PROPAGATING DEPRESSION, POVERTY AND BIG GOVERNMENT

I have been reading With Justice For All, by John Perkins. Perkins left the comfort of California to go back to his native Mississippi, with his family, in order to spread the Gospel, and combat poverty and racism during the civil rights movement. The book got me thinking about the things in our society that contribute to disintegration of basic structures and that lead to depression, poverty, violence and hopelessness. Obviously, racism is one such structure, but there are many others.

At the top of the list is the disintegration of the family, which leads to the breakdown of almost everything else. To the extent that kids have to grow up without a loving mom and dad, even in the midst of poverty, they are at a huge disadvantage. Government day care, government run schools, and alternative "families" do not give the love, security, and blending of motherly and fatherly nurturing that is needed. The security of a loving nuclear family enables both kids and adults to overcome many adversities.

Moral decay in society inevitably attacks the family nucleus first and foremost. It is almost impossible for a family to stay together and provide moral nurture without being grounded in spiritual values. The pro-athiest billboard that says, Good Without God, is a lie. With dads acting as no more than sperm donors and mom's desperate for love and affection, kids are left with a loss of purpose and security. Home is a nightmare, not a refuge.

How can this vicious cycle be broken? Loving people must rescue those whom they can, as demonstrated by the movie, The Blind Side. John Perkins advocates moving into these communities to help them restore the values and sense of hope that start with the Gospel and move into transformed thinking and values and result in living with joyful purpose. Perhaps we can also invite individuals and families into our homes and communities. We have to consistently stand against everything that breaks down the nuclear family and we must stand up for the values of the Gospel.

I was thinking about Columbia and Mexico and nations that have succumbed in whole or in part to the dominance of the drug lords and drug traffickers. How does a country get into that situation? Countries get there by a series of compromises over time. Pretty soon, the problem is so insurmountable that people are tempted to simply give up and give in instead of fighting for good and against evil. The same thing happens in smaller ways here in the U.S., and can happen in larger ways.

We have an initiative to legalize marijuana for all purposes in California. The first step was the legalizing of "medical" marijuana, a euphemism for the free use of pot. The coming initiative is the next step. These steps empower those who have illegally grown pot for years, often with backing from the same drug lords across the border who have wrought devastating havoc on their own countries. It is not a surprise that those who advocate legalizing marijuana also want to stop the war on drugs. The plague is spreading. We have a President who issued an executive order that the federal laws against marijuana are not to be enforced by the U.S. Attorneys.

May we daily ask God to show us what we can do to extend grace and hope through the Gospel, never growing weary of doing and seeking good. With God's help, we can overcome.