Churchy

I try to avoid anything too political or too much into religious confrontations. Today’s blog may step across that line, but it’s more about stepping back and looking at the world around me. It wasn’t so long ago that people who lived in small communities felt relatively safe. I know that when I was a youngster, my mom and dad never locked the doors to our house and we lived along the busy Rt. 711, running between the villages of Indian Head and Normalville, Pennsylvania.

This weekend that feeling of safety was shattered with was the shooting that caused the deaths of several people in the nearby village of Melcroft. This act of violence has made clear many vague ideas. So much in this world has changed since the days of my youth. Growing up, we had respect for life, for God and country, the flag, our parents, the law, our freedom, and each other. Oh, we had fights, but not to the extent of killing one another. Black eyes or maybe a loosened tooth was the expected outcome.

But something has changed. Prayer has been removed from schools and the Ten Commandments have been banned. The Nativity crèche is no longer permitted to be displayed at government facilities. For the most part school officials, backed by our government have ousted God from the classrooms.

In many of our communities, children are raised in a single parent home with the Federal Government replacing the father figure.  Once considered an embarrassment, welfare is now an accepted part of society. Discipline in many homes is lax or nonexistent. Kids get their moral teaching from the street. Kids now listen to lyrics about “ho’s,” sex, and violence as their music and become an integral part of their society. When I was a teenager, the songs spoke of love, cars, dancing, or motorcycles.

Teenager’s smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol have now given away to using marijuana, LSD, cocaine, methamphetamines, or other synthetic, mind altering drugs.

Sex has become recreational. Abortions are now an accepted form of birth control. STD’s and aids have infected our young people. We lose the value of life when we treat birth and death so casually. Murderers are no longer given death sentences. Rapists and molesters are often given light jail terms by our judges. Sanctuary cities have been created by officials to protect these criminals. These sanctuary cities are different than the refuge cities of the Bible. Refuge cities kept the accused safe from retribution until the matter could be resolved. If guilty, it didn’t stop the outcome. Unlike our sanctuary cities, refuge cities sought justice. Lawmakers try to instill morals by changing the meanings of words or changing the laws without changing the person’s heart.