Regardless of party affiliation, most Americans have some anxiety as our country faces a new cycle of elections. Citizens of many countries are watching the selection of the next President of the United States of America because it does influence many nations around the world.
There are powerful changes occurring around us. Complex forces of social, economic, technical and moral beliefs are shifting and the ripples of those shifts shake our country.
Social media is especially influencing our youngest citizens (13-30 yrs old) who have grown up “connected” to a cell phone and internet-hyper-stimulated world. Economically, the country is in uncharted waters, as the effects of the COVID pause along with the massive government money distribution continues to shake/fuel inflation. The legalization of recreational marijuana use in approximately half of our states is another indicator of powerful changes in our culture.
There is a growing divergence, not just in political and monetary issues, but on things much more basic. The very concept of morality itself is shifting. Drug laws, abortion laws, “gender” laws, marriage laws, are not just political ideas but go to the nature of people - what we believe about right and wrong. Our society is struggling over the very definitions of morality.
How will historians write about this period of American history? Clearly there are substantial changes in values taking place. The impact of TV, cable broadcasts, streaming media, YouTube, etc. on the morality of our country is so massive it defies measurement. Since the content of one’s mind forms the basis for all values, the young are always the most susceptible to the effects of “TV” morality.
Solomon said there is nothing new under the sun and what has been done will be forgotten by those who come along later. (Ecl 1:9-11). Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed 4000 years ago. Aaron sculpted a golden calf 3400 years ago to answer Israel’s demand to make its own god. Who cares? Well, I care and so do all true Bible students and believers who accept that “the things written before were written for our learning” (Rom 15:4).
Today, people are saying - “we want what we want, and we will define our own morality.” Guess what? Old news. That’s been said before. That spirit was in the world of Noah and in the people of Sodom and in the children of Israel. That spirit is STILL alive and well among those who wish to change the church into an institution of pleasurable entertainment that professes a God who is tolerant of all human behavior.
Remember, “If we deny Him, He also will deny us. If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.” (2 Tim 2:12-13) Even if “all” eventually turn away from God, God will still be God, and one day every knee will still bow, and ALWAYS there were a FEW faithful!
-Tim Orbison
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