A Lack of Conscience

The city of Colorado Springs was shocked again yesterday when a 33-year-old female teacher was arrested for having a long-running affair with a 17-year-old male student. This isn't the first teacher/pupil case of this sort in town, and it probably won't be the last. The number of teachers dismissed for improper behavior, child molesting, sexual assault, or sexual harrassment in the last ten years isn't exactly known, but the number is greater than a dozen for sure, and probably greater than two dozen. Nor are any schools exempt. Problems have been discovered not only in all five of the local school districts, but in most if not all of the private and parochial schools as well.

I'm sure that Colorado Springs isn't unique. The problem is epidemic in all school systems.

This is just one of many "unexpected consequences" of the sixties attitude of "free love", protests, extreme liberalism, contempt for authority, the explosion of psychobabble, and rebellion against the status quo.

Some of the casualties of the war leftists have waged for 40 years are beginning to reach epidemic proportions. Here's a short list:

Two-parent families Motherhood Common courtesy Sanctity of marriage Integrity Honor Patriotism

Civilization as we know it depended on many of these factors, yet people had no qualms about destroying them. Many arguments were used to bring these institutions down. Religion was called an impediment to human development, a fantasy that no longer needed to be heeded, and "the opiate of the masses". Psychologists decided they knew human behavior so well they could recommend "getting rid of baggage from the bad old days", such as discipline, courtesy, honesty, integrity, and truth. Doctors and psychologists told us how we should rear our children, how we should treat our mates, and that we should always "consider ourselves first". Politics, like religion, was considered to be the source of unnecessary limitations on behavior, to be ignored.

And the world today is an unHoly mess.

Crime is up, unwed motherhood is up, depression and suicide is up, divorce is up, the number of children living in one-family homes is up, violent behavior is up, and dozens of other negative statistics are up.

And 33-year-old teachers are sleeping with 17-year-old boys.

There is a reason why Jews are the most successful people in the world, even when treated the harshest. They live the closest to what God, mankind's Creator, has instructed us. There's a reason the average Mormon is prosperous, married, with several well-behaved children who mostly get college educations and do well in life. There's a reason Catholics do better in life across the board than those who profess no religion.

The Soviet Union imploded because of lawlessness and greed, because the people had no faith in themselves or anyone else. Europe, especially France and Germany, are suffering high unemployment, and many internal problems. The Dutch are on the verge of being overwhelmed by a tiny minority in their nation. All because they forgot that there are rules that apply to human behavior - rules established by God the Creator.

When we forget the rules, bad things happen. Man is not sufficiently honest in and of himself to not engage in bad behavior. He's not smart enough to understand the consequences of his failures. Yet man has been in charge of society in most of the world for the last 50 years, and all of us have suffered from it. Mankind needs rules, especially rules of ethics, rules governing relationships, and rules governing the sanctity and integrity of life. Without rules, you have the killing fields of Cambodia, the genocide of Rwanda, and the mass murders of Germany, China, and the old Soviet Union.

Even if you can't bring yourself to believe in a spiritual God, at least acknowledge that His rules create a much happier and orderly society, with less crime and more courtesy than what we have now.