THE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
172
GIVE
US
THE
YOUTH
By F. D. Lockman
A s told to Anne Hazelton
G IVE us the youth of this generation for ten years and we will give you a new generation” is not an empty boast that the Lockman Foundation has chosen for its slogan in its program for youth. The Word has said: “Train up a child in the way he should go: and When he is old, he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6). Ten years of a full Released Time program in Orange County, or anywhere else, will give us a new generation. The Case for Christian Education The picture of this generation is a dark one; none can doubt that.' Because of the war, 12,000,000 men and women have been taken from homes. Even where there are children, homes are broken up. Boys are subjected to temptations of which they never dreamed. Some of thein are not able to resist. Children are born where true love does not exist—only lust. Children from such marriages represent a large part of the coming genera tion. Come with me to the court room of Judge Morrison. Here is the youth of today. Ninety-four per cent of crimes are committed by young boys from homes which have experienced divorce, separation, too much attention to business, or family quarrels. Four out of five civil cases are divorces. In eighty-four per cent of the divorces, mothers are given custody of the children. Usually they have to work to support them. The mother has little time to spend with the children, so Jimmy and Mary are left to their own devices. They roam the streets in search of diversion. Some parents though not divorced, are too busy for their children. Some seem to feel that furniture, rugs and hardwood floors are more precious than their fc^rs and girls. Judge Morrison visited one home where the mother insisted that the children take off their shoes before coming into the house! We are horrified at what we call juvenile delinquency. Very recently we were informed by authorities that this
condition is now affecting the ten-year-olds. We who are working with the youth, question whether there is any real juvenile delinquency; we believe that the young people are living by the only standards they have. They do not consider themselves delinquent. They have no moral yardstick by whicli to measure their lives. I quote from letters recently received from two seven teen-year-olds: "Behind every juvenile delinquent,” says the boy, "there is an adult responsible for his being in such a condition. Greedy adults, eager to lay their hands on money, contribute to the delinquency of minors by sell ing them cigarettes and liquor. Parents, doing their share in the war effort, are working at defense jobs and they cannot adequately supervise their homes; therefore, the basic concepts of a good American home are com pletely destroyed.” “ It is rather amusing” writes the disillusioned girl, "to see you adults suddenly realizing what we youth are coming to. If you only hadn’t waited so long! It is really your fault. You let us slide along; at times scolding us, but we really didn’t matter much to you. You were too busy worrying over whether you would have enough gas, or how you could pay all the added taxes, but you didn’t think seriously about what was happening to us. You forgot that all your efforts now to win the war would be lost in the future by the leaders of tomorrow, the unhealthy thinking youth of today. "It makes me ashamed when I see a drunken adoles cent; but it makes me furious when I see adults drunk in such an increasing number. They are the ones that set the examples. Why not call them the delinquents?” Yes, the yardstick is lacking. It is for us to furnish it and we must act quickly. Millions of people in America live in moral fogs, in spiritual twilights. A modified im morality, based on clever concealment, guides millions
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