IMGAPART AMERICA ? nowlunless we mend our ways and restpre firm discipline to the home, and respect tor legally con stituted authority. b y B ruce I V . Bunn
said, “ The crime problem is the boy problem and the finest prisons in the world are only monuments to neglected youth.” Is it any won der that not a few children in professed Christian homes grow up to be real pagans. The gospel of Christ is an invitation to ac cept a discipline, to surrender our will to a higher will, the will of God. A child who has learned early that his will must die in favor of the parental will, is much more l i k e l y to be brought to Christ, where that self-will must yield to Christ’s will. How shall they “ obey the Gospel” if they have not learned obedience earli- er in life? II . The Courts Again, in answering the ques tion W ho is tearing apart A merica ?, we look at the prob lem of crime and punishment in our country. Surely we will have to say that the Courts, and most obviously the Supreme Court of the United States, are guilty of helping to tear apart America. It is a sorry record these past years. Decisions have been made which have turned loose on the streets some of the most vicious crimi nals, some of them, by their own confession, guilty o f mu l t i p l e murders. One who murdered his
Christian homes, td see parents always taking the Iside n f their children against the tlacher in the school, yes, e v v Vainst the Sunday school teachers, against the church leaders ^wecause they thinf their' child^Kcan do no wrong! Some of you deeply resent any, report from church youth leaders j^But the] “oneriness” of your children eve^^hen the evi dence is abundantly clear. You teach yourl children disrespect for auwiority. You teach them a dis respect for the leaders o f the com- mtnity, fhurch and nation, for la * and hrder, for property, and few the rights o f others. We are paying a grim price for this in Amerila today. It is also true that parents neg lect to give me interest and time to their children that they should. The story rPlold of a young man appearing before a judge. The judge said, “Young man, do you remember your father, that father whom you have disgraced?” The boy’s reply was, “ I remember him well. When I went to him for ad vice or companionship, he would say, ‘run along boy, can’t you see I’m busy reading.’ Well, your hon or, my father finished reading his book and here I am.” The warden o f Alcatraz prison for many years
^■uburbia and tne better areas of our great Metropolitan cities arl making more than thiir share of Ithe contributions to Ithe law lessness and the peviltry that are ^■ing onlin America today .ln fact, thellargest percentage jn- crease of crime is takinfc place [in tpe suburban areas rather than'in the poverty-stucken areas. w/Ve Biust lay the blame fouthe aar- ! ng apaw; o f America to the home ife ana the parents. Remeipber hat commairament thi^^says É 'H ono i^^ father ani^^y moth- fcr that thy days may be long upon the. earth.” It was spoken to a mNlon even more than to individ uals at the time. The suggestion of the text is that unless that na tion Israel, God’s covenant people to whom that commandment was first given, unless Israel’s homes were disciplined, stable homes, the nation’s days would not be long upon the earth. Its very sur vival depended upon it. Educa tion, legislation, good material en vironment, will not save us, with out restoring the home to where it ought to be. Oh, how sad it is today, even in
IS
MAY, 1969
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