Hope in a Deteriorating Culture

The culture shift of the past forty to fifty years has been astounding. I remember the late 1960s when it began in earnest. Being in college from 1969-1973, during the height of the Vietnam War, meant interacting with that shift constantly. Yet, even in the midst of such influences, my Christian faith was confirmed and became more real than ever.

This is what gives me hope.

Today, those influences are more in-your-face than before. We’ve seen radical changes in the acceptance of what was before deemed immoral sexual behavior. It now threatens basic organizations that used to promote values consistent with Biblical faith.

That cartoonist was taking a chance by clearly calling homosexuality a sin. I applaud his willingness to stand up for truth and accepting the consequences that may follow. How much longer will his syndicate put up with those views? We still have freedom of speech technically, but the pressure is being applied to bow to the “new wisdom.”

The family structure is breaking down. We now consider almost any arrangement to be a family. And parental oversight of their children? What has become of that?

When 70% of inner-city children have no father, we shouldn’t be surprised at the outcome. Another factor in the deterioration of morality is the steady diet of violence to which children are subjected. I’m not saying all violence needs to be censored, but there’s a way to portray it within a moral framework. Unfortunately, that is no longer the norm:

Then we attempt to fool ourselves into believing it does no harm.

Yes, things are demonstrably worse now than in my early years. Yet the remedy remains the same: the application of the gospel to individual lives. If enough lives are changed by the God who reaches out to the lost, a society can turn around. I’m not a wishful thinker; I see the reality. However, I see a deeper reality behind what the world sees. Until God gives up on us, I’m not going to give up either. That time may be coming, but until I’m convinced we’ve come to that stage, I will continue to speak up for the One who is the truth. If those who know Him are faithful to that calling, you never know what can happen.