Olivia

Apathy- America’s Invisible Threat

 “So much attention is paid to the aggressive sins, such as violence and cruelty and greed with all their tragic effects, that too little attention is paid to the passive sins, such as apathy and laziness, which in the long run can have a more devastating effect”. These insightful words of Eleanor Roosevelt aptly expose one of the hidden threats facing America. Because of the less obvious nature of apathy its true destructive qualities are not always recognized, though they are indeed dangerous. Apathy is not only detrimental to one’s self but also creates an access for evil. America today is faced with a selectively apathetic population, which by turn poses a danger to the individual and affects the nation as a whole.

According to the American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary, apathy is “Lack of interest, concern, or emotion; indifference”. The root of apathy may be attributed to any one or more of three basic standings: unwillingness to extend effort when there is no perception of personal gain; unwillingness to become involved when there is no perception of personal involvement (classically known as “its not my problem”); or despair that even if one was to care or be involved it would change nothing. How could anyone be truly a part of their family or society if they are in this state?

At some point apathy extends beyond the passive; though one might have thought he was merely declining to lift a hand or become involved, at some point that indifference infers acceptance and soon there is Saul, holding the cloaks of murdering men. It has been said, “Apathy is the glove in which evil slips it’s hand” (Bodie Thoene). Such an evil may creep either into the apathetic person with all the sneaking subtleties of Satan or it may happen that by being apathetic the person has allowed another, a malignant one, to push them aside and usurp the space previously so carefully held in excessive neutrality.

Long ago Plato warned, “The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men”. America has the unique quality of being a democratic republic, not a mere mob rule nor a dictatorship but a government grounded in the roots of the people. However, in the 2004 presidential election only 55.3 % of registered voters actually voted. When the people do not avail themselves to the opportunity to take part in the direction of their country that opportunity will dissipate and fade away. It is the people’s selective apathy, rather than a willingness to be intellectually involved in the state of our country, that will bring about the erosion of that precious ideal which America claims: Freedom

Galatians 6:9 instructs “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.” Rather than allowing disinterest to overwhelm life, rather than allowing apathy to shape a place for evil, rather than standing by in chosen lethargy while all falls to ruin, awake! Breathe; let passion turn to just action. Live your life. Let not your life be hollow. Vote. Be involved. We are called to action, not indifference.

What is the most pressing problem in our society? The idea that we should be tolerant of all beliefs, religion and life styles is the most serious problem in our society. If this is the most serious problem our society faces the first thing to be done is to define the word. The word tolerant is defined in the Webster’s Dictionary as “inclined or disposed to tolerate; showing tolerance; forbearing: tolerant of errors.” As this is not a useful definition for the sake of this paper we shall use the definition “showing respect for the rights or opinions or practices of others.” The reason this is a problem is that we (our society) have taken this too far. We accept almost anything because we have been programmed to be polite and not step on anyone’s feeling.

The belief that we should be tolerant of all life styles is especially prevalent in our society. California has a box with seven different sexes on the Drivers License application. The Bill for same sex marriage is brought repeatedly to every state to see if they will pass it. All these things are bombarding us and Christians are told by the media to tolerate it and not to be judgmental.

The next thing we are faced with is false religion. Islam is one of the fastest growing religions in America today. Wicca and Judaism are also quickly rising in growth. In fact in America Christianity is one of the most declining religions. They say Christians in America pray for the persecution to end in China while Christians in China pray for persecution in America. China has visible persecution while America has a persecution of the mind. Whenever a Christian stands up for their faith he is immediately told to sit down a shut up and no one cares.

Finally we are told to tolerate beliefs. The difference between beliefs and religion is that beliefs are a breaking or difference in theology in two sects of the same religion. The Way is a religion, Baptists and Presbyterians are belief systems. The Christian faith has more divisions than any other religion. As the great poet Aesop said, “United we stand, divided we fall.” This cliché may be old but it is one of the truest statements in history. In America we falling down, fifty churches close every day never to be opened again, this is a dark time when the most openly Christian country in the world is losing its faith and no one is concerned.

“A house divided cannot stand,” these great words of Christ are falling on a deaf and ‘tolerant’ nation. The idea of tolerance is everywhere and the problem is Christians are buying it. We tolerate gay marriage. We tolerate false religion. We tolerate division of the church. We tolerate it all. The End Days are coming and we don’t care, we don’t want to disturb the waters. In fifty years the Christian faith in America will be dead all because we were tolerant.

Planet Earth, undoubtedly the best place to vacation in our solar system because of its moderate temperatures and beautiful weather. Although all seems well enough, there are some people who believe that the average temperature of the planet is increasing in what they call “global warming”. In the U.S. this idea has especially taken root in the minds of some politicians and scientist. Slowly increasing in number these believers claim that unless something drastic is done the Earth is racing toward some catastrophic climate change. But there are multiple problems with this so called “global warming” beginning with the scientist who support it and the evidence that contradicts this hypothesis. Another aspect often overlooked is the strain it would put on the economy if the U.S. were to take action to stop this potentially nonexistent problem.

       Part of the problem with this global warming hype lies within the motives of the scientist themselves. Although it may not make sense for people like this to just make things up, there is a reason. It provides funding. Without funding many scientist's careers would fail miserably, but if they say that there is some impending doom or that the world is about to end many governments will willingly pump money into the projects of these men. Unfortunately this method has permeated many scientific groups including NASA. Thus one can see the motivation of many scientist to advocate global warming.

        Although the reasons for the scientist support of global warming may be debated there are certain fact which cannot be denied. Unsurprisingly there have been no long term studies that bolster the case of global warming, all the scientist's cataclysmic predictions are based on computer models which can easily be manipulated to achieve a desired result. For the past 23 years satellites have monitored the temperature in the lower troposphere and no warming has been detected. Producing only about 3% of the CO2 emitted by natural process on Earth, humans do not put out enough carbon dioxide to affect the climate in such an extreme way. These facts which vehemently oppose global warming have yet to be explained by those who back it.

        Taking drastic measures to decrease carbon emissions in the U.S. would prove costly. Presently the amount of carbon dioxide released by the U.S. is already 7% below what it was in the 1990's. Unfortunately many state governments are still recklessly pumping money into programs to reduce greenhouse gases which only serve to add to a projected $90 billion dollar deficit. If bills and regulations to reduce CO2 emission continue to be passed this will most likely lead to higher taxes for instituting these changes and reduced productivity of many businesses. With the costs to fix global warming set so high there is one question that many people are asking. Is it worth it?

        Henry Shaw once said, “Caution, though very often wasted is a good risk to take.” With all the media hype surrounding global warming it is easy to swept along with the crowd but one should step back and examine the other possibilities. The case against global warming is strong when you take into consideration the reasons of the scientist and the facts that contradict it. On top of that, the financial costs of efforts to stop global warming must be examined as well . Obviously it would not be wise to totally rule out its possibility but it would be utterly foolish to just go along with it.

The worst social problem facing our culture at this time is the amount of young people who are ignorant about political matters, especially matters like the war in Iraq and the issue of abortion. Because of their ignorance, they make assumptions and decisions that could be dangerous in years to come. Young people are the next generation of voters, politicians, and writers that will shape our country's future with the decisions they make. If they are unaware now about their country's issues, they will be uninformed in the years to come when their influence is called upon. This is an urgent issue in our society today that must be remedied.

        As a teenager, I have first-hand experience in this ignorance. I see it not only in myself, but in many of my peers. An avid reader, I frequentlyfind myself at the library, consorting with other people my age. In our conversations and shared Internet browsing, the upcoming election sometimes slips into our topic of conversation. I have been dismayed to find that almost all my acquaintances there are passionate Bush haters, but with no reason to support this hate. When I ask why they dislike Bush so much, the most common reply is "Because the war is stupid and pointless!" However, when pressed to give further examples, they are unable to defend their position with any sort of clarity.

        This ignorance is born of a lack of caring and the influence of their peers. My generation is more concerned about what they are going to wear to school the next day than who will be our next president. Why should they care? It's not their problem. Politics belong to the grown-ups to deal with. If none of their friends care about the next presidential election, why should they bother? What they do not realize, and are not informed, is that soon the decisions that have to be made will be theirs. Because they have not been prepared to deal with those issues, their decision-making abilities will be severely compromised.

        Another dangerous fault of young people is that most of them automatically agree with whatever their parents think, and what they see and hear from the media. If their parents are Democrats, the children themselves automatically assume they are Democrats as well. They do not take the time to think for themselves and decide what they really believe. Parents do not often press their children to think and act independently, and as a result children grow up with the same world view as whoever brought them up. They do not realize that they can think; make their own decisions about the world. Media is also a huge influence. This generation is constantly plugged into all things electronic, and since most of the news is both distinctly and discreetly liberal, young people unconsciously develop liberally skewed world views. Instead of developing their own world view, they absorb what is around them and unconsciously develop a world view that is not truly their own.

        In conclusion, ignorance of young people today is an imminently serious problem. This generation is the future, and the future will be in jeopardy if something is not done toremedy this carelessness. Perhaps the change will have to start with the young people themselves. We need to realize our place in the world, and take steps to insure our decisions and places in the oncoming years will be purely out of our own intelligent thought and design. If we do not rise up out of our ignorance, our future will be a bleak place.

Our Society's Shame
 

    As Americans we face a horde of problems today brought on by our lack of spiritual vigilance. In 1621, our forefathers, a pious and persecuted minority in a church under secular rule, sailed for a new world where they could worship the Lord in spirit and truth. Sensing divine providence in their mission, they braved stormy seas only to face hunger, depravation, and death in a strange land.  They endured all aware of their calling as "a city set upon a hill," a light to the spiritually dead European world. The Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colonies became centers of worship, evangelism, and theological training, and their governments were firmly founded on the Word of God. Ironically, instead of giving light, we soon became "enlightened" by Europe, and our calling as light-bearers was forgotten as the shadows of secularism drifted across the ocean.  The humanism, modernism, and post-modernism of the 19^th and 20^th centuries became not only accepted in our former seminaries, but fashionable, and solidified our rationale for sin.  We have taken prosperity from the hands of God and then turned to deny His existence with our deeds.  The exultation of man is no trivial pursuit in America today, and abortion is the outstanding evidence of our culture's arrogance.  

    Abortion is a gross violation of what our founding fathers sensed as America's sacred call as light bearers to the world. As a society, we violate all Ten Commandments with little culpability, yet the blatant breach of the sixth commandment sanctioned by the government in 1973 echoes as the death knell of our society. Attentively, the world has watched as we have murdered millions of our children over the last thirty-five years.  Pro-choice advocates in the infamous Supreme Court trial Roe v. Wade argued that the fetus was not human and therefore had no protection under our Constitution, an argument which has been shattered by new understandings of the continuum of life from conception to birth. Undaunted stand abortion's advocates.  Unmasking the egoism and conceit of our nation, the choice of mere man now takes precedence over the sovereign right of Creator. Is it not for the sake of convenience and concealment of sin that children in our nation are aborted daily?  Called to give light to the world, we now prefer the night to cover our sin.

    From America's inception, her shores have been a harbor and refuge to the outcast, yet our society has become the very oppressor many have fled. Guaranteeing the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, our Constitution beckons the weak and weary to her shores. The Statue of Liberty stands as a symbol of freedom inscribed with these words: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore, send these the homeless, tempest-tossed to me."  This invitation has been answered by millions around the world seeking protection, yet we are not willing to give the same to our own children. Instead of protecting, we kill the defenseless.  Instead of opening our gates, we bar the unborn's path to freedom.  Instead of illuminating the harbor, we deny our children the sight of light. The most weak and vulnerable among us are not safe within our borders.

    In denial of His gifts of prosperity and peace, our country is destroying the very blessings which it should receive and consecrate to God as His possession for His glory.  We have taken the unprecedented convenience and comfort of our time, benefits of the wealth we have received from God, and enshrined them as gods. Are these the deities that drove our fathers to desolate shores?  No, these alien gods tell us to forsake the spiritual heritage of our country, deny liberty to our citizens, and systematically destroy our heritage from Him.   We have eaten the fat of the land and now reject the Hand that has fed us. Our new gods demand blood sacrifice, and in the manner of the pagan empires that have preceded us in Western Civilization, we now unabashedly put our children on the altar.   Taking the gifts of peace and prosperity, we reject the Giver. Without repentance, we cannot and will not go unpunished for the gross insurrection and ingratitude we show by refusing our obligations to the unborn given to us by Him.

   As a nation we acknowledge a God in heaven with our rhetoric and our religious facades, yet our deeds expose our hypocrisy.  We have betrayed our sacred trust as light-bearers to a dark world and now prefer the shadows to the sun. Instead of harboring the outcast, we ourselves have become the very monsters we desired to flee. Instead of defending the weak among us, we unabashedly kill them, often in the very establishments meant for the preservation of life. Scandalously, all this is done with the wealth that comes from His favor.  The world looks on as the Christian nation morally crumbles, and one can only wonder at their thoughts about the God America once claimed to serve. "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden," says Jesus in Matthew's gospel. Unveiled in America's sanction of abortion is the prominent rejection of our mission to the world, and this is most devastating.  Our only hope is the acknowledgement of our crime with humility in repentance as a nation with the hope that God, rich in mercy, will be faithful to forgive. 

Bedrock of a Culture

American Christian culture is dying.  What once was “one nation, under God” has become a land where the Bible is censored material in schools but pro-homosexual books are required kindergarten literature, a land where murdering an unborn baby is legal but chopping down trees is frowned upon, a land where shallow movie stars and flashy football players are admired more than the soldiers who give the ultimate sacrifice for freedom.  How could this have happened to a nation so Providentially birthed, a nation founded upon the Word of God?  Clearly, the very cornerstone of Christian society is crumbling. Through a century-long process of prolonged attack from secular humanism, feminism, and postmodernism, the most basic social unit, the family, is being destroyed.  Created first of all the social institutions, today the Biblical family is being trampled by the state, the educational system and sadly, even the church.

 

As a fledgling nation, America’s governmental and economic systems were built upon the foundation of Biblical, patriarchal families.  Family-based businesses were the normative estate, with both sons and daughters making meaningful contributions to the familial livelihood at an early age.  Competent, intelligent, and supportive, wives were as much a part of the family economy as their husbands, fully capable of running the business if the husband was injured or absent.  Unfortunately, as America changed, so did this way of life.  Government and economics shifted from the family to the individual as the basic unit of society.  Giving women the right to vote only strengthened this mindset, changing the voting system from one vote per family to one vote per individual. With the onslaught of vicious feminism, women are now encouraged to equal men economically and politically: those courageous few who cling to their number one priorities of supporting their husbands and raising godly children are ridiculed as unintelligent doormats.  After the change in the political and economic spheres began to cause major strife between married couples, the next target was obvious:  the children.

 

Perhaps the educational system most clearly illustrates the shift away from Biblical teaching in America.  According to Scripture, it is abundantly evident that the education of a child is primarily the responsibility of the parents. Proverbs 4:1-4 says, “Hear, my children, the instruction of a father . . . when I was my father’s son, tender and the only one in the sight of my mother, he also taught me.”  If Christian parents continue to send their children off to be indoctrinated by secular, atheistic professors, how can they expect to fulfill the command of Deuteronomy 6:7, “You shall teach them [the laws of God] diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.”  To preserve intact the hearts of the next generation, parents must take on their God given responsibility to “train up a child on the way he should go”(Proverbs 22:6).

 

With the myriad of secular forces attacking the Christian family, how is the church protecting and promoting a vision for victory?  Heartbreakingly, the majority of mainstream churches are not only failing to defend the Biblical family, they are actually contributing, albeit sometimes unwittingly, to its downfall.  Much like the problems in the educational system, the problems in the church stem from the removal of the responsibility of the parents to lead their children. Age-segregated Sunday schools and youth groups allow fathers to pan off their role as spiritual heads of their household to others, effectively freeing them from their God given task of nurturing and guiding their children in the ways of the Lord.  With most, if not all, spiritual activities divorcing parents from children, it is no surprise that 60 – 80 % of evangelical youth fall away from the faith by their first year away from home, according to several researchers.  If the Christian society of America is to be salvaged, pastors and churches must place the mantle of responsibility for the discipiling of the children back where it belongs:  on the shoulders of the fathers.

 

Assaulted on every side by the state, the education system, and even the church, the Biblical family is engaged in the battle of the century. Fighting back will not be easy, but God is faithful and will not allow His people to be tempted beyond what they can bear.  To win this cultural war the church must build up fathers in their role as leaders of their homes, encourage wives to be submissive helpmeets, and teach children to honor and respect their parents.  Without godly families, there is no godly culture.  Just as a beautiful building cannot stand without a sturdy foundation, so America’s Christian culture cannot continue without the basis of solid Biblical families.

          One of the primary reasons people foolishly spend money is because of an incessant little voice inside saying, "I need that, I need that." What is greed? It is that inner thirst to possess things in vain, hoping that we will find happiness. François de la Rochefoucauld from the seventeenth century, hits the point about greed right in the bull's eye, "A shrewd man has to arrange his interests in order of importance and deal with them one by one; but often our greed upsets this order and makes us run after so many things at once that through over-anxiety to obtain the trivial, we miss the most important."People are never content, always wanting more than they need. Everyone is always wanting more than their neighbor. But that gets them nowhere; many times they end up bankrupt. In August of 2008 almost 4500 people filed for bankruptcy every day!. The little voice of greed does not get you anywhere in life, it only makes you want more.

           Another reason people foolishly spend their money is because they are willing to enjoy something now and pay for it later- the "credit card" mentality. They are always borrowing money, knowing that they cannot pay it off. An anonymous person once said, "Modern man drives a mortgaged car over a bond-financed highway on credit-card gas". Another way this has been said is: "They buy what they don't need, with money they don't have, to impress people they don't even like." The person who desires instant gratification will never be happy, he will only become caught up in more and more financial problems and sin.

          One of the main reasons people spend their money foolishly is that they confuse their needs and wants. They think that if they finally get what they want they will be content. People deceive themselves, thinking that they need what they want.  The Bible speaks directly to this in 1Timothy 6:8 which says, "And having food and raiment let us be there with content."(NKJ) They think that they have to have it now, or they cannot live without it. These people look at life in two ways, "There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it."The needs of people are very simple, but they like putting a façade on their wants and make it a need. The problem with people confusing their needs and wants is that their wants always become needs and they can never be satisfied.

           The problem with people always spending their money unwisely is that they are trying to buy worldly happiness, which is utterly impossible. In 2006 the bankruptcy rate at the end of the year was 617,660. In 2007 it was 850,912, at the end of the year 2008, the nation is supposed reach 1.1 million bankruptcies. The only way to happiness is by the Lord Jesus Christ. If people sought happiness through Christ they would find out that they do not need everything. So, will money bring happiness? No. In the end it will only lead to destruction.

 Abortion is a sinking pit that will pull America down. How can this be a civilized nation when something as disgusting as abortion is going on? says "In the tiny, almost invisible thirty two cell blastocyst--in that one gram or so of tissue--there is a physical potential and moral destiny unparalleled in our universe. Statistics say that the number one reason for abortions was inconvenience. All those babies are dead because they were inconvenient. Those 1.3 million children who died last year could’ve been adopted.

Grand Essays