A Weak and Vulgar Society

Two days ago, I was paying for gas at my local convenience store, and a young teenage boy was standing next to me using every foul word that he knew. I looked down upon him with a strong glance of disapproval. He knew that he was offensive, but he didn't care. He continued to cuss and swear straight out of the store and onto his bicycle.

In my perfect world, I would have taken the boy outside and whipped him in front of his friends. I would have told him that we do not use language like that around women and children. He would have said, "I'm sorry, sir. I don't know what came over me." I would have then bought him a coke and a candy bar, and we would all went home happy.

However, this is not a perfect world. If I had done what I desired to do I would still be in jail. I stood there with no options other than to show my disapproval. He knew that no one in the store could stop him, and I am certain by his attitude that mom and dad did not care. Thus, all who were near him were forced to listen to the foulness of a young teenage boy without any legal way to change the environment.

This leads me to another story. I was recently reading an article about Champlain College in Vermont. Students had organized a formal dance. Everyone was to wear black and white. A group of students found this theme offensive. They believed that a formal black and white affair was sexist and hetero-centered. They also stated that the theme may be overtly racist. The school canceled the dance, and held it the next week without a theme.

So how do these two stories relate? Simple, a secular society will always forfeit what is normal and good for what is abnormal and bad. Our nation is becoming more and more secular. As this trend continues, expect our nation to be come more sinful and vile. A great theologian and philosopher named Francis Shaffer once said that what America finds offensive today, they will accept 20 years from now. He was right. Our society will become more and more open to sin and filth as time marches on.

So what is a Conservative Christian to do? First, fight as hard as you can to change it. If you are a post-millenialist, this is easy for you. If you are a pre-millennialist you will have to work at this. You believe the prophesy of the Bible predicts a great falling away. Thus, why should you stop it. Simple, you have a duty to expand the Kingdom of God. You need to be involved in correcting your nation. You need to know what your politicians believe, and you need to know what you believe.

Second, rejoice because you are the salt and light of this world. As America becomes more and more secular, the church becomes more and more defined. When I was growing up, Ohio had blue laws. Our society was much more innocent than it is today. In the future, the true church will look nothing like the world. Certainly there will be secular denominations, but conservative evangelical Christianity will truly be seen as a departure from the norm. This should excite us and motivate us to be stronger believers.

The older I get, the more I sound old. I find myself saying "In my days" an awful lot. The truth is that today is "in my days". We cannot rest on yesterday. We must look to influence our culture today. Yes our society is weak and vulgar, but that doesn't mean we have to be. Take courage, God is on our side. And when God is for us, who can be against us.