Weekly Update Volume 4, Issue 4 February 13, 1997 Kids Without A Conscience By Rosaline Bush, Editor of Family Voice What has happened to the American dream? Did it die in the '60s when responsibility fled the scene - scattered to the four winds by the "flower children"? Was respect for the property of others obliterated by graffiti "artists" in the subways? Who decided to transfer authority from responsible adults to 10-year-olds brainwashed by situational ethics? When was God's gift of married sex exchanged for pornographic power plays on prime-time TV? Why has the breath of life been reduced to a "choice" in America's aborturies and Kevorkian's van? when was God our Creator demoted to a "higher power"? And how have our children as gifts from God become as disposable as yesterday's newspaper? America The Troubled It wasn't always this way. Our Founding Fathers, spurred on by God Himself, forged a new nation --creating a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people." America was patriotic; we waved flags and bought bonds. We supported our President and the P.T.A. We treasured pastors, obeyed teachers, and volunteered for everything. Children grew up with real heroes like George Washington, who proved his mettle at Valley Forge -- and Booker T. Washington, who struggled up from slavery to succeed. We believed that a person who worked hard could vault over societal barriers to head a corporation -- or become President of the United States. And in its brief history, the U.S. has reigned as a world leader -- a star among the industrialized nations and a friend to all. Lately, however, our reputation abroad has plummeted in direct relation to problems on the home front. According to former Education Secretary William Bennett, we boast "more murders, violent crime, juvenile crime, abortion, single-parent families, divorce, pornography, and the consumption of ... drugs than any other industrialized country." What happened to America the beautiful? How have we fallen so far? CWA's Chairman and Founder, Beverly LaHaye, pinpoints the cause of America's downfall: "Plainly, family breakdown is one of the primary contributors. As a result, we are losing our children to a plague of violence." Lost Generation According to a three-year study by the U.S. Department of Justice, more than 250,000 teens could be arrested for violence in the year 2010. Looking for explanations for soaring juvenile crime, law professor Charles Patrick Ewing analyzed 14 juveniles on death row. He found that 13 of the 14 grew up in violent homes; 12 had been brutally, physically abused; and 5 had been sexually abused by male relatives. Recently, the American Medical Association revealed that family violence -- domestic violence, children's physical abuse and neglect, child sexual abuse, and mistreatment of the elderly - is widespread. And kids are striking back. Cocoon With Values For some of us, "home and family" evoke warm memories. Cozy winter evenings with Mom, Dad, brother, sister - maybe even grandparents -- gathered around the kitchen table. Home was a snug cocoon which each felt safe from the outside world. We first learned to be civilized under a familiar government... to deal with relationships... to practice compassion, patience, discipline, and justice. We learned early on that bad behavior brought negative consequences -- and good behavior brought rewards. However, the most important purpose of family has always been to instill spiritual values in children. Parents must model loving relationships of commitment and integrity. Caring Neighbors At the same time children were learning to operate within a family, they were being integrated into the life of the community. Pastors, teachers, and neighbors played important roles in the lives of children. Authority figures were held in awe -- and respect was a key ingredient in the neighborhood. Much of the social activity revolved around the church. If a kid caused trouble, neighbors alerted parents. The problem would be "taken care of" and discipline dispatched quickly. Moreover, a spanking at school guaranteed another one at home. Although the community provided wonderful support for the family, the ultimate responsibility for raising children always belonged to the parents. Weeds In Eden Now, like a neglected garden, America is overgrown with weeds. Having lain dormant for years, bad seeds have sprouted into exceptionally hardy weed varieties with tap roots extending deep into the culture ... But who planted these seeds of despair? Familiar '40s The nuclear family was relatively secure until World War II -- when fathers went off to war and mothers went off to work. Many children were able to stay with family members. But the less fortunate were relegated to newly instituted day care facilities where strangers looked out for them. When the War ended, Dad came home. But Mom kept working - and the latch-key child was born. Moreover, growing industrialization meant that more Americans were moving away from close-knit communities. Both situations created an unstable environment for children. Plant seeds of separation and rootlessness. Fabulous '50s Young people growing up in the "happy daze" were raised by parents who had suffered through the Great Depression. Most of them worked hard to give their children "everything we never had." With more women out in the work force with men, adultery became more common. As a result, children became morally confused. Meanwhile pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock - spewing his permissive parenting nonsense -- contributed to the havoc. Later, these undisciplined children grew into unsupervised teens who experimented with sex in the back seats of their own cars. "Progressive" parents taught their kids to drink at the popular "cocktail hour." And young men returned from the Korean War --convinced that the almighty U.S. government, not the family, was the answer to everything. Plant seeds of confusion, permissiveness, adultery, alcoholism, and dependence on big government. Sexy '60s Free love and drugs abounded. Hippies gave us protests, drop-outs, group sex, acid rock, marijuana and LSD. The birth control pill promoted promiscuity -- and sexual diseases. And as the Vietnam War separated our loyalties, patriotism suffered a deadly blow. Protest movements of the era tutored young people in rebellion. A "generation gap" occurred when parents and children stopped communicating. Decades later, we are still reaping the consequences of this explosive decade. Plant seeds of rebellion, drug abuse, promiscuity, and misunderstanding. '70s Superwoman Feminists convinced many women they could have it all -- and Super Mom was born. She cleaned, cooked, cuddled babies, coddled her husband -- and commuted to the office. The result? Exhausted women who resented husband and family; unfulfilled women leaving home to "find themselves" and men who had been stripped of their role as head of the family. No-fault divorce laws made it easy for couples to "start over" - again and again. A "do your own thing" mentality left children low on the list of parental priorities. In 1973, Roe V. Wade gave a woman the freedom of "choice" -- since her body "housed the fetus." And the ongoing battle between the sexes forced all sorts of perversions out of the closet and into the mainstream. Plant seeds of selfishness, divorce, and murder. '80s Materialists The '80s gave us "yuppies," cellular phones, fax machines, and BMWs - more sophisticated forms of decadence. Individuals isolated themselves as they accumulated more and more. Get-rich-quick crimes by white-collar felons on Wall Street set an example for young people everywhere. Inner-city kids turned to armed robbery and dealing crack. "Feel-good" New Age spirituality permeated the culture as the "tune in, turn on, drop out" mentality of the '60s was resurrected -- this time with "designer drugs." Add seeds of greed, pride, and false religion. Bearing Bitter Fruit Considering the bad seeds planted over the last 50 years, we shouldn't be surprised by the bumper crop of bitter fruit produced in the '90s. We're seeing evidence in every area of our lives -- family, education, the media, the government. Living In Sin Illegal before the '60s, cohabitation has become the "in" thing to do - The number of couples living together has increased seven-fold since 1970. And according to the Census Bureau, it has climbed 85 percent over the past decade. High divorce rates and growing acceptance have encouraged living together. Sadly, children under the age of 15 live in more than a third of these cohabiting homes. And where there is no commitment, abuse, neglect, and delinquent children are often the outcome. Teen Moms Of all the industrialized world, the United States has one of the highest rates of teen-age mothers. And research by the Population Council released in late 1996 revealed that almost one-third of all children are born to unmarried women. Approximately one million teens-- 15 to 19 years old-- become pregnant each year. A particularly poignant side to this problem is the seduction of young girls by adult males. Impressionable teens - perhaps already neglected or abused -- are easy prey for sexual abuse - one California survey showed that as many as two - thirds of the 47,000 babies born to teenage mothers in 1993 were fathered by men over 18. The younger the mothers, the greater the age difference: For junior high school mothers, the fathers were 6.7 years older on average. These "fathers" rarely stay around, and the girl must bear the sole responsibility for the child. Teen mothers are usually doomed to drop out of school and go on public assistance. Big Daddy Welfare America's welfare system discourages marriage and encourages illegitimacy. According to National Academy of Science research, "for low- income young women, a 10 percent increase in welfare benefits causes a 12 percent jump in illegitimacy." The system has produced fatherlessness, irresponsibility, helplessness, and an inbred dependence on big government. Children trapped in the system often suffer neglect and abuse at the hands of family members and acquaintances -- or through a bloated foster care system where they may languish for years. Instead of a safety net for families in distress, welfare has evolved into a stagnant cesspool filled with desperate people -- many of them single mothers -- trying to keep from drowning. In a Washington, D.C. homeless shelter, an eight-year-old boy murdered a 12-week-old infant by swinging him around and bouncing his head off the floor. The boy explained, "I was playing with the baby like Robocop." Single Parenting The U.S. Census Bureau says the number of children living with only the mother increased from 5.1 million in 1960 to 16.3 million in 1994. Colorado Attorney General Gail Norton declares that "family breakups, including both divorce and illegitimacy, [are] primary predictors of criminal behavior." And children who experience parental divorce are also more likely to endorse pre-marital sex -- and express a more negative attitude toward marriage --so says an 18-year study by William Aximm and Arlan Thornton. Children living with a single mother have several strikes against them. They are more apt to live in poverty than children from intact families; they have a higher rate of early sexual experiences; and they are also more likely to commit crimes. When children are left in charge of their lives, chaos reigns. Kids In Charge Still, First Lady Hillary Clinton is pushing the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. This "new" concept proclaims that the government should "protect children from the power of parents." Yet 94 percent of registered voters in a nationwide poll by Luntz Research agreed that "parents, not government, should be primarily responsible for the welfare of their children." However, the U.S. justice system does not always agree with the majority of our citizens. In September, 1996, a police sergeant was demoted to patrolman resulting in a loss of $1,055 per month in wages and benefits. His crime? The sergeant slapped his daughter's boyfriend after he found the teenage couple having sex in his own living room. When a young boy reported being paddled by his parents, a school counselor in Texas contacted the Children's Protective Service (CPS). The CPS came to the school, where they forced the child to strip in front of female officials - to check for "child abuse." The parents filed suit. But a federal district court judge in Houston ruled that "parents lose their rights to direct the upbringing of their children when they put their children in public school." In the past, children went to school to learn academic subjects like reading, writing, mathematics, history, and geography. Grades and effort rated highly in our nation's classrooms. Most kids worked hard to earn good marks to assure themselves of a future in the job market -- and to please their parents. But with the advent of moral values education (MVE) and its subsequent "values clarification" and situational ethics, "archaic" academics were tossed out. The basic premise of MVE is that nothing is intrinsically "good or bad." And MVE precedence over facts. Furthermore, MVE damages family relationships because the group is elevated above family. Children were taught to question authority, rules, and "conventional" answers. Outcome- based education and Goals 2000 continue to reinforce this philosophy. Today revisionist history has stolen our children's past; humanist educators have ostracized God; "how-to" sex education classes have stripped children of their modesty; and self esteem has been elevated to the ultimate goal. Our education system, basically run by the NEA, has left our children with no foundations and no future. Moreover, through the NEA's endorsement, homosexuals have emerged from the closet and are flaunting their lifestyle in the classroom. We also have practicing homosexuals in high government offices and in the clergy. Because of the President's "don't ask; don't tell" policy, gays can remain in the military free from harassment. Currently, homosexuals are trying to infiltrate the Boy Scouts of America. At least one local troop has succumbed. San Francisco Bay Area Boy Scout officials are now forbidden to investigate a member's or a leader's sexual orientation. Nowhere has the nation's love affair with homosexuality been greater than in our media -- TV, Broadway, movies, and advertising. Although most parents oppose such fare, their greatest objection is to the sex and violence permeating movies and television. A recent study -- Sex, Kids and the Family Hour -- revealed 8.5 incidents of sexual behavior in just one hour of family programming. "Exposing children to a steady diet of sexual behavior and violence via the TV set causes irreparable harm," noted Dr. Beverly Laflaye. "Children mimic what they see - and now we are reaping the tragic consequences." Crime and Consequences According to Northeastern University's James Alan Fox, crime ranks first on national polls as an area of concern. CWA's 1996 Wirthlin Worldwide Poll bears this out. Citizens have a right to be alarmed. Violent crime arrests for 14- to 17-year-olds rose 46.3 percent from 1989 to 1994. Fox, a criminologist, believes "teens are more threatening than adults... [kids] don't consider the consequences of their actions. And many of them don't expect to live to be 21 years old. Why would they worry about prison?" Why does this not surprise us? From birth to death, children watch, listen to, and copy adults. We have taught children that people are dispensable by the way we treat the unborn, the elderly, and the infirm. We have glorified death as a right. We have proved to them that bad behavior reaps few consequences. We have reinforced the philosophy that "the world owes me a living." We have demonstrated that family ties mean nothing. But more significantly, we have delegated the worship of God to a few religious "fanatics." And the result? Superpredators -- kids operating without a conscience. Interesting Tidbit A few nights ago, Mayor Willie Brown of San Francisco was a guest on the TV show Politically Incorrect. They were discussing the ordinance that was recently passed in San Francisco that requires all who have contracts with the city to provide benefits for "domestic partners." The question that was posed was referring to the fact that the Catholic Relief Agency, which provides meals for the homeless, etc. is subject to this ordinance and how could Mayor Brown consider it right to force a religious organization to support behavior that was against their principles. Mayor Brown stated that a 501 C3 organization cannot be a religious organization because of the requirements of separation of Church and State. I find that to be very interesting, don't you? Does your Church have 501 C3 (non-profit) status? If it does, I wonder if they are aware that, by law, they have surrendered their status as a religious organizations in exchange for what? The Editor --- "What chilled me to the bone were the eyes. Some were cold, distant, as if the life had been sucked out: others were seething with rage and anger. All were impenetrable. 'Has this place changed?' I asked the assistant ....... 'Changed?' 'Ten years ago I could talk to these kids about right and wrong,' he said. 'NOW they don't know what I'm talking about."' Charles Colson Prison Fellowship *** To subscribe to the Weekly Update, put out weekly by Michigan Militia Corps state command, simply send a message conveying that to xxx. The Weekly Update is archived at the Michigan Militia Corps web page at: http://mmc.cns.net ***