Moral Decline of Society

I heard yet another sermon on the moral decline of society. Regretfully, I have not counted the number of similar sermons I have heard in my life, a life committed to God, to church, to Christian higher education, but I suspect having heard approximately 10 of these kinds of sermons per year. Given my 50 years, this means I have heard this sermon and its variation more or less 500 times. Of course there are many variations of this sermon and it is categorically unfair to group them together as one under the umbrella of "here is another moral decline of society" sermon, but given my propensity for encapsulation and idea labeling, I find myself comfortably assigning thematic sermons into a particular theatre.

Please know I am not criticizing this choice of sermon. Not being a preacher, I would think it is often difficult to preach without having a few minutes of "moral decline of society" verbage. Just like any good piece music, a strong sermon requires a little tension before providing a release of the positive. This concept is tried and true and generally works. People need to hear ideas for improvement, and what better way than to point out the things to avoid. When I go running, I avoid the spots on the road that will cause me to fall or get hurt, preferring to stay on the normal road as I continue toward the goal of completion.

But I am a little bored with the recurring theme of we are in a "moral decline of society" as exemplified by the following: drugs, sex, alcohol, crime. Or let's take it further: terrorism, taxes, welfare, loud music, pants that are too big, clothes not covering well, high gas prices, homosexuality, swearing, global warming, tornados, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, ice, bugs, snakes, disease, and the list is unending. All these and more have plenty of examples as you pick up the newspaper or listen to the radio or simply look around. A person can always find the negative in all things and it is easy to enumerate the onslaught of moral problems. People are flawed and society is flawed and culture is messed up and institutions are a disaster and in truth everything is bad. Regardless of one's definition of moral behavior, there is always an example to support a position.

I do have a friend who considers me to be an optimist, a Pollyana, a rose-tinted glasses person, a find the good in everyone kind of guy, and I suppose I can accept this criticism and am strangely comfortable with the label. This does not mean that I am not aware of the constant and disturbing problems I see and hear everyday, but it does mean that I work to think broadly, focusing on the general refinement of our world, seeking to experience joy over sorrow, love over hate, improvement over despair, and progression over digression.

Call me cock-eyed, but I do not really believe we are seeing the moral decline of society. I do think the changes in culture, in lifestyle, and in practice are dramatic, perhaps revolutionary, but not necessarily vitriolic. There is a tendency to make our worldview rather limited, based primarily on our immediate senses, interpreting those events we see or experience as being representative of the collective culture, a culture that is steadily marching toward its own doom, destroying the essence of goodness through moral depravity and a kind of societal self-destruction. Our human concept of time is very small, relegated to our own lifespan and our own experience, an experience that may at least to an extent include our families, our education, and our own concepts and interests.

A study of history generally focuses on political structures, on governments, on states, and on broad decisions. Yet if we begin to think microscopically on the lives of people, and then add in a lateral progression of time, we discover something different. We find a very slow, deliberate, refinement and improvement of life. In fact we discover a higher respect for the living and a greater commitment to the value of life with all its complexities. Society is waxing better and better not worse and worse. But like a bull market where in spite of general growth and steady increases, we will occasionally find decline, spikes downward, pain instead of joy, discomfort, evil, sorrow, and destruction. All these and more are and always will be a part of our lives, no question about that.

Yet regardless of those who insist upon preaching the moral decline of society, and I certainly respect them, I must take the other side and preach the moral good, the moral melioration of society. We may see what we want to see, and believe me there are plenty of problems, but as for me, I see a plethora of love and blessings abundant.