I grew up in the 1950’s and 60’s, and like most boys in Ft. Smith, Arkansas, I was a fan of the Arkansas Razorbacks, the St. Louis Cardinals, and later, the Dallas Cowboys (under coach Tom Landry). Although I wasn’t much of an athlete, I enjoyed playing baseball and later football in high school. In those days we played to win, but we also were taught sportsmanship, and winning through poor sportsmanship was worse than losing. The values that were taught were essentially Biblical values. Biblical principles of justice (fairness), mercy (not taking advantage of an opponent who was hurt, or seeking to injure someone intentionally), and teamwork (living with the awareness that there is something more important than yourself) were simply assumed. These values are so similar to the admonition from Micah 6:8, to “do justly, and to love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God.”

    If there are any sports fans reading this, you will realize that things are different these days. Just this last weekend, I watched a Southeast Conference team “run up” the score against an opponent in the last few minutes of the game, long after the game was over. In order to do it, the winning coach left his first string in the game, endangering the well-being of his excellent athletes. Fifty years ago that might have gotten a coach fired. It would have certainly shamed and embarrassed his fans. Today that coach is one of the highest paid coaches in the nation. Has our nation changed?

    On another occasion I watched as athlete after athlete strutted and danced around like five-year-olds after they made tackles or made a reception, even while their team was losing. “Look at me,” they seemed to be shouting. Never mind that their team was actually losing, as long as they were looking good, they had gotten what they were after. In the old days, that would have gotten someone benched until they learned to behave like men instead of three-hundred-pound babies.

    Lastly I have seen players deliberately take aim with an elbow or helmet at another player’s head. Such a blow can cost a player his career (or possibly his life.) Such behavior in the past would have been cause to kick a player off any team in the SEC. But these days fans will stand and cheer, and the league will hand down a little fine, perhaps. The intentional attack on another person with the intent to injure them is a criminal assault and should be treated as such. But in the new era where the only value is “win”, it’s acceptable, and even, I suspect, encouraged by some coaches. I heard a commentator actually say,”If I were the coach, I’d be trying to hurt that quarterback and get him out of the game.”

    I merely offer these as evidence of what happens when a society cuts its ties with God. Even our sports are changed. After our Supreme Court decided that God no longer had a place in our schools or in our public life, we have watched a society trying to find a set of principles on which it could agree. When the religion-hating neo-Marxists in our country got enough power to throw the Ten Commandments out of the courtrooms, we saw our legal system slide further into chaos and disrespect. Would you rather be in contempt of court, or in contempt of Christ? Many of our lawmakers are going to make the sad discovery that their contempt for Christ will have eternal consequences for them and their followers.

    As we celebrate Thanksgiving later this year, we are at a critical time in our nation’s history. In the Biblical record of Israel, we saw the health of the nation directly connected to the nation’s submission to God’s Law. When Israel decided it no longer needed God’s leadership, and when it began to ignore God’s commandments, then defeat, suffering, poverty, and enslavement followed. It is easy to see the signs of decline in our culture. Pornography and profanity on radio and television is protected while preaching against sin is called a “hate crime.” Is this what “free speech” means? American Christian missionaries are being martyred around the world with hardly a word of protest from our own government, who fear offending those who are doing the murdering. Christians and Jews are ridiculed and people like Jerry Falwell are equated with Osama Bin Laden, by “news” network documentaries. Is this “balanced” reporting, or anti-evangelical propaganda? The news media are no longer “journalists”, but have become political advocacy and entertainment shows, and one of their main biases seems to be anti-Christian (particularly anti-evangelical Christian, although the Catholic church has also become a target of the media.)

    So has removing God from society resulted in a better society? Are you safer on the streets than you were in 1960? In every culture that has chosen to become “secular”, we have seen enormous evils emerge. Joseph Stalin killed millions in the name of International Communism and created a nation based on paranoid fear, as did Chairman Mao after him. In both Russia and China the environments horribly damaged, and millions of innocent people were murdered. Hitler’s Nazi Germany with its connection to the occult practices of ancient Northern Europe became a grotesquely evil world. People guided by the same philosophy as Stalin and Mao are interested in trying to create another godless nation in the world. They ignore history, both of the Old Testament, and world history, and predict a “better world for all humankind.” Instead what is more probable is a world in which there are no values except “promote yourself”, “destroy anyone who gets in your way,” and “you only go around once, so get all you can.” Welcome to the secular jungle. These are the values which are being offered to replace justice, mercy, and walking humbly before God. Which set of values do you think will make for a better world in the future?

    We have only one good option in this life: Make God the center of our lives. Live as God has commanded. Let the Holy Spirit and the Bible be your guides as you seek to live the life of Christ; peace and well-being are available to each of us. If there are enough of us, we will determine the direction of the nation, and like Israel of old, we can again become a God-centered nation.