A recent article on TownHall.com written by John Hawkins in which he outlines five signs that American society is degenerating. I agree with all five and can be all traced to one main cause.

The five signs are as follows:

• Dependency
• Debt
• Decay in entertainment
• Politics
• Marriage

When you read Hawkins’ descriptions of these five, there seems to be one underlying factor in all, the  downgrading of the importance of God.

We have lost our moral compass, a compass which used to be taught through scripture. We have almost succeeded in completely removing all religion, at least Christianity, from public life. We don’t pray in schools, we don’t allow our children to say “Merry Christmas”, we don’t allow any public displays which might remotely be considered religious in the “public square.”

Where once we had a sense of right and wrong, where morality was black and white, we now have a world full of grey areas. Rules and morals now are based upon our “What’s in it for me?” mentality, changing them based on the results we desire, whatever will benefit us the most.

Taking each of the five points, we can see where our ignoring the teachings of Scripture has contributed to this decay. Where once we believed in charity through private means, we now believe the government should take care of us, taking money from those who earn it and giving it to those who don’t. The Bible, especially the book of Proverbs has many examples of frugality and not going into debt and responsible financial management. We have ignored this advice in both the government and in our personal lives. The entertainment industry goes against all moral teaching from the Bible, advocating sin at every turn. We have politicians who have been corrupted by power much as the Pharisees and Sadducee did in Jesus’ time.  And we no longer believe in the sanctity of marriage as defined in the Bible as a union between a man and woman for the purpose of procreating.

Whether you believe in God or not, whether you believe the Bible is real or a collection of myths, you can’t argue it is an excellent source of wisdom and a blueprint for moral living. Isn’t it time we stop removing religion from our society and once again embrace it? Maybe we could reverse the trend.