HANDLING PROBLEMS IN OUR SOCIETY
There are many problems in our society which are rapidly and drastically decaying our quality of life. Remember when people felt safe and never locked their doors, hitchhiked safely, and let their kids play and roam the whole town unsupervised without worry. Remember also when it was a disgrace to get a divorce, or become pregnant out of wedlock, or have to ask for welfare assistance, or break the law and have to go to jail or prison. Now days many people see these things as accomplishments and they are congratulated or rewarded by their peers or encouraged and rewarded by our society.
Although most of these problems have been around for many years, many have worsened in the past few years or decades. Being immoral, greedy, and irresponsible has become an accepted and even an expected way of life. If we do not make some serious efforts to restore our morals, ethics, values, community pride and responsibilities as American citizens, we will continue to see a further decline in safety and quality of life.
At our countries founding, the ten commandments, as listed in the Holy Bible, became the foundation of our constitution. In the Bible, God blessed and protected Israel when they followed His commandments. God will still bless our country if our citizens follow His commandments. Even if you do not believe in God or you have not researched the overwhelming scientific, historic, and prophetic evidence which supports the accuracy of the Bible, you would have to admit, after reading the Bible, that the Bible is an excellent instruction manual of how we should live.
Most of our problems stem from our selfishness. Our society has taught us for generations that we are just animals fighting for our own survival. We are to fight for what we want and don’t worry about others. Our materialistic society encourages us to love money and what it can buy. We are made to believe that we deserve to have whatever we want, whenever we want it, even if we can not afford it, whether we put it on a credit card, get it for free through welfare, or steal or murder to get it. Our society is also encouraging us to be irresponsible with money, our bodies, and other peoples’ rights.
Our love of money has lead to a rise in break-ins and stealing, assaults and murders, selling drugs, welfare abuse, and much more. Our entertainment system (movies, TV, magazines, etc.) has glamorized immoral acts as if saying "This is the way you should act." No wonder we have seen a greater acceptance of premarital sex and its consequential effects of increased STD’s, teenage pregnancies, and abortions. We are also seeing a drastic rise in crimes against peoples’ rights such as child abuse and neglect, rapes and molestations. More and more people are having problems with their self-esteem, self-worth and purpose in life. Many people no longer respect the value of life itself, demonstrated by the rise in suicides, murders, and abortions. We are being made to believe that marriage is not important with an increase in the number of divorces, and the number of girls having babies out of wedlock (many intentionally). We have seen a drop in good work ethic and a rise in gang participation and crime, and disrespect for all types of authority due to the lack of proper parental supervision, lack of good role models, and lack of good positive leadership in many areas of our society. We are often so busy trying to satisfy our own desires that we neglect to help others who have serious needs.
Before you can solve any problem you must first realize that a problem exist. When an action causes harm to an individual, or others, it is a problem. Some problems have been around for so long that many people no longer see them as problems. When a society has tolerated a problem for long enough it begins to accept it as normal behavior. This allows the problem to grow or worsen, eventually without much objection to it. Actually the more the problem becomes accepted behavior, the more objection you have to correcting it.
The problem is that people with good moral values have sat back and let a few powerful, liberal, people influence our society over and over again. Also we have become accustomed to expect our government to take care of problems in our society instead of each person taking responsibility for helping the needs of the community. So to make changes to regain our proud, hardworking, moral standards in our society, we must find people who are ready to work together to not only discuss these issues but also put their ideas into action and follow through. People from every aspect of our society should be involved, including leaders in churches, schools, community service organizations, businesses and local government. We must try to include people who are in the problem areas, listen to their concerns and ideas and encourage problem solving ideas, not just complaints.
Once a problem is identified you need to identify possible causes and sources. Look for common foundational problems which lead to many other problems. This way if you correct a common root problem you may eliminate several other problems. Take time to research the problem then decide if this is something you are ready to tackle. If so then brainstorm ideas of how to stop or at least minimize the problem. Share your ideas with others. It will be very difficult to make permanent changes if the society as a whole does not agree that problems exist and they do not wish to change. Educate the public as to what effects the problems are causing our society, how you plan to change the problem, and what benefits you expect to have on our society. Choose an idea or two. Begin making changes but constantly monitor the results and watch for snags in your plan. Keep revising your plans as needed.
The following are a few common societal problems with their secondary effects. Also listed are some ideas on how to approach these problems.
Teenage pregnancy often leads to girls being single moms before they are even mature themselves, or kids getting married before they are old enough to handle the many responsibilities of marriage or even adulthood, or children having to become foster kids or adopted, or the ending of a child’s life through abortion. Unwanted pregnancies often destroy dreams of future careers and lifestyles, causing regrets, disappointment, and feelings of hopelessness. When our society encourages our kids to have sex out of wedlock, they are encouraging irresponsibility and often life changing situations and decisions put on them.
Sex is intended to create a special bond between a husband and his wife. Sex outside the marriage (before marriage and after marriage) can destroy this unique bond and make it difficult to make a marriage work. A few moments of premarital sex or adultery can ruin a potential lifetime of happiness. Sex outside the marriage also causes guilt, worry, embarrassment, mistrust, a loss of respect, disappointment, wrong expectations, dissatisfaction, and much more. It often leads to the spread of, embarrassment of, and life-long pain of sexually transmitted diseases (STD’s) too as well as unwanted pregnancies. Teaching people about "safe sex" only lessens the risk of STD’s and unwanted pregnancies. Teaching and practicing abstinence eliminates all the other complications of premarital sex as well.
Divorce causes a breakdown of the traditional family as it was meant to be (children being raised by both a mother and father in the same household). Children should be taught by each parent how to show love and respect for each other through instruction and example. Unfortunately this is no longer possible for many children. Therefore, before a man and woman get married they should have to, or be encouraged to, go through some kind of education (by a counselor, a pastor, school classes, etc.) as to what to expect in a marriage and family, and how to properly treat and respect your spouse and children.
Drug and alcohol abuse, and gang involvement lead to disrespect for authority, poor work ethics, break-ins, robberies, stealing, and murder. Welfare abuse also leads to disrespect for authority, poor work ethics, irresponsibility and dependancy on others. We, as a society, must be responsible for our citizens. We must no longer tolerate abuses. We must educate and train people to be productive citizens then hold them responsible, as we are held responsible, to work and pay taxes to aide those who physically or mentally can not work (not will not work).
Often change does not come easy, but it must be attempted in order to halt further deterioration in our society and to restore the society we once enjoyed. It is much easier and cheaper to prevent problems than to try to correct them later on.
