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A National Moral Insanity
by
Josprel
“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 has
been 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 are now 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 our own handiwork distress
us? As the Prophet Hosea declared, we have “ . . . sown to the wind” and
we are reaping “the whirlwind” (Hosea 8:7).
In the Bible, the Book of Proverbs, chapter fourteen, verse thirty-four,
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 fortify
America; blasphemy, immorality and a lack of godliness will bring us
down. Because of our sins, we are experiencing what amounts to a
national moral insanity. The dismantling of our Judaic-Christian code of
integrity has left us morally impotent – unable to discern the
difference between true good and evil. As Anglican Bishop Butler
insightfully observed in England over one hundred years ago, “Why may
not whole communities and public bodies be seized with fits of insanity
as well as individuals?”
They may, 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.” However,
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
absolute catastrophe experienced by previous societies that, ignoring
God’s precepts, practiced evil and called it good.
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© Josprel (Joseph Perrello)
josprel@verizon.net
About the Author:
Josprel is an ordained minister, who resides with his
wife, Maria, in Western New York, across the Niagara River from Canada.
Though brought up by devout parents, at an early age, he abandoned the
Church and religion in general, not returning to them until several
years later. He served three years in the Far East as a sergeant of
operating engineers with the U.S. Air Force. He then was separated from
active duty and placed on a ten-year reserve status. He studied for the
ministry under the G.I Bill of Rights, and holds a Master of Theology
degree. During his years of ministry, Josprel pastored three churches,
including one in Attica, New York, the location of America's bloodiest
prison riot. The Attica Prison administration requested Josprel to
conduct weekly, three-hour-long Bible studies for the inmates. Josprel
did so for some four years, before turning them over to another pastor,
due to heavy demands on his time. Josprel ministers with the evangelical
denomination of his youth. He is a prolific writer, whose stories and
articles have appeared in print and on the Internet. He is authoring two
novels: “Beloved Apostate” and “Kanfal.”
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