The Effect Of Rejecting Natural Law
By Monty Rainey (08/02/03)
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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