Christian Living

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Nowadays it seems as if the newspaper headlines and the TV talking heads shake us up every day. Some horrific disturbance to our normal everyday living--somewhere in the world if not on our own doorstep. Are we less sure of where we're going and who we are--and traveling faster and faster than ever before? Or does it just seem that way? Anyway, you'd have to be dead above the ears not to have noticed--or have an opinion about it all. And to the degree that our citizenry falls into that sadly unaware category, we are in deep trouble. Closing our eyes when we're headed for a brick wall won't exactly forestall the headache when we hit it.

So like everyone else, I have an opinion on the current climate of violence, especially among our young people. I'm not sure it is as simple as the prevalence of guns or murderous movies and games, etc. I think it goes way, way deeper than that. Those are just the external outbreaks of a basic erosion of values that has occurrd over an extended period of time. I timidly offer the opinion that for awhile now we have been leaving God out of the equation. I don't mean organized religion per se. I'm talking about personal integrity, good character--both lived and taught--all the basic values that derive from faith in God that engenders a desire to obey His commandments.

For a long, long time in our nation's history, those values were believed, taught and lived in a majority of families--always some exceptions, of course. But when that happened, society was not quick to give its collective approbation. In fact, aberrant behavior was quite generally frowned upon--which may be one thlng that helped hold it in check. But gradually over the years we have moved away from that bedrock, and we've drifted so far that what once was unthinkable is now not only accepted as normal behavior but actually approved by the great bulk of society. And saddest of all, what we're losing besides our own integrity, are the children, cut loose with no sure Foundation and Guide through life. We don't teach the law of reaping and sowing and may not believe it, but that in no way abrogates it. In my humble opinion, we are now living with the consequences of that failure.

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