Society In 30 Year Moral Decline???

I may be a Christian or follower of Christ or whatever other appropriate name one wants to attach but I often find myself in disagreement with large portions. To the point where someone very close to me declared that I hate all Christians and despise the church. That statement couldn't be closer to untruth because that person was a Christian and I love her. Actually, the majority of important people in my life are Christians and I have no hatred for them. Except maybe when my brother makes a mess of the kitchen only twenty seconds after I scrubbed it clean. The church I found in Brantford is a place that I enjoy and am very happy with. The reality is, I definitely don't outright hate every Christian or Christian institution. Actually, I would like to believe that I don't actually have real hatred for anything. Rather, I am frustrated with many of the beliefs and actions of several Christian groups. I am highly critical of many Christian institutions since I often feel their priorities are out of whack. Plus if an institution claims their work is to glorify God than I feel they should be put under more harsh scrutiny. I think it is a bold claim to make and the organization better be ready to back it up.

The purpose of the previous paragraph, was to give a little background on my stance with things Christian. I was attempting to show that I am not out to condemn or attack Christianity. As I stated previously, I would fall under the broad category of what people call a Christian. I also don't believe that I necessarily go out of my way to criticize or attack Christianity. Unfortunately, many Christian groups make it far too easy for me.

I stumbled across a magazine produced by a very well known Christian evangelist. I am not going to mention his name because I really don't want to give him the publicity nor do I want to make this sound like a personal attack against him. Unfortunately, the reality is that I do not agree with 99.99% of the words I have heard or read that came from him. His big gimmick is that he is basically a prophet and is informing people of the coming end times. Now, I have a whole other rant on 'end times' talk and how I totally disagree with much of what has been spouted. I really don't feel Christians should be looking towards Jesus magically zapping us off to wonderland. I feel our are duty is to try to make this world as close to 'heaven' as possible and try to display true love to all people on this Earth. But, I am heading off into an entirely different rant now.

FOCUS! Anyway, I came across an article which basically said that we know Jesus will be returning very soon because society has been in a 30 year moral decline. I'll ignore the whole problem with prophesying Jesus' return and how a moral decline is necessary for this. Instead, I will focus on my problem with the statement that our society is in a 30 year morale decline.

Claiming the world is in a 30 year moral decline leads one to believe that the world must have been fairly moral previous to that. It definitely says that things are much worse now than they were 30 years ago. I think the claim is missing a very key phrase which is 'if you're a white male.' As our society has progressed, it obviously is no longer the white male dominated world. Nope, we've got those pesky 'minorities' and females getting that equality. We live in a society now that a women or a 'minority' could easily be put in a position of huge leadership. They could even be the leaders of our nations. Oh wow, look at that morality decline!!!!

Yes, I am being sarcastic. I look at the world today and I see a lot of positive progressions. You look at the 1950s, a time period many look back fondly, and you realize the Southern states was plagued with the atrocious Jim Crow laws that significantly harmed Black people's way of life. In Canada, residential schools for Natives were still prevalent and it is now very clear how damaging those institutions were. Women's rights were significantly less in the 1950s and they were definitely considered second class citizens. Today there are many laws and programs in place that help women from horrid things like sexual harassment and abuse. The fact is, harassment in the work place was very acceptable and unavoidable even in many places in the 70s. In today's society, many are actively trying to right these previous injustices and putting things in place to try to rid them entirely. I realize sexism and racism still exists but I would argue it has greatly improved since the 70s or even the 80s.

For people who miss the 'good old days', are they really pining for Imperialism, the Holocaust or Apartheid? Those are just three horrendous things out of a million that have happened throughout the world and were all over 30 years ago (some starting over centuries ago). To me, it seems very clear the past was not a moral haven. In some ways, I would argue we have seen a 30 year rise in morality.

Today, there are many groups formed with the focus of human rights. We are much more aware and concerned about the world around us. For example, look at how many people are pushing for aid in the Sudan. Now, I am not claiming perfection here. I realize there are many ugly flaws. I am saying that there are far more human right laws put in place today than there was 30 years ago. There is much more concern and awareness of the abuse done to 3rd world countries. Many people are taking much more proactive stances in trying to correct and resolve these human right problems.

To me, that is far more important than the fact there is a movie that shows 20 seconds of boobie or there is same sex marriages. Actually, I am glad there is far less persecution and abuse done to homosexuals. No matter your stance on the matter, you must agree it is not very loving or moral to attack a certain group of people. I am very proud that we are a much more tolerant society in that way.

Our world still has a lot of problems. I believe people are much more concerned about the injustices in this world. I see people striving for improvement rather than endorsing immoral actions. To me, a naughty song or violent movie really isn't a big deal. It bothers you? Then don't watch it. The important morality is how others are treated. As humans this what we need to constantly try to improve and change. Rather than wasting our time on the much more trivial matters.