Here, by the grace of God
After visiting Israel last month, I have a much greater appreciation of the fact that we, as Americans, are not even a good pimple on the face of humanity. Our Great American Culture has now spanned close to 250 years and that’s not even, to borrow a phrase from the late Jim Croce, a good spit in the wind of history.
All of the great societies across the spectrum of time run their course and I can’t help but wonder how close the Great American Culture is to playing out.
Generally speaking, I’m not a gloom and doom type of person. I’m much more of the-glass-is-half-full type. I don’t particularly like the naysayers of the world, but I’m more than a little worried about where we in the U.S. are headed and how fast we’re heading there.
Before this epistle is over you’re going to think I’m the biggest prude in Rome, but I don’t think that is really the case.
I believe our forefathers were brilliant when they penned the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. The smartest thing they did was create a mechanism for amending the documents to be able to flow with the times.
My Sunday School lesson last week was a real eye opener. The lesson came from First Corinthians 10:23, where the Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth (NIV): “‘I have the right to do anything,’ you say — but not everything is beneficial. ‘I have the right to do anything’ — but not everything is constructive.”
The Scripture continues in verse 24: “No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.”
I suppose a very secular version of the Scriptures can be found in the Rotary Four-Way Test.
1. Is it the truth?
2. Is it fair to all concerned?
3. Will it build goodwill and better friendships?
4. Will it be beneficial to all concerned? Just because we CAN do something, it is permissible, it is legal; well, that doesn’t mean we should do those things.
The problem in the U.S. today is that we’ve evolved into a very selfish society with little or no regard for the people around us.
Let’s start with freedom of speech (and how our courts have interpreted it), and I guess this is where that prude thing starts to come into play.
The last two feature length movies I’ve watched have been very entertaining, “A Walk in the Woods” and “House of Gucci.” While I say they were entertaining, I found myself cringing throughout both because of the language. Nick
Nolte in Walk and Lady Gaga in House were dropping F-bombs every time they opened their mouths.
As a society now, we largely accept and ignore foul language and I find it deplorable.
If your 6-year-old came home from school spewing that kind of language, I wonder how you’d react. I think I know the answer to that. If a 6-year-old shouldn’t be saying it, why should a 36-year-old or a 76-year-old?
But we’ve got freedom of speech, don’t we. I’ll mention one other thing here. Why is burning the American flag in public considered freedom of speech by the courts? The only time the flag is to be burned is when it’s retired. Any good Boy Scout knows that.
You burn a flag on the streets during a protest, you’re not on my Christmas card list.
Then there’s the Second Amendment.
I am fully supportive of the right to bear arms. On the other hand, I’m not sure the framers of the Constitution and Bill of Rights could have contemplated the kind of killing machines that are wreaking havoc across the country today.
These weapons of mass destruction might be beneficial if Genghis Khan and his Mongol Horde tried to break into your home. Absent the hordes, a rifle, shotgun or revolver would be up to the task most of us would potentially face.
Problem is, the horse is well out of the barn when it comes to attempting to regulate these high capacity weapons.
We haven’t figured out a way yet to regulate evil — and that’s the root of the epidemic of violence that’s terrorizing America right now.
Simple, plain, pure evil.
I get the argument that some folks want to make about dealing with mental health issues, but I do not believe that most of those who have been causing problems in Buffalo, Uvalde or Highland Park suffer from mental health problems in a clinical sense. Those folks were just plan mean.
We’ve got this highly automated, technology driven way of life today that ought to have an answer, when some things can be codified into law. If police are called to your house to answer a domestic violence complaint, or even a threat of violence, there’s no way on earth you should be permitted to legally buy a gun. At least not for a period of time, like 20 years. That ought to be long enough to cool off. But I forget, we’ve got freedom of speech.