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Author
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Topic: Youth & Home
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Carol Swenson
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Member # 6929
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posted
Hi lonlesol...
Here's a story from Max Lucado that touches on this topic.
“I Will Not Abandon You”
GOD’S PROMISE IN THE PATH
Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
ROMANS 5:11 NIV
Sin in the biblical perspective is positive rebellion.
DONALD BLOESCH
For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.
COLOSSIANS 1:13 NIV
Man does, indeed, need a radical change of heart; he needs to begin to hate his sin instead of loving it, and to love God instead of hating him; he needs, in a word, to be reconciled to God. And the place, above all others, where this change takes place is at the foot of the cross, when he apprehends something of the hatred of God for sin and his indescribable love for the sinner.
J. N. D. ANDERSON
Five-year-old Madeline climbed into her father’s lap.
“Did you have enough to eat?” he asked her.
She smiled and patted her tummy. “I can’t eat any more.”
“Did you have some of your Grandma’s pie?”
“A whole piece!”
Joe looked across the table at his mom. “Looks like you filled us up. Don’t think we’ll be able to do anything tonight but go to bed.”
Madeline put her little hands on either side of his big face. “Oh, but, Poppa, this is Christmas Eve. You said we could dance.”
Joe feigned a poor memory. “Did I now? Why, I don’t remember saying anything about dancing.”
Grandma smiled and shook her head as she began clearing the table.
“But, Poppa,” Madeline pleaded, “we always dance on Christmas Eve. Just you and me, remember?”
A smile burst from beneath his thick mustache. “Of course I remember, darling. How could I forget?”
And with that he stood and took her hand in his, and for a moment, just a moment, his wife was alive again, and the two were walking into the den to spend another night before Christmas as they had spent so many, dancing away the evening.
They would have danced the rest of their lives, but then came the surprise pregnancy and the complications. Madeline survived. But her mother did not. And Joe, the thick-handed butcher from Minnesota, was left to raise his Madeline alone.
“Come on, Poppa.” She tugged on his hand. “Let’s dance before everyone arrives.” She was right. Soon the doorbell would ring and the relatives would fill the floor and the night would be past.
But, for now, it was just Poppa and Madeline.
The love of a parent for a child is a mighty force. Consider the couple with their newborn child. The infant offers his parents absolutely nothing. No money. No skill. No words of wisdom. If he had pockets, they would be empty. To see an infant lying in a bassinet is to see utter helplessness. What is there to love?
Whatever it is, Mom and Dad find it. Just look at Mom’s face as she nurses her baby. Just watch Dad’s eyes as he cradles the child. And just try to harm or speak evil of the infant. If you do, you’ll encounter a mighty strength, for the love of a parent is a mighty force.
Jesus once asked, if we humans who are sinful have such a love, how much more does God, the sinless and selfless Father, love us?1 But what happens when the love isn’t returned? What happens to the heart of the father when his child turns away?
Rebellion flew into Joe’s world like a Minnesota blizzard. About the time she was old enough to drive, Madeline decided she was old enough to lead her life. And that life did not include her father.
“I should have seen it coming,” Joe would later say, “but for the life of me I didn’t.” He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know how to handle the pierced nose and the tight shirts. He didn’t understand the late nights and the poor grades. And, most of all, he didn’t know when to speak and when to be quiet.
She, on the other hand, had it all figured out. She knew when to speak to her father—never. She knew when to be quiet—always. The pattern was reversed, however, with the lanky, tattooed kid from down the street. He was no good, and Joe knew it.
And there was no way he was going to allow his daughter to spend Christmas Eve with that kid.
“You’ll be with us tonight, young lady. You’ll be at your grandma’s house eating your grandma’s pie. You’ll be with us on Christmas Eve.”
Though they were at the same table, they might as well have been on different sides of town. Madeline played with her food and said nothing. Grandma tried to talk to Joe, but he was in no mood to chat. Part of him was angry; part of him was heartbroken. And the rest of him would have given anything to know how to talk to this girl who once sat on his lap.
Soon the relatives arrived, bringing with them a welcome end to the awkward silence. As the room filled with noise and people, Joe stayed on one side, Madeline sat sullenly on the other.
“Put on the music, Joe,” reminded one of his brothers. And so he did. Thinking she would be honored, he turned and walked toward his daughter. “Will you dance with your poppa tonight?”
The way she huffed and turned, you’d have thought he’d insulted her. In full view of the family, she walked out the front door and marched down the sidewalk. Leaving her father alone.
Very much alone.
According to the Bible we have done the same. We have spurned the love of our Father. “Each of us has gone his own way” (Isa. 53:6).
Paul takes our rebellion a step further. We have done more than turn away, he says; we have turned against. “We were living against God” (Rom. 5:6).
He speaks even more bluntly in verse 10: “We were God’s enemies.” Harsh words, don’t you think? An enemy is an adversary. One who offends, not out of ignorance, but by intent. Does this describe us? Have we ever been enemies of God? Have we ever turned against our Father?
Have you …
ever done something, knowing God wouldn’t want you to do it?
ever hurt one of his children or part of creation?
ever supported or applauded the work of his adversary, the devil?
ever turned against your heavenly Father in public?
If so, have you not taken the role of an enemy?
So how does God react when we become his enemies?
Madeline came back that night but not for long. Joe never faulted her for leaving. After all, what’s it like being the daughter of a butcher? In their last days together he tried so hard. He made her favorite dinner—she didn’t want to eat. He invited her to a movie—she stayed in her room. He bought her a new dress—she didn’t even say thank you. And then there was that spring day he left work early to be at the house when she arrived home from school.
Wouldn’t you know that was the day she never came home.
A friend saw her and her boyfriend in the vicinity of the bus station. The authorities confirmed the purchase of a ticket to Chicago; where she went from there was anybody’s guess.
The most notorious road in the world is the Via Dolorosa, “the Way of Sorrows.” According to tradition, it is the route Jesus took from Pilate’s hall to Calvary. The path is marked by stations frequently used by Christians for their devotions. One station marks the passing of Pilate’s verdict. Another, the appearance of Simon to carry the cross. Two stations commemorate the stumble of Christ, another the words of Christ. There are fourteen stations in all, each one a reminder of the events of Christ’s final journey.
Is the route accurate? Probably not. When Jerusalem was destroyed in A.D. 70 and again in A.D. 135, the streets of the city were destroyed. As a result, no one knows the exact route Christ followed that Friday.
But we do know where the path actually began.
The path began, not in the court of Pilate, but in the halls of heaven. The Father began his journey when he left his home in search of us. Armed with nothing more than a passion to win your heart, he came looking. His desire was singular—to bring his children home. The Bible has a word for this quest: reconciliation.
“God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Cor. 5:19 NKJV). The Greek word for reconcile means “to render something otherwise.”2 Reconciliation restiches the unraveled, reverses the rebellion, rekindles the cold passion.
Reconciliation touches the shoulder of the wayward and woos him homeward.
The path to the cross tells us exactly how far God will go to call us back.
The scrawny boy with the tattoos had a cousin. The cousin worked the night shift at a convenience store south of Houston. For a few bucks a month, he would let the runaways stay in his apartment at night, but they had to be out during the day.
Which was fine with them. They had big plans. He was going to be a mechanic, and Madeline just knew she could get a job at a department store. Of course he knew nothing about cars, and she knew even less about getting a job—but you don’t think of things like that when you’re intoxicated on freedom.
After a couple of weeks, the cousin changed his mind. And the day he announced his decision, the boyfriend announced his. Madeline found herself facing the night with no place to sleep or hand to hold.
It was the first of many such nights.
A woman in the park told her about the homeless shelter near the bridge. For a couple of bucks she could get a bowl of soup and a cot. A couple of bucks was about all she had. She used her backpack as a pillow and jacket as a blanket. The room was so rowdy it was hard to sleep. Madeline turned her face to the wall and, for the first time in several days, thought of the whiskered face of her father as he would kiss her good night. But as her eyes began to water, she refused to cry. She pushed the memory deep inside and determined not to think about home.
She’d gone too far to go back.
The next morning the girl in the cot beside her showed her a fistful of tips she’d made from dancing on tables. “This is the last night I’ll have to stay here,” she said. “Now I can pay for my own place. They told me they are looking for another girl. You should come by.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a matchbook. “Here’s the address.”
Madeline’s stomach turned at the thought. All she could do was mumble, “I’ll think about it.”
She spent the rest of the week on the streets looking for work. At the end of the week when it was time to pay her bill at the shelter, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the matchbook. It was all she had left.
“I won’t be staying tonight,” she said and walked out the door.
Hunger has a way of softening convictions.
Pride and shame. You’d never know they are sisters. They appear so different. Pride puffs out her chest. Shame hangs her head. Pride boasts. Shame hides. Pride seeks to be seen. Shame seeks to be avoided.
But don’t be fooled, the emotions have the same parentage. And the emotions have the same impact. They keep you from your Father.
Pride says, “You’re too good for him.”
Shame says, “You’re too bad for him.”
Pride drives you away.
Shame keeps you away.
If pride is what goes before a fall, then shame is what keeps you from getting up after one.
If Madeline knew anything, she knew how to dance. Her father had taught her. Now men the age of her father watched her. She didn’t rationalize it—she just didn’t think about it. Madeline simply did her work and took their dollars.
She might have never thought about it, except for the letters. The cousin brought them. Not one, or two, but a box full. All addressed to her. All from her father.
“Your old boyfriend must have squealed on you. These come two or three a week,” complained the cousin. “Give him your address.” Oh, but she couldn’t do that. He might find her.
Nor could she bear to open the envelopes. She knew what they said; he wanted her home. But if he knew what she was doing, he would not be writing.
It seemed less painful not to read them. So she didn’t. Not that week, nor the next when the cousin brought more, nor the next when he came again. She kept them in the dressing room at the club, organized according to postmark. She ran her finger over the top of each but couldn’t bring herself to open one.
Most days Madeline was able to numb the emotions. Thoughts of home and thoughts of shame were shoved into the same part of her heart. But there were occasions when the thoughts were too strong to resist.
Like the time she saw a dress in the clothing store window. A dress the same color as one her father had purchased for her. A dress that had been far too plain for her. With much reluctance she had put it on and stood with him before the mirror. “My, you are as tall as I am,” he had told her. She had stiffened at his touch.
Seeing her weary face reflected in the store window, Madeline realized she’d give a thousand dresses to feel his arm again. She left the store and resolved not to pass by it again.
In time the leaves fell and the air chilled. The mail came and the cousin complained and the stack of letters grew. Still she refused to send him an address. And she refused to read a letter.
Then a few days before Christmas Eve another letter arrived. Same shape. Same color. But this one had no postmark. And it was not delivered by the cousin. It was sitting on her dressing room table.
“A couple of days ago a big man stopped by and asked me to give this to you,” explained one of the other dancers. “Said you’d understand the message.”
“He was here?” she asked anxiously.
The woman shrugged, “Suppose he had to be.”
Madeline swallowed hard and looked at the envelope. She opened it and removed the card. “I know where you are,” it read. “I know what you do. This doesn’t change the way I feel. What I’ve said in each letter is still true.”
“But I don’t know what you’ve said,” Madeline declared. She pulled a letter from the top of the stack and read it. Then a second and a third. Each letter had the same sentence. Each sentence asked the same question.
In a matter of moments the floor was littered with paper and her face was streaked with tears.
Within an hour she was on a bus. “I just might make it in time.”
She barely did.
The relatives were starting to leave. Joe was helping grandma in the kitchen when his brother called from the suddenly quiet den. “Joe, someone is here to see you.”
Joe stepped out of the kitchen and stopped. In one hand the girl held a backpack. In the other she held a card. Joe saw the question in her eyes.
“The answer is ‘yes,’” she said to her father. “If the invitation is still good, the answer is ‘yes.’”
Joe swallowed hard. “Oh my. The invitation is good.”
And so the two danced again on Christmas Eve.
On the floor, near the door, rested a letter with Madeline’s name and her father’s request.
“Will you come home and dance with your poppa again?”
Posts: 6787 | From: Colorado | Registered: Dec 2007
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lonlesol
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Member # 4511
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Youth & Home - Part 2
Scripture: Genesis 18:19; Psalm 119:9
Now, let's think a little deeper about children, parents, and families. You know the laws of human relations are exact and certain. The conditions in homes will lead almost inevitably to certain problems. We can predict it. It is a heart-breaking thing to see boys and girls of tender impressionable ages receiving permanent damage for all future time. There is no question but what many parents are following a course which will inevitably destroy their children. Now I do not say they do it intentionally, but the results are just as disastrous as if they deliberately planned to destroy their children. The first duty of parents is to learn how to take care of their children. There's no other responsibility greater, nothing supersedes it. We need to remind ourselves often that money, success, popularity, and every other object in life is less than nothing if we lose our own children. Christian parents should realize that God has given them the children to prepare for heaven. It's a divine, sacred stewardship from God.
When should we start training and teaching the children? Here is where one of the greatest mistakes is made. We must not wait until they reach the age of reason. This is the way many parents feel, they say: "Well, we won't worry about them while they're just infants in the cradle, we'll wait till they can understand what we teach them." That's all a terrible mistake, friends. Those little babies are bundles of emotion. Those emotions and that will can be molded even while it is still in the cradle. Do not underestimate those years. Dr. E. T. Sullivan said this: "When God wants a great work done in the world, or a great wrong righted, He goes about it in a very unusual way. He doesn't stir up His earthquakes, or send forth His thunderbolts. Instead, He has a helpless baby born, perhaps in a simple home and of some obscure mother. And then God puts the idea into the mother's heart and she puts it into the baby's mind and then God waits. The greatest forces in the world are not the earthquakes and the thunderbolts, the greatest forces in the world are babies." And we all have to say that, that is right. What that child becomes depends almost entirely upon the parents. To a very large degree the disposition of the child is settled by home influences. Oh, how important that the child grows in a calm and peaceful atmosphere. When emotions boil up around a baby, they have an effect. There is never an age when the baby will not absorb the tensions as well as the love that is present about him. Habits formed in those earliest years will shape the character of life throughout all future time. Happy are those parents who have laid a strong foundation. Then when the testing emergency years come later on, the young people will be held to the principles they learned early in life.
A four-year-old was running away from home. He told his mother he was, and she helped him pack one of the large suitcases to take with him. He was out on the sidewalk walking up and down with the big suitcase when one of the neighbors came by and said: "Where are you going, Charles?" He said, "Well, I'm running away from home." The neighbor said, "You can't go very far on this side of the street." He said, "Yes, but I'm not allowed to cross it."
You see, that early training was coming through in obedience. Now let us move up to the teenage stage. Here more than all other ages the young people need companionship of the parents. The teenager is filled with deep anxieties. Conflicts are raging there that he does not understand himself. New urges are being felt and he is trying to find his place under the sun. This is the time when youth starts choosing between conflicting standards. There is a struggle for independence, and he is very liable to flaunt adult rules if he can get by with it. And yet, these same teenagers desire the approval of their parents. Don't be fooled, parents, by the independent ways and seeming indifference of young people at this age. They still need you and want you. They may not express it very much, but they still feel the need of affection and approval. It is a dangerous age, friends, because this is where the foundation will be tested. If the home has been filled with love, if kindness and unselfishness have been placed into the foundation stones of the character, the young person will come through now with shining colors. The home ties will hold him fast if the foundation has been laid correctly.
Right here let me mention some problems that have been faced scores of times. Oh, consistency is so necessary in dealing with children. Parents should stick together, especially on the matter of discipline. If there is a disagreement before the child on matters of right and wrong, it simply confuses the child. When parents contradict each other, the child takes advantage of it and begins to play both ends against the middle and soon the child is having his way. A united front is needed in this matter.
Now let's take a moment longer with the early teens. This age is the time when children should be free to grow and develop their personality. There's generally no problem unless parents create one or encourage one. Unfortunately in our worldly society a terrible thing has happened. Parents have actually pushed their children into a premature preoccupation with sex and marriage. Now maybe some parents are not willing to admit this, friends, but the result has been seen and compiled by some of the leading sociologists of our time. Thousands of teenage marriages have been contracted and then have fallen apart. The greatest tragedy is that those youth were never really prepared for life at all. They lost out on a whole phase of their growth and development. They were pushed from childhood into adulthood almost without that important period of development. Why did those children turn so quickly from paper dolls and mud pies to thoughts of marriage? Through parental influence, even urging, sometimes.
Public school leaders are alarmed about it, secular authorities are very much concerned, and Christian parents should be even more so. It is creeping in among all levels of society. Satan is laying his snares for children, he knows that their emotions are very strong at this time, and so he begins to stir up thoughts about dating and pairing off, even at the tender ages of 12, 13, and 14. One of the greatest mistakes that parents could make is to encourage this premature interest in the opposite sex. Now this is not being harsh, friends, it is simply abiding by the laws of our being. It is being wise enough to understand and accept the rules of nature. Too many have been hurt and swept away by trying to break the rules.
I wonder if you are brave enough and wise enough to reign yourselves up, parents. Are you willing to come to grips with this thing? You have got too much to lose if you fail here. You cannot afford to let those precious children go astray. The odds are against us, but God is for us. Oh, it does not matter what others are doing. Those children will come in and try to take advantage and say, "Well, everybody else is doing it, all my friends are going this way and that's what I want to do." The pressure of conformity is strong, friends, no doubt about it. The forces of public opinion are going to wield a mighty influence on your children, but hold the line. Do what you know is right. Have the courage to take a stand and draw the line straight for your children. They really want you to do it. They will be disappointed if you do not. You will lose some of their respect if you give way before them, let them have their own way when they don't even know what they want anyway. You have experience, you know where the dangers lie. Be brave enough and courageous enough to tell them and let them know where the safe paths lie for their feet.
This is a serious matter, friends. A great problem permeates every level of our society today. Children and young people are suffering the greatest damage and loss. It is time for us to see just where we're going and in what direction we are headed. What is happening to our children, what is happening to our young people. We must save them. We must hold them somehow and this is the plan. There is no higher responsibility in this world than to teach them and train them aright.
Posts: 478 | From: Quebec | Registered: Mar 2005
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lonlesol
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Member # 4511
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Youth & Home - Part 1
Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:1-5
I wonder if we can realize, friends, what kind of social and moral revolution has taken place in our country in the last few years. We look around and hardly think it possible that our country could have come down so low in its moral standards. Every phase of society seems to be saturated with dishonesty, immorality, pornography. It's a sickening sight, friends, it's almost reached the stomach-turning point, in fact. One of the great phenomenon of our time is the rapid rise of science and intellect and the sudden decline of real faith in religion. Materialism has swept over America like a storm. Millions of people have been weaned away from their faith in the Word of God and are now putting a blind faith in science and materialism.
What is the significance of these things, friends, and what is the effect of the terrible moral apostasy that has taken place in America? Who can say that God did not have a hand in the rise of this wonderful, free land of ours? This great democracy was founded by men who prayed, men who hazarded their lives to worship God in freedom. The Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, were written by men who had faith in God, in His Word, in His law. This fresh, newborn nation stood for justice, morality and liberty. Even as late as World War I the spirit of America was not too far from its founding fathers. But what has happened now? Nowhere do we see more sickening evidence of Satan's program than we do in our own beloved America. Of course, we did not expect it to grow into some great paradise on earth. We did not expect any grand utopia of peace to suddenly appear. But, friends, we did not expect either that it could be degraded so quickly.
A text of Scripture which is very familiar to us is certainly being fulfilled today. In 2 Timothy 3:1-5 we read this: "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." We could spend an hour on each one of these 19 sins which mark the last hours of earth's history. The world is getting darker all the time, friends. The Bible says that evil men and seducers will wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. Religion apparently is flourishing, there's a great form of godliness, anyway. Churches are being built everywhere, membership is increasing; but friends, crime and violence are also increasing in almost the same proportion.
Yes, it reminds us of two small boys who had been brought in off the street, little urchins who were being treated to an anniversary dinner by a welfare group. They put their grimy little hands up on the clean cloth as they waited for the food to be served. One of them noticing the hands on the table cloth, turned to the other and said: "My hands are dirtier than yours." The other one said: "Ha, you're two years older'n me, though." So as the total of sin accumulates, the world seems to get grimier and darker under the influence of evil.
Notice that the prophecy says that men will be lovers of self, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, lovers of pleasures. I know these are often attached to juveniles, and perhaps there is a strong reason why it is that way. Parents ought to be concerned, friends, and society ought to be concerned about it, too. The problem is that parents have been too unconcerned all the way through. Too unconcerned when their children were small and when they could have been influencing them in the right way.
What do these youth gangs mean, anyway, roaming the streets of our great cities? Mugging, robbing, beating and killing sometimes. This condition of things frighten the very daylights out of us, friends. Women are no longer able to step out on the street safely in our great, large cities. Once upon a time it was safe to go walking in the park after dark, but not so anymore. These gangs of roving hoodlums and delinquents are liable to pounce on any person walking the streets at night.
Well, why has the condition developed? Where are the parents who should know where those children are? We cannot blame the youth entirely for the miserable state of things. Parents usually make the initial mistakes. Children are the sufferers under the modern scheme of things. Broken homes no doubt account for a great deal of it. Today, we are well acquainted with the fact that almost one in two marriages ends up in the divorce court. Homes have become empty places where mothers just come home in the evenings and the father sometimes. Children face an empty house much of the time. Mother has gone out to work and make a little more money instead of staying home to take care of her own children. Perfect strangers often are assigned the task of watching other people's children.
Friends, I know there are times when mothers are compelled to work for the livelihood of the family, but perhaps in the great majority of cases, it is pure selfishness which leads mothers to forsake their children, leaving them in the care of disinterested people. Yes, that is where children lose their sense of direction. That is the way young people develop into delinquents. The whole problem must be rolled right back where it belongs. It must be placed at the doorway of the parents.
Dr. Popeneau made a ten-year study at Harvard Law School into the factors in juvenile delinquency. It was discovered that five great factors are brought into this picture. Father's discipline, mother's discipline, father's affection, mother's affection and family cohesiveness; that is, doing things as a unit. In today's world of over permissive parents, it is almost an oddity to see a combination of love and discipline. Some parents do not even think it is possible to exercise love and discipline at the same time. But friends, it is possible. It must be done. There is no other combination which will succeed in the proper training of youth. I heard of a great lecturer who stated that he learned his greatest lessons of life at the knee of his devoted mother and over the knee of his determined father. Youth actually crave discipline and direction. They long for somebody to draw lines and tell them what's right and what's wrong. The problem is that they do not feel loved if they are not properly guided and counseled and even disciplined by their parents.
Judge Liebenitz, a senior judge of Brooklyn's highest criminal court determined to make a study of this problem, so many heart-breaking cases had been brought before him that he made an extended investigation into the subject of juvenile delinquency. He was determined to visit the country with the lowest rate of juvenile crime and try to find the factors which favored it. So he actually did visit Italy for a few months where juvenile crime was the lowest. Returning to this country, Judge Liebenitz wrote an article entitle Nine Words to Stop Juvenile Delinquency. It appeared in the Reader's Digest a few years ago, and some of you may have read it.
In Italy, Judge Liebenitz discovered that young people are taught to respect authority very early in life. The father takes a positive position of leadership in the home and children are conditioned to respect that authority and discipline. And so the solution as far as this great judge is concerned is to put father back at the head of the family, those are the nine words that will stop juvenile delinquency. Ah, many fathers are going to have to answer in the judgement for not assuming their proper responsibility. They have simply abdicated and left mother to do most of it, and mother often is not willing to do it. Mother herself is often out working and the children are simply neglected. That is why the teenage gangs are found on the streets of the large cities, friends.
Oh, we have made progress in a lot of things and in a lot of ways. We have learned to increase the life span, for example. A new-born white girl today has a better chance of living to the age of 60 than she had 50 years ago of living to the age of 5. There are more telephones in New York City than in all of Great Britain; more bathtubs than in all of Europe combined; and more gadgets and conveniences than you will find anywhere else in the entire world. But what a loss we have suffered along with the gain. We have suffered spiritually and morally, friends, even though we might have gained in technical know-how. Our world and our nation is in a great moral mess right now from which we can hardly hope to be extricated, at least not by human effort.
Yes, we have more church members than ever before. We have a form of religion that is wonderful to behold. And yet those same Christians who belong to those churches fill the theaters, the taverns, the race tracks, the places of sin and amusement. Yes, I say there is a reason for this vast scene of carnal immorality. Influences of our own making have molded the criminals and sex offenders of today. Our permissive materialism, friends, has woven a web into which our boys and girls have fallen, and we're reaping the whirlwind now. There was a time a few years ago when the line of modesty was held, at least by the women. But something has happened to even change that, and now women are beginning to act in very masculine ways. They are dressing like men, they're taking on some of the rough, crude mannish ways even. They are losing their femininity. That fine sense of modest, moral reserve has been generally broken down. What a world we are facing, friends! What is going to happen next we do not know.
Women are taking more part in crime, and they are taking less and less of motherly interest and concern for the children. Less and less time is being spent in the home. I think television is partly to blame. People are affected by what they see and hear all the time. Friends, the great tide of filth and corruption that seeps into the homes of millions of Americans through television is unbelievable. Borderline comedy, glamorized, glorified sin and sex, violence on every side. No wonder children go out and stab and kill after watching the thing enacted before their very eyes. And yet we look around for the reasons, we appoint committees to try to discover why these things are taking place. We don't have to look very far if we've got eyes to see and ears to hear. Children are learning these things right in their own homes. They see their own parents fighting first, and then they see violent battles taking place on the television, they see murder every day. Why should they think of it as being something serious and evil. It has become commonplace for them. Yes, the avenues of the soul have been opened up and the character has been affected by these things. When will America wake up?
Posts: 478 | From: Quebec | Registered: Mar 2005
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