness—rather than in a political strongman selling bibles.
Your article is 100% spot on and I totally agree. Unfortunately many people will not think so. I can say this, the church I go to is not one of the ones you talked about. Southcoast Church talks about God and all of this regularly. Pastor Rino definitely has his hand on the pulse and some people do not like it BUT they do not like truth either. Thanks for a great article even though it is sad but true....
IMHO: This is the most predominant reason for leaving Santa Barbara, PERIOD!
Being a white conservative Christian, Republican in Santa Barbara is parallel to being a black man trying to eat at a white only lunch counter in Selma AL in the 60’s. Any opinion or life style opposed to the openly liberal or gay community is irrelevant and shunned. Silence was expected and no discussion of other opinions so as to not offend their sensitivities. Santa Barbara was and is still naturally beautiful but the spirit of wickedness paints the city with darkness!
My reply to Mr. Smythe and Mr. Campbell on the "Moral Collapse" of the State of CALI and of Santa Barbara County and almost every other CALI County.
It is the Corruption of the entire State that is the ISSUE and crime of the CALI Leaders>
"When most people think of moral collapse, they picture places like Los Angeles or San Francisco. They picture open-air drug markets. Crime. Chaos. Lawlessness. Broken streets. Broken culture."
Look at the pervasive Corruption in Contra Costa County exactly as in Santa Barbara and the FBI just raided the Contra County Assessor SOUND FAMILIAR it should>
Wall Street Apes on X: "FBI raids and executed 3 search warrants at the Contra Costa County Assessor’s Office in California It was found The Assessor’s Office handled property valuations for taxes across 380,000 parcels and was full of corruption. They made improper assessments, favoritism and inside https://t.co/v2L3wPslUM" / X
Summer on X: "@WallStreetApes @Lauren_Chris This is exactly the kind of local Democrat corruption that’s been rotting California for years. Improper property tax assessments, favoritism for connected people, and even a $1 million sexual harassment payoff — all while regular homeowners get screwed on their taxes. FBI raids" / X
FBI Busts Corrupt Law Enforcement in Contra Costa County California | Tully & Weiss Attorneys at Law
District Attorney Diana Becton’s Statement on Police Corruption Cases
Judge: Federal bribery case against Contra Costa County homebuilders to proceed to trial in 2027
Former Contra Costa County Sheriff's Deputy Sentenced to Prison | Danville, CA Patch
Attack on Corruption: ‘Contra Costa County Three Judge Recall’ Launched by Parents - California Political Review
This article is fitting
https://soup2nutzcommonsense.substack.com/p/who-tells-a-child-to-ignore-his-father?r=1vbgut&utm_medium=ios
Brian thank you for writing this article. I know you will get some flack for it but you have hit the very reasons for our counties decline. We can point fingers here and there or we can just move, neither of which is a solution.
This is the territory each of us has had entrusted to our care. Regardless of someone’s stance or beliefs, if we just apply some basic moral applications, like law enforcement and guidelines of our constitution we will be so much better off and hey if we will take some time to to read and understand our rights given to us through our Constitution we will become an empowered people instead of victims.
Though it may be slow coming I am beginning to see a rising up, not one of violence or rebellion, but an awakening from a deep slumber. “We the people” realizing, if I don’t protect whats mine “they” are going to take it.
You mean like the “moral clarity” poster? That’s as hypocritical as “party of the people “ while they continue to support the humanitarian crisis of homelessness. Equating those sleeping in the side of the freeway, foaming through trash fir food in the same category as the snowy plover. Free range homeless. Let them exist in their “natural habitat “ do not interfere with them.
Or how about planned murder. I mean planned parenthood that has no mention of being a parent but lots of abortion rhetoric.
Science says life begins at fertilization. Look it up.
The standout sentence for me: "A Republic cannot survive when freedom becomes detached from responsibility." That's it in a nutshell.
As a LIFE-LONG Santa Barbarian, I have never read about so much crime taking place as it has been here recently ! Shootings, stabbings, robberies..were an anomaly. Now, it's almost daily.
Well said nothing needs to be added!!
The devil is never idol
You love a good cinematic narrative, don't you? You've painted a dramatic picture of a country sliding into decay, using Santa Barbara’s arrest rates as a spooky warning sign and offering up religious nationalism as the magical cure. But once you scratch past that shiny rhetoric, your argument falls completely flat. It's packed with bad history, statistical gymnastics, and a honestly mind-boggling double standard. Let's break down exactly why your thesis falls apart.
1. You warn your readers not to "ignore history," but then you serve up a totally white-washed, selective version of it. You pull quotes from George Washington and John Adams to imply America was built as a Christian state. Sure, individual founders had faith, but they deliberately built a strictly secular republic. Read the Constitution again—carefully. It doesn't mention Jesus, Christianity, or God even once. Its only religious callouts are exclusionary: Article VI explicitly bans religious tests for public office, and the First Amendment drops a hard boundary forbidding the government from establishing a state religion. If you want to know what the Founders actually intended legally, look at the Treaty of Tripoli. George Washington started it and John Adams signed it into law in 1797. Article 11 states it bluntly: "As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." The Founders watched centuries of bloody European wars sparked by state-mandated religion. They built a secular wall for a reason: to keep the government out of the church and to keep church politics from corrupting the state.
2. Blaming Santa Barbara County’s juvenile arrest rates on a study calling the region "post-Christian" is a classic logic fail. It’s the old post hoc ergo propter hoc trap—assuming that because two things exist at the same time, one caused the other. Crime rates don't care about church attendance; they're driven by complex, well-documented realities like local policing budgets, enforcement strategies, and deep economic gaps hidden behind wealthy zip codes. Claiming a teenager got busted because his neighbors skipped Sunday service is statistically baseless. You also lean heavily on political dog whistles. You take a swipe at California for "subsidizing illegal immigration," turning vulnerable migrants into a convenient moral scapegoat. By insisting American identity is strictly "biblical," you basically relegate millions of Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, and secular citizens to second-class status. That's not patriotism; it's erasing the exact pluralism that makes this country function.
3. The most hypocritical part of your piece is your glowing praise of Donald Trump as a champion of "faith, prayer, and trust in Almighty God." You wonder why a president speaks more boldly about God than modern churches do. Come on. It’s not because he’s a devout man; it’s because he knows exactly how to weaponize religious nostalgia for personal power and cash. You lecture your audience about "moral absolutes," but you totally sanitize the track record of your chosen spiritual hero. You act like Trump is a beacon of righteousness while ignoring that a federal jury found him civilly liable for sexual abuse and defamation against E. Jean Carroll. Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan even noted the jury's findings fit the common understanding of rape. Treating him as a moral standard is an insult to abuse survivors everywhere. Furthermore, his well-documented, decades-long social ties to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein completely wreck the illusion that he protects the vulnerable or cares about biblical ethics. This isn't a holy awakening; it's a business transaction. Trump literally prints and sells $60 "God Bless the USA" Bibles—which were actually printed in China—for personal profit and campaign branding. Whether you're just terrified of cultural change or you're cynically manipulating your readers, you've chosen to blink away a blatant disregard for humility, marital fidelity, and truthfulness. You're falling for hollow words just because they sound nice.
You closed your essay by quoting Mark 7:9, where Jesus rips into religious leaders for rejecting the commandment of God to keep their own tradition. You might want to look in the mirror on that one. By using the Christian faith to prop up a leader who systematically violates its most basic moral rules, you’re doing exactly what that verse warns against. You’ve traded actual virtue for partisan idolatry, using the language of God to chase raw political power. True moral collapse doesn't just look like San Francisco or Santa Barbara. Sometimes, it looks like a writer tossing their own religious principles into the trash just to support a political candidate. It's ironic that you fear progressive values, because the entire principle of modern progressivism is built on the very things you claim to miss: the simple idea of live and let live, the command to truly love thy neighbor without judgment, and the responsibility to care for the earth we all share. If you’re looking for a "moral anchor," you might find it there—in empathy and kindness—rather than in a political strongman selling bibles.
p
Your article is 100% spot on and I totally agree. Unfortunately many people will not think so. I can say this, the church I go to is not one of the ones you talked about. Southcoast Church talks about God and all of this regularly. Pastor Rino definitely has his hand on the pulse and some people do not like it BUT they do not like truth either. Thanks for a great article even though it is sad but true....