Shade Tree Wisdom 8/23/13

          The Psalm, 36, had it right when we read:

“The wicked man has rebellion in his heart, 
God doesn't terrify Him.

He has no regard for God,

He stands insolent before Him.

He has smooth-talked himself

That his evil will never be noticed.” Ps. 36,l.2.

          It seems to me those words describe exactly the culture we live in. Just pay close attention to the 6 o’clock news. Nearly everyone reports a police chase, a smash and grab, a break in and theft, or more violent crime. And the problem is that we are getting so used to it that it just doesn't seem to bother much any more. That comes when we tear away the family, erase moral codes, leave the Church, disregard local custom, and the person will be free.

          Now it is clear when we remove bonds of church, family, neighborhood, it does not lead to freedom, it leads to loneliness, disorder, crime and despair. The dream has turned into a nightmare of chaos.

          There is a family in Melbourne, Australia, who are mourning the death of a son they had sent to America to follow his dream of becoming a ball player. They were unaware that our President has declared “America is not a Christian nation”, or of the nearly daily killings, or of all the unrest that seems rampant everywhere.

          So they mourn the death of a son who was shot because, as reported by the police chief, for “the fun of it”. Has our culture sunk so low that it produces teenagers for whom the prospect of shooting an innocent man raises not a scintilla of conscience.

          That is the deeper tragedy and the real scandal, of what we have done by really forgetting that, at the very beginning, there were Words written in stone to lead us to a better and finally, in Christ, eternal life.

          In Australia that shooting was national news. Here, hardly anyone noticed. God help us all.

GP 8/23/13