No. 358 - WHAT HAPPENED WHEN WE SAID, OK?

No. 358
Jim Davidson...NEWSPAPER COLUMN
WHAT HAPPENED WHEN WE SAID, OK?

One of the things that gives me hope in today’s perilous times is the fact that there are still millions of good role models in our nation. The problem, however, is that the vast majority of these people are not in the public spotlight. These people are busy working each day in their local communities as policemen, firemen, teachers, ministers, and volunteers, along with parents and others who are doing the jobs they were called to do. These are the people we should honor, and we do, but the forces of evil tend to grab the spotlight as we see them each day as we flip through the channels.
From my heart, one of the greatest role models in America is the daughter of Evangelist Dr. Billy Graham, Anne Graham Lotz. Soon after the terrorists attacks on September 11, 2001 she was being interviewed on one of the national television talk shows and the interviewer asked the question, “How could God let something like this happen?” She then gave a very profound and insightful response which has been widely publicized, but in case you missed it, here is what she said, “I believe that God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we have been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman that He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand that He leave us alone?
Let’s see, I think it started when Madeline Murray O’Hare complained that she didn’t want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then, someone said that you better not read the Bible in school…the Bible that says thou shall not kill, thou shall not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said, OK. Then, Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn’t spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem. Unfortunately, Dr. Spock’s son committed suicide. And we said an expert should know what he is talking about, so we said, OK.
Then someone said teachers and principals better not discipline our children when they misbehave. And the school administrators said no faculty member in this school better touch a student when they misbehave because we don’t want any bad publicity, and we surely don’t want to be sued. And we said, OK. Then someone said, let’s let our daughters have abortions if they want, and they won’t even have to tell their parents. And we said, OK. And then the entertainment industry said, let’s make TV shows and movies that promotes profanity, violence and illicit sex. And let’s record music that encourages rape, drugs, murder, suicide and satanic themes.
And we said it’s just entertainment, it has no adverse effect and nobody takes it seriously anyway, so go right ahead. Is this OK? Now we are asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don’t know right from wrong and why it does not bother them to kill strangers, their classmates and themselves. Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with “WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.”
As you have read what I have just shared, as a person with common sense you know that it is important to always keep things in perspective. No one likes to be reminded of the negative things that are happening in our society, but the events of September 11 were a wake up call for most of us in this country. It takes courage, but when we see things going on around us that are not right, we need to stand up and say so. Here is one area where I can make a difference. If commercials are sexually suggestive, I just don’t buy their products. (Jim Davidson is a motivational speaker and syndicated columnist. You may contact him at 2 Bentley Drive, Conway, AR 72034.)