A Case for Social Conservatism

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

It has occurred to me lately that there has been a plea from the left for the right to abandon what they believe and give way to moral indifference. The truth is some have. As I examine some of the issues in today's society, I notice that that we have rising crime and an economy under the pressure of over spending by means of credit. The reaction of our government and people is to find a solution for these problems instead of trying to figure out how to prevent them in the first place. While the base of the rights advocates strategy is to dismantle even further the ideals that made us flourish in the past. Waiting until there is a problem is not the solution.

Crime, economy, and change seem to be the hot buttons for politics everywhere these days. Crime is rising and the drug problems that big cities face are even affecting our small little town. The economy is suffering apparently while all the people I know have not had been laid off or had a reduction in work presented to them. In fact, the people I know are busier now than they ever have been before. The plea for is change. If nothing else, people do not like the way the feel about things that are going on. It is apparent that people want something different as the majority just elected someone running on a platform of change. It is becoming increasingly apparent though that change is not what people want. They want a fix-all for any problem they create. They want a magic eraser to fix problems that have roots much deeper than a simple do-over can solve. I won't deny that we need to fix problems we have created, but the real long term solution is to fix what caused the problems in the first place.

I remember that when I did something wrong when I was young I was punished, either by spanking or grounding. I absolutely knew that if I willfully broke a rule, I was going to get it. Nowadays, parents are afraid to even speak gruffly to their children because they want to be their friend or seem cool. Don't agree? The children I'm mostly talking about is teenagers. Oh yes, contrary to recent popular belief, teenagers are still children. They need interactive parents telling them what is right and what is wrong. Sure, let them make decisions, but don't pull back when the make the wrong one. Somehow, we've begun to think that a 15 year old has the ability to choose the correct path in life in the face of peer pressure. Let me just say, its not so. The reason crime is showing up in our towns is because we are letting kids make adult decisions. The drug dealers are here because they are making money. They don't just pick a town and say lets go screw that one up. For them, it is business. Outside of the realm of drugs, we see domestic violence and various forms of theft. These crimes are based in one thing, lack of respect for others. We've taught kids to be so selfish that they've lost concern for others. Jesus once said that we should love our neighbor as ourselves. He was then asked who are neighbor was. He replied with the story of the Good Samaritan. What was the point of that? Anyone we come into contact with is our neighbor. We share our communities and world with our neighbors. We have allowed our kids to become so self-centered that they really have a "if it feels good do it" mentality. Honestly, when's the last time you saw a teenage guy open a door for a girl? When's the last time you saw somebody hold back from saying something crass to prevent offending? However, our solution and complaint is that there are not enough cops. We are breeding a generation of kids without the common decency to pick up a piece of trash they drop on the ground and then complain to the government that they need to keep the city cleaner.

We don't teach kids to save. We teach them how to fill out a credit application. Then we spend our time complaining about foreclosures and wondering what the government is going to do to fix this. Its time for a little personal responsibility. Instead of teaching work ethic, we teach find a job you love. That's just what happens. We have a bunch of unemployed people not pulling their weight just because they were bored at their job, and still unable to find that job laying on the beach. I think, if I remember right, vacations were rewards for people who worked. Instead of becoming a necessary member of an organization or society, they become a parasite who lives off of it, and once again the government is tasked with finding a solution. It seems that before our representative government can provide real solutions, that we would need to find solutions on an individual level. Paul said if you don't work you don't eat. He made tents to pull his weight. I'm sure he didn't wake up every morning saying, "Boy, I can wait to work on that half loop stitch alpaca tent." He worked because that is what we are supposed to do. Because he worked, he had the means and opportunity to live his purpose. (Which is an entire post all to itself).

While a base group of people is trying to instill values in to their children, there is still a group of people preaching that everything is okay and acceptable. I've heard people complain that we are denying their rights by not allowing certain things to take place. There are groups of people just trying to provide a society that is a greenhouse for success for their children and the next generation, but the dissenters say that it is all hatefully motivated and an attempt to deny who they are as human beings. Let me just say, there is right and there is wrong. They are two totally opposite things. You can complain all you like about denied rights, but God condemned actions like that long before any of us showed up. You do not have the right to do anything you want. Social actions do affect the community for either the good or bad. When you do wrong, as clearly defined by the Bible, your society will continue to have problems. It has been popular to separate social choices from those which directly affect someone. There is no true separation. In fact, the social choices are more important as they determine who a person really is. Additionally, there is no separation in the person I elect from what I think is socially acceptable. Our government is a representative government. I want my officials to represent me. Continuing to deny that personal decisions affect the community as a whole is irresponsible and selfish, because if nothing else you are not living and working to your fullest ability the way God intended you to. The tough part is that there is no bandage that we can provide, and there is no amount of money that the government can spend to fix such issues. It really is like expecting someone to hold a cherry bomb in their hand as it explodes from within.

Is there hope? Absolutely, but it starts from within and each of us taking up the task first from within. We have to start focusing on who we are and how it affects others. We have to start thinking less about our own well being and more about that of everyone else. We have to work. We have to spend responsibly. We have to stand up for what the Bible says and what we believe in. Jesus said, "I am the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but by me." Whether the problem is crime or economy, we can make a difference. We have to attack problems at the source not just after they've been created. We cannot allow there to be a separation in moral decency and personal responsibility to our community and government. We can have a better world, but it starts with us.