Morality Under Assault (part 2)
As I continue to look at the assault on morality and the decline of decency, I have to admit, I'm sitting here thinking, "I'm becoming that old guy." You know... the old guy that talks about "when I was a kid..." That old guy who says, "kids today are so much worse than when I was a kid." Yet, I'm not blaming the kids. I'm blaming my generation, and the one that came before me. We did this. We have taken our kids and their kids down a road, that I fear is one way... no return. I hope and pray that I am wrong. I pray for a revival that turns this world back toward God, back toward a society in which there is moral restraint... where there is a fear of God and where the focus of life is not on our own selves and our selfish desires, and where once again we are focused on the good of others.
One of the things that jumps out at me is the wide acceptance of voyeurism in our daily lives. Voyeurism used to be thought of as a nasty thing, something only "peeping Toms" and perverts did. If someone was caught "peeping" back in the day, they were the outcasts of society, and faced time in jail. In 2010, one has no need to be a creeper and peeper... as common decency and modesty is a thing of the past, and both men and women not only dress in such a way as to be way too revealing, but many will openly expose themselves for others to see. Teenage girls are taking pictures of themselves in next to nothing and posting the pictures on Facebook. Young folks taking nude pictures of themselves and sending them over their phones to others. There really is no need to peep in windows any longer, because our teens think nothing of exposing themselves to others, and we won't even approach their view of sex. If the most recent studies are true, 7 of every 10 teenagers is sexually active by the time they reach 16 years of age. That says enough.
Now many people want to point at the sexual antics of these kids, but lets remember that they are products of my generation, in which we lived through a period in the 70's and early 80's where it was not an uncommon thing to go out dancing and leave with a different partner nearly every night. We were wild and free in our sexual revolution... until we learned of a new disease called AIDS. It's a shame that it took the scare of AIDS to make my generation begin to question how we were living. Many of my friends have since told me that they felt hypocritical to try and tell their kids not to be sexually active after the way we lived. I say, "HOW DUMB!" I also used a ton of drugs, stuck guns in people's faces and a host of other illegal activities. Would it be hypocritical of me to warn my kids not to get mixed up in drugs and crime the way I did? Of course not. So why would it be wrong to teach our children that while we may have been sexually promiscuous, we learned... the hard way, and try to teach our kids better. I believe it is simply that many of my age group never really learned the lesson, so they just provided a "safe sex" alternative. Take a look around you and see the result. It's sad... and it's scary.
Is it too late to turn it around? I don't know. I hope not. I do know this... without a spiritual renewal... there is no hope. This world needs Jesus.
There is more... much more to this look at the assault on morality. We will pick it up again later this week due to Thanksgiving.
One of the things that jumps out at me is the wide acceptance of voyeurism in our daily lives. Voyeurism used to be thought of as a nasty thing, something only "peeping Toms" and perverts did. If someone was caught "peeping" back in the day, they were the outcasts of society, and faced time in jail. In 2010, one has no need to be a creeper and peeper... as common decency and modesty is a thing of the past, and both men and women not only dress in such a way as to be way too revealing, but many will openly expose themselves for others to see. Teenage girls are taking pictures of themselves in next to nothing and posting the pictures on Facebook. Young folks taking nude pictures of themselves and sending them over their phones to others. There really is no need to peep in windows any longer, because our teens think nothing of exposing themselves to others, and we won't even approach their view of sex. If the most recent studies are true, 7 of every 10 teenagers is sexually active by the time they reach 16 years of age. That says enough.
Now many people want to point at the sexual antics of these kids, but lets remember that they are products of my generation, in which we lived through a period in the 70's and early 80's where it was not an uncommon thing to go out dancing and leave with a different partner nearly every night. We were wild and free in our sexual revolution... until we learned of a new disease called AIDS. It's a shame that it took the scare of AIDS to make my generation begin to question how we were living. Many of my friends have since told me that they felt hypocritical to try and tell their kids not to be sexually active after the way we lived. I say, "HOW DUMB!" I also used a ton of drugs, stuck guns in people's faces and a host of other illegal activities. Would it be hypocritical of me to warn my kids not to get mixed up in drugs and crime the way I did? Of course not. So why would it be wrong to teach our children that while we may have been sexually promiscuous, we learned... the hard way, and try to teach our kids better. I believe it is simply that many of my age group never really learned the lesson, so they just provided a "safe sex" alternative. Take a look around you and see the result. It's sad... and it's scary.
Is it too late to turn it around? I don't know. I hope not. I do know this... without a spiritual renewal... there is no hope. This world needs Jesus.
There is more... much more to this look at the assault on morality. We will pick it up again later this week due to Thanksgiving.
