In his book “Mere Christianity,” author C.S. Lewis, an atheist, begins by acknowledging that wherever one goes to whatever group of beings, there always seems to be a code of what is good for the culture and what is bad: a way of living peacefully together in harmony.
In the American culture, which is founded in Judeo-Christian beliefs, there is a recognition that there is a supreme being (God) and an evil being (devil) that compete for our attention. The more we know about each, the better we will be prepared to select the good from the evil in order to live in harmony with our neighbors.
However, many years ago, our leaders decided that we should no longer educate our young folks about God. (Now whose influence do you suppose instigated that?) So all references to God, the Bible and any other sort of learning about a supreme being has been minimized, if not erased totally from our education system.
And what do you think has resulted? A dramatic increase in violence, especially from younger citizens. They are relatively easy pickings for the evil one. In many cases, they don’t know any better. They haven’t been told about the love of God, his forgiveness, his help in times of trouble, how to relate to him, all these ways to counter the push of the evil one.
Sorry, young folks: The “powers that be” have determined you have to figure this out for yourselves. Hopefully with the help of parents. Please pray for our younger generation.
Gil Brezler
Penn Township, Westmoreland County