A National Moral Insanity

by Joseph Perrello
Published February 11, 2005

("Why may not whole communities and public bodies be seized with fits of
insanity as well as individuals?" English Bishop Butler's observation
made more than 100 years ago.)

"Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil." Isaiah 5:20

What a graphic description of modern America! Flying the banner of
"personal rights, our nation has rationalized a myriad of evils, calling
them "good." We have a "right to our own bodies," therefore,
innumerable pre-born babies are "terminated," and our society is called
upon to underwrite this evil. Waving the same "rights" emblem,
homosexuality is disguised as an "alternate life-style," with demands
that it be as such taught to our children in the public schools. Under
the guise of the separation of Church and state, all mention of God is
being eliminated from the public schools, replaced with Eastern
religious philosophies, witchcraft, transcendental meditation, and
mind-control, all falsely represented as legitimate curricula.

Situational ethics, with its code of moral non-absolutes, has replaced
our Judaic-Christian system of conduct in decision making. Challenges
are being leveled against the mention of God in all aspects of
governmental functions. America is being defined as a "secular state."
All this is occurring in the name of "good."

Seemingly calloused and insensible to the collective sins of our
generation, we have fast degenerated to a nation with a seared
conscience. We have speedily drifted away from God's definition of
morality, thus loosing our collective ability for straight thinking on
moral issues. Redefining good and evil, and recreating them after our
own fallen image, we now are magnifying and perpetuating sins against
God, ourselves and our children, calling these sins good.

We now appear shaken as we suffer the initial shock-waves of an
imploding America that - moral and spiritual foundations in disarray -
stumbles about like a blind Samson chained to the millstone of gross
immorality. However, the fault is our own. We, ourselves, redefined our
moral values. We permitted the disassembling of the moral and spiritual
ramparts that once protected us. Why should we be shocked at our own
handiwork? As the prophet Hosea declared, we have ". . . sown to the
wind" and we are reaping "the whirlwind" (Hosea 8:7).

The Proverbs 14:34 records an inflexible formula concerning a nation's
morality or lack thereof: "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a
reproach to any people." This injunction is unambiguous. Righteousness
will strengthen America; continued corruption will bring us down.
Because of our sins, we are experiencing what amounts to a moral
national insanity. The dismantling of our Judaic-Christian code of
morality has left us morally impotent - unable to discern the difference
between true good and evil. As Anglican Bishop Butler insightfully
observed in England more than 100 years ago, "Why may not whole
communities and public bodies be seized with fits of insanity as well as
individuals?" They may be, and it appears that America has been. The
Bible again addresses nations as well as individuals, in Psalm 9:14:
"The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all nations that forget God."

Nonetheless, Christ Jesus offers hope to us. In recounting the parable
of "The Prodigal Son," He observed that the young man squandered all his
inheritance with riotous living. "But when he had spent all, there
arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he
went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him
into his fields to feed swine. And he gladly would have filled his
stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.
But when he came to himself, he said "How many of my father's hired
servant have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

"I will arise and go to my father and will say to him, 'Father, I have
sinned against heaven and before you, and am no longer worthy to be
called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants' . . . But when
he was still a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion,
and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him" (Luke 15:14-24). The
father then ordered his servants to prepare a great feast for the
returned prodigal.

As a nation, we also must come to ourselves, realign our code of conduct
and focus again on God's absolutes. Only by doing so can we avoid the
catastrophic demise experienced by previous societies that - ignoring
God's precepts - practiced evil and called it good.

Viewed 403 times