"Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people" (Proverbs 14:34 ESV).
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them(Romans 1:21-32 ESV).
This morning I was listening to talk radio in the car, and the subject was a recent gang-rape and beating in San Francisco. Dozens of people witnessed the atrocity over the space of two hours and did nothing to stop it. No one even called the police! The host, with whom I normally agree, said, and I paraphrase, "I know what many of you are going to say... took God out of schools... less and less people practicing religion... but this is something that can't be explained just by a lack of belief in God or practice of religion. Even someone who doesn't believe in God should have the basic goodness to do something about a horrible crime like this--at least call the police." He went on to affirm this is evidence of moral decay in at least pockets of the U.S. that cannot be explained simply by the lack of God and religion.
I agree with the host that this is an atrocity. It is a reproach upon the people of San Francisco, if not the whole nation. Someone should have personally interceded even if it means bodily harm or death!
On the other hand, I disagree with him about how a community of people can become so apathetic. The lack of God and (true) religion fully explains it. What my friend, the talk-show host, doesn't understand is that moral decay is often a generational process. While it's true that one can choose to become as evil as he wants to in one instant decision, regardless of how he was raised, culturally and nationally speaking, it usually happens generationally.
Like this: A couple marries and has children. They are devoted practitioners of their faith, but they fail to pass it on in any way other than by example. So, their children grow up, and follow their parents' example, practicing the religion they saw in their parents, but without the substance. Their children, then, as they mature, begin to question the point of practicing empty religious rituals, and so, depart from religious practice. O, they still believe in God, but just not religion. Their children, in turn, are raised in a basically godless environment. Though their parents held to belief in God, their was no practice of religion, no training in righteousness to serve as foundation. They grow up to question whether there is a God. Many come to atheism altogether, but still cling to some sense of groundless moral goodness. Finally, they raise up a generation without belief in God, no religious practice, no foundation for morality. When those of such a generation face temptations and influences of outright evil, and it seems to be acceptable by their peers, what's to stop them? Through the process of generational religious decline, each generation drifts farther and farther away from righteousness. Without God there is none!
The situation in pockets accross America today is the result of generational moral decay, the result of decades of growing animosity towards God and truth. I don't believe for one second that the people in any part of this great land are beyond hope of revival, but there's only one place it can come from: God.
In whatever pocket of the nation or the world you find yourself, seek God with all your heart, practice true religion as revealed in the Holy Bible, and relentlessly influence those around you to do the same. That's righteousness. It exalts a nation. It's any nation's only hope for a bright future.
---JLP
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