Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Monthly Letter September 2008

“America’s Deadliest Disease: Affluenza.”

Matthew 6:19-21 "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21, For where your treasure is, there will be your heart also."

That American Christians have laughed in the face of Jesus concerning the above passage is a fact that is blatantly shouted from highest mountain and advertised in the lowest valley.

In her insightful non-religious article in her column "Camp Codependence" Judith Warner in the July 31, 2008 New York Times, lists a number of symptoms relating to what she calls "Affluenza." Affluenza is so appropriate a name that I embrace it as a new word for Webster.

Ms. Warner states:

In our society, you don't have to be wealthy to suffer from affluenza. Its symptoms-"Debt, overwork, waste, and harm to the environment (Gore influence, LML) leading to psychological disorders, alienation, and distress in adults;" "lack of motivation, apathy, laziness, or failure to commit to and achieve goals, overindulgence and attitudes of entitlement in children."

Ms Warner garnered the above from the New York University Child Study Center which stated the symptoms are "pervasive and no one is immune."

If this is an evaluation of the world at large why does it read like a professional evaluation of the average church congregation?

In another paragraph she talks of $10,000 per week sleep away camps for children. She does reassure us that her oldest attends a cheaper $550 per week camp.

An eye opening statement on our culture is this revealing truth for many: "Purchasing Power has become, to an unprecedented extent, almost the sole source of many people's status and identity."

Dan Kindlon, author and Harvard professor, writes: "Indulged children are often less able to cope with stress, because their parents have created an atmosphere where their whims are indulged, where they were always assured that they're entitled and that life should be a bed of roses."

I am fairly certain that Judith is NOT a Fundamental Baptist preacher, but I know many who should take a thought or two from her article. (I just did).

I hope you have the brilliance of mind to discern the problem is with the PARENTS who in their weakness permit tyrannical children to rule the roost.

That our society is severely suffering from Affluenza is witnessed on every trip to the mall, to the restaurant, and certainly the school. And sadly I say, with a tear in me old and bleary eye, the CHURCH gathering. Such should not be true.

I think it is time to read again the poem by James Russell Lowell on a time to choose:

"Once to every man and nation Comes the moment to decide, In the strife of truth with falsehood, For the good or evil side."

That covetousness, called "materialism" in the modern world, is killing our moral fiber in successive steps with each generation is in our face for all to behold. I tremble when I grasp the truth that we Biblicists have fallen prey to the false concepts of our time that if we throw enough money at any problem it will be solved and when will we ever learn the truth of an old song, "Can't buy me love" in dealing with our children. Absolutely nothing, no amount of coddling, even molly coddling will take the place of the biblical mandates for the family. Years ago some wise person wrote: "Our generation has everything to live with and nothing to live for."

The fair instructions from Jesus in the text verses give a clear picture of the folly of any sort of laying up treasure in this life and taking His advice and laying up things that matter in a place that will always matter. The simplest way to define the current problem is to say that our people as a whole are suffering from a "heart” problem." We have placed the entirety of our treasure in the things and ideas of this world and in time and even eternity, we shall lose them, for the moths of drugs, promiscuity, the symptoms mentioned in Judith's article are eating away the soul of the free world, formerly called Christendom.

Did you notice the use of the word "Entitlement" in the Times article? We wonder why so many actually feel the world owes them a living when for most of the life span of the majority of Americans we have been bombarded with the idea of entitlement, meaning the rest of society owes us something, this something fast approaching everything, thus doing away with what is snidely referred to as the "Puritan Work Ethic." Such an ethic may have its roots in the teaching of some religious people, but it took a handful of Europeans who were saved from starvation by the former slave, Squanto, to the highest point of any nation in history in but a few short centuries.

Edmund Burke wrote of the necessity of placing personal restraint upon ourselves in order to enable our society to reach the heights unknown to even the most visionary ancient seers. Burke wrote:

"Men are qualified for civil liberties in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their appetites: in proportion as the love of justice is above their rapacity."

When a person, family, nation or civilization reaches the point of finding status and identity in "Purchasing Power" that entity is in serious decline.

In his second letter to Timothy, Paul wrote: "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away." 2Tim 3:1-5.

But wait!! There is hope in Christ. In the last verse of the Old Testament God gives a promise, a sure hope of the Lord making a way of reconciling a wayward generation to the Faith of the Fathers, a revival if you will of right and sane living. Put away the hand basket, we are no longer going downward, but upward through the Saviour. Notice the last verse of the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi 4:6: "And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."


Now as then the only hope involves the turning away from the SELF life to the Christ or Messianic life announced by John the Baptist who preached in the power and spirit of Elijah, the fiery prophet of old. Today, the hope for men and women, children and our free nation is a fresh turning to Christ and eternal principles of greatness.

The antidote for the scourge that is more devastating than the Bubonic Plague of the 14th Century, is seeking out of the truth of the scripture concerning wealth, discipline and a heart set apart for Christ and His teachings on the how and why of living while we wait. Paul told Timothy to instruct his parishioners thusly: 1 Timothy 6:17 "Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;"

The Big Fisherman, Peter, told his readers: Dearly beloved, "I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul."

Right NOW is the best time to start. LML *****

“A narcissist, once falling in love with SELF, would never find his equal.” Mike Pyatt

Larry Lilly Copyright (C) 2008 Use with credit

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