The Destruction of Society

It doesn't take a genius to realize that our society is in trouble. The greatest problem is in the attitudes we hold about life, about God, and about each other. As I was reading through the first chapter of the New Testament book of Romans, it suddenly occurred to me that there are some general ideas or principles that get us into trouble when we adopt them as guiding principles for our lives.

I write as a Christian believer, but let me try to present these as principles that apply to anyone.

First, the writer of Romans decries the suppression of truth by godless and wicked men (Romans 1:18). As I write this, the United States is in the midst of a presidential campaign and, as usual, charges of lying and/or the distortion of the truth are being tossed around between the major candidates.

Whether we're talking about religious truth or truth in general, it is a terrible thing to present lies as truth and expect people to act on those lies. No society or nation can function well or long when they live on the basis of falsehood. At best, the bonds among people will deteriorate. At worst, force will be employed by leaders in order to keep the people in line.

Second, the writer of Romans says that the fundamental truth of life is evident to anyone who will look (Romans 1:19-20). The writer is referring to the truth that a powerful and divine Being created the world. That idea is, of course, in dispute today as evolutionists and creationists line up against each other, each claiming proof of some kind to support their positions. What should be obvious, despite the assertions of those who lump animals and humans together as the same kind of creatures, is that there is a basic difference in kind between the two groups. Even many of those who see humans as no more than animals still, in the end, act as though humans are more special.

We do not serve each other well if we ignore what Francis Schaeffer, a Christian philosopher, once called the "mannishness of man." What he meant by that term was that humans display qualities not found in other creatures-dignity, thinking ability, and compassion that are difficult to explain unless we understand that we are dealing with more than animals when we deal with humans.

Third, the writer of Romans points out the trend to worship created things or, to put it more simply, to worship things (Romans 1:21-25). Not acknowledging God, people gave themselves over to the worship and service of the things around them. In the past, that meant the worship of certain animals or objects. Today it can mean the worship and striving after money or property or fame or power. When our son was in high school, he had a paper route. One morning he used our car to do his route. In backing out of our driveway, he scraped the car against our van. When he returned home, he confessed what he had done, and my wife told him that someday, those vehicles would just be rust. Things that wear out are not worth our worship. They are means to ends; not ends in themselves.

Fourth, the writer of Romans notes the shift from what is considered normal to what is considered abnormal (Romans 1:26-27). The issue here is homosexuality, certainly a controversial topic in today's society. Since normal today is held to be whatever any particular person says is normal for him or her, there's not much we can say about this principle-except that the compromising of whatever is normal for a person is a destructive lifestyle for that person.

Fifth and finally, the writer of Romans is concerned with the people who have become filled with every kind of wickedness and do what should not be done, even though they know such things deserve punishment (Romans 1:28-32). Unfortunately, there are too many people who are not restrained by conventions of decency or law. On the day that I am writing this, I heard about several people-some were social workers, one was the mother-who allowed or did not report that the mother was starving her young daughter to death. This took place over several months, during which social workers either saw the girl or lied about checking on her. No one reported that something wrong was happening.

There is a common factor in all of these destructive attitudes: human beings think they are the sole determiner of what is right and wrong. When the religious foundation of our society was eroded away through apathy and legal challenges, we lost something important. People can celebrate our freedom from the constraints of God and religion all they want, but we are a much poorer society because of the decline of religion. I have yet to see a consistent foundation for a healthy society that is based on anything less than a religious base.