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The
Effect of Rejecting Natural Law
By
Monty Rainey
August 2, 2003
The last few
years have seen a dramatic rise in what many call the “anti-God”
movement. Now, of course, this is nothing new,
but the last few years have seen a marked increase in the frequency
and consistency of attacks. For instance, just
last year, the California 9th Court of Appeals ruled the
words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance as
unconstitutional. After a vehement public outcry,
they eventually struck down their original ruling, but we are sure
to see this back in the courts in the near future. Right
now, the focus of the anti-God crowd seems to be on removing the Ten
Commandments from our nation’s courtrooms.
The
anti-God movement is certainly nothing new. It
has been very publicly visible for most of my lifetime. The
current movement really began in the early 1960’s, particularly in
1963 with the Abbington v. Schempp case, where the
Court struck down the official use of the Bible in public education.
This has come to be known as the time when our nation
rejected Biblical Natural Law.
That
historic case occurred forty years ago and I remember hearing my
father say the Supreme Court was "destroying American
values". I thought it would be interesting to examine its
effect on American society and see just how prophetic my father's
words might have been. What I discovered is quite
telling.
I first
wanted to see how morality has changed in American society since
1963. There are many indicators which offer up
the same results, but for simplicity, I will site only two factors.
First I examined the national birth rates for unwed teenage
girls in America. Prior to the 1963 ruling, the
rate never went above 16 births per one thousand unwed teenage
girls. Since 1963, that rate has climbed steadily
each and every year to its current alarming rate of over 75 births
per one thousand. As the effects of rejection of
Biblical Natural Law have the most influence on our children, I
wanted to look further at its consequences. I
examined Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD’s) among children age
10 – 14 in America. Prior to 1963, the number
never reached more than 20 cases per 100,000 children. The
number today is over 70 cases per 100,000.
It is safe
to say that the removal of the Bible from our schools has had a
profoundly negative effect on the morality of our children, but has
it had any effect on the educational achievement of our children?
Apparently so. In 1963, the national
average SAT scores in America were just over 980. Today,
the national average runs below 900, according to the College
Entrance Exam Board.
It’s easy
to see the negative effect the rejection of Biblical Natural Law has
had on our children, but what happens to them when they become
adults? Since 1963, while the overall population
has increased by less then 50%, the rate of violent crime in America
has increased more than seven fold, from less than 300,000 case per
year in 1963, to over 2,500,000 cases per year today.
The effect
of rejection of Biblical Natural Law has also had a marked effect on
family stability in America. In 1963, there were
fewer than 5,000,000 single parent households in America. Today, the
number is growing dangerously close to 20,000,000.
These
results would indicate that the removal of Biblical Natural Law from
our schools has failed to produce national improvement or prosperity
among our citizens, but has had the opposite effect.
The
Court’s change of standards has not only been an exercise of poor
decision making, some argue that their actions have also been
illegal under the standards of original intent. They
have, and continue to violate the value system of “the Laws of
nature and of nature’s God” established in the Declaration of
Independence.
Citizen
involvement is the only antidote for this growing movement. One need
not look far to find good, decent, Christian people with little or
no involvement in government. The
responsibilities facing God fearing citizens are somber, and the
potential repercussions from our actions - or lack thereof, are both
far reaching and long lasting. Remember that where citizen
complacency rules, wrong principles and policies will abound, and
when it comes to sound government, the enemy is seldom “them”, it
is most often citizen apathy. Don't just sit there, America.
Get involved!
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