Like you, I am sometimes appalled with what I read in the newspaper.
Here are some very recent examples of articles appearing in just one of the local newspapers I read:
- A teenager beat his mother to death. He was kicking her dead body to the beat of one of his favorite rock songs when the police arrived.
- A sixteen-year-old on trial for killing his grandparents.
- A young teen who beat his foster mother and then set her on fire while she was still alive.
While I realize that these stories don’t represent the norm, they still alarm me. What kind of world are we living in? What’s happening to us? The worst part is that these stories aren’t causing national indignation. They’re simply small news items scattered throughout our newspapers, receiving less attention than the latest baseball scores.
Have our morals changed? Have we simply become used to all the horror? In a nation that has no reservations about killing unborn babies, it’s obvious that we have become callous toward the value of human life.
So, who’s to blame? Our first thought might be to blame the “liberal court system” for its ruling on Roe vs. Wade and other anti-moral decisions. We think that’s one of the reasons we need a conservative president who will nominate morally-concerned judges and encourage more legislation. Right?
Well, my response just might surprise you. I am certainly pro-life and politically conservative, but I don’t believe this last election, or any other election, will completely turn our country around. While we have never been a perfect Christian nation, for the most part our nation has been sympathetic to Christian values and morals — until recently. While our presidents, for the most part, have been fairly conservative men over the last 20 years, our country has still experienced a great deal of moral decay during that same time. It will take more than politicians to change the moral climate of our nation.
So who’s to blame? We are. I believe we as a nation have changed, in part, because we are buying into the values of a small, liberal, immoral elite in the entertainment industry. You can literally track the decrease of biblical morality in our country with the increase in immoral philosophies in our entertainment. We’ve digressed from the innocence of “Leave It To Beaver” to the decadence of “Beavis and Butt-head.” From the altruistic “Ozzie and Harriet” we’ve spiraled to the depths of the self-indulgent “Married with Children.”
Just how are we buying into it? One offensive television program at a time. One perverted movie at a time. One immoral song at a time. Remember what I’ve said before? What is common in the entertainment media will become acceptable in our society. And if it’s acceptable in society, it’s considered normal.
How can we change this alarming trend? By selectively turning off one TV program and one radio station at a time. By refusing to buy one more raunchy music album. By reaching one more highly impressionable young person. By educating one more hurting family. By changing one precious life at a time with the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
