What Have We Become?

Founding father John Adams said that the Constitution of the United States was made for a moral and religious people. That if ever the nation stops being moral and religious, the Constitution would be broken as a whale goes through a net.

He was right. Sadly, we have stopped being a moral and religious people to too great a degree!

Consider the following tragic facts:  54.5 million abortions since Roe v. Wade in 1973 (National Right to Life Fact Sheet). Homosexuality and same-sex marriage is supported by a majority of Americans , half of marriages end in divorce, the highest officers in the nation blatantly lie, laziness is rampant, we have astronomic individual and national debt and there is an overall lack of virtue. These selfish mentalities are the harbingers of the decline of a nation.

Of course, that list doesn’t describe everybody , but in all too many cases it seems the majority of people fall into the description above.

 

Why are we declining morally?

We have departed from God’s fundamental principles of life.

Our theologians have turned the clear and concrete Ten Commandments into abstractions. The Bible is viewed as full of allegory, story and poetry. 

Even as people talk about what would Jesus do (WWJD), hardly anybody actually does what Jesus did do (WDJD). The end result of the latter results in a moral society and the former does not! WWJD leaves the situation open to speculation and convenience.

Whenever mankind departs from the example of Jesus as stated in Scripture, it leads individuals away from the simplicity and clarity of godly principles.

How have we changed from a moral and decent people into an increasingly godless society? How do we biblically justify the murder of millions of babies? We can’t—so we just throw out the Bible.

We change incrementally. A little at a time. Slowly, a tiny step at a time over a long period. Somebody will challenge an established principle with an argument against it.  The thin edge of the wedge of argument and debate is driven in. Everyone has a reason and justification for their position. A war of attrition pursues the goal of changing for the “rights” of non believers. A liberal legal climate encourages loose interpretations of a law and the split of the principle slowly grows wider and wider with each blow on the wedge.

What was once a moral principle firmly established in a mostly religious culture is changed by people pushing for tolerance and compassionate understanding. There is always a reason, always a justification, always a plea. It never ends.  Eventually, people accept the new position and the road to moral decline continues. Things like abortion, divorce, adultery, fornication and “Jimmy has two mommies” become the norm.

The cause of this sad situation is that America is becoming more and more secular.  Fewer and fewer people adhere to Scriptural principles, like the Ten Commandments.  Discipline within churches declines because pastors depend on numbers for their salaries. They don’t hold the line for fear of offending people and a loss of income, and so the moral slump continues.

How do we reverse it? By each individually acknowledging our own faults, sins and shortcomings, and fall on our knees before God in repentance. Return to God and obey Him.