We live in a time of great marital discord and family disintegration. At the beginning of the twentieth century the divorce rate in America was under ten percent. By 1983 the divorce rate was just under fifty percent (the divorce rate has stood near fifty percent ever since the early 1980s). One would expect that with the great rise in the standard of living in the United States, families would be in a better state in the 1990s then they were in the 1890s. There is no question that, materially speaking, Americans are much better off than they were 100 years ago. The problems in the family in the late twentieth century are not economic but ethical and spiritual. The twentieth century in America is the century of unbelief and apostasy, the century in which secular humanism replaced Christianity as the predominant world-view. It is the children of those who rejected biblical Christianity in the 1930s and 40s who cast off all restraint. Thus, since the 1960s America experienced the youth rebellion, the so-called generation gap, the drug culture, the romanticization of socialism (the loony left), and the sexual revolution. While the political and cultural establishment of the 1950s was a hypocritical farce and justly needed to be questioned, the youth rebellion went beyond the questioning of political and cultural norms. Young people rejected Christianity and rejected God's ordained lawful means of preserving the family. The sexual revolution, with its premarital sex, pornography, adultery, homosexuality and easy, no-fault divorce has left in its wake broken families, untold heartaches, suicide, poverty and abortion (the American holocaust). We have watched in horror and disbelief as the number of illegitimate births has climbed 400 percent, as divorce rates have quadrupled, as the incidence of domestic violence has increased 320 percent, as the percentage of children either abandoned or left to their own resources has quintupled, and as teen suicides have skyrocketed 200 percent.
If children are dealt with strictly from a tender age they will become accustomed to discipline and obedience. They will grow up expecting discipline when they do wrong. They will develop habitual patterns of obedience from the very start. When parents waste those early formative years the children become accustomed to laxness and disobedience. Then when the parents finally decide to crack down and get strict they've got a huge battle on their hands. The procedure of doing almost nothing until children get older and rebel is very common among non-Christian families. In such families the parents discover that their child is getting drunk, smoking pot, taking drugs, fornicating, etc. and are shocked and distressed by such behavior. As a result they crack down with groundings, take various privileges away and yell a lot. By this time, however, their child has already developed a self-centered, hedonistic, "youth culture," satanic world view. The response of the teenager is to argue, yell, complain, lie a lot, sneak out, run away and lead a double life: one in front of their parents and one in front of their so-called friends. Such children disrespect and often hate their own parents. They can't wait to move out of the house so they can party and fornicate without sneaking around. This scenario is very common in America
2 comments:
Just wanted to let you know that I am not ignoring your post. I generally agree with this article, but plan to give a little more of a detailed response as soon as I have the time.
Interesting. Did you write this, or is this quoted from somewhere? Sounds a bit like Francis Schaeffer.
I tend to agree, but think it's a bit over-dramatic. What does it matter if the culture is degenerate? Can Christians not live and thrive amongst a degenerate culture? If not, how did the early church manage to co-exist with Greek and Roman cultures? They were far more degenerate in many of the areas you mentioned. Israel, also, was continually surrounded by cultures who practiced the worst kinds of paganism - sexual horrors, canabalism, infant burnings, and the like.
In my opinion, America and most of the world is overly moralistic, though national morals are not the same as Christian morals, and I wouldn't expect them to be.
Strictness with children is fine, but it's not the decisive factor in whether a child will pursue a Christian calling. A child from a strict home may grow up a moral and upstanding citizen, but if they do not have the Spirit of God what good is it? Paul said in Romans 10:3 that some, having not the righteousness of God tried to "establish their own righteousness." This is empty moralism, and has no value.
I try to treat my children like God treats his own.
And more often than not, God is everything the Bible says he is: Patient, Longsuffering, Kind, Gentle.
God doesn't always strike down with thunder when someone is disobedient. More often than not, he overlooks sin, and calls his people back to the covenant in spite of themselves.
Post a Comment