In 1940, public school teachers ranked the top seven disciplinary problems at public schools. They were talking out of turn, chewing gum, making noise, running in the hall, cutting in line, dress code violations, and littering. By 1990, the top seven disciplinary problems had changed somewhat. They were now drug abuse, alcohol abuse, pregnancy, suicide, rape, robbery, and assault (Harris 20).
He also referenced a 1948 paper by a Harvard sociologist who predicted a great decline in the culture because of the breakdown of the family. From 1910-1945 the divorce rate in America had increased from 10% to 25% (Sproul mentioned that it was 40% by 1980 and over 50% today). The increase to 25% was seen as untenable. Beyond that, there are many today who choose to cohabitate and have children in that setting because of the contemporary cultural mores which deems such choices as normative.
Chuck Colson mentioned in a speech recently that the popular notion among humanist sociologists is that the greatest cause of crime is poverty. Yet, when Colson left prison in 1975, the prison population in America was 320,000. Today it is over 2.5 million. At a time when the American economy, affluence and general prosperity rose to levels unprecedented in human history, the United states prison population has increased 8 fold.
Christian sociologists (do they exist? let's say Christian commentators) affirm that the greatest cause, and most likely the only cause, of crime in the world revolves around morality. Is something inherently wrong in and of itself? Is it only illegal to embezzle or is it also wrong on an objective, moral level? Secular-humanists will tell you that nothing is wrong on an objective, moral level because there are no absolute standards of morality. Take the current drug problem in America. The argument for legalization revolves around it being "a victimless crime". Even many fiscal conservatives are in favor of decriminalizing many drugs because of the financial burden investigating, prosecuting and incarcerating individuals has on the federal government (your tax dollars). What is most often lost in any discussion of crime and behavior is the question of the most importance. Is it wrong in itself?
I in no way claim that America before the sexual and cultural revolution of the 1960's was a monolithic Christian country and culture. All that is necessary to impress morals on a society is a majority opinion, because governments (especially in a democratic republic) are nothing more than a reflection of the culture, the will of the society. So the government can never be blamed for the breakdown in manners, the increase of crime or the absence of moral character.
People, starting at the individual level, must stand up for what is right because it is right. For no other reason than because it is the truth. And how do we know truth? Can it be found in the nucleotides of a genetic sequence? Can it be found in the redshift of a quasar? Of course not. But can truth be felt? Can it be identified through the beating of a heart or the yearning expression of a hope? No. At least not reliably. If truth were accountable to feelings, then all would be truth and nothing would be true. When you ask the Christian, or the Muslim, or the Jew, or the Hindi or even the Atheist what he feels, he will give you his truth and the sum total of all these conflicting, mutually exclusive truths is bitterly empty. The only possible way to answer the four main dilemmas in life, which according to Ravi Zacharias are origin, meaning, morality and destiny (where did we come from, why are we here, what should we do and where are we going) is through specific, Divine revelation. Answers of this nature can only come from the source of the circumstance. Now, there are competing entries for the title of the Divine revelation, and some would say that none of them truly are, or perhaps that it has been lost or exchanged, but there is one text that does answer all of the dilemmas in a consistent, concise and clear way verified by real time, real history and real experience.
Morality is the answer and the Bible is how we know it.
