Our USA
 
     I grew up in rural America in the '50's and '60's. On any given day, you
could walk through the high school parking lot and observe that half the
vehicles parked there were trucks with windows rolled down and doors
unlocked. Most of them carried, as standard equipment, an FFA sticker
(Future Farmers of America for you city folks) and a gun rack with at least one
gun, usually loaded. You could make the same observation at any of the four
high school campuses in our county. Amazingly, I do not ever recall reading or
hearing about mass shootings in any of those high schools. What has
changed in America is not the accessibility of guns, but the character of man.
    On the wall in my parents' home is a plaque awarded to my father in
recognition of service for 27 years on the local school board. He told me
that for years, a standard requirement on every teacher's contract was
membership in a local church. I remember starting every school day with
the pledge and a prayer.
    I remember when girls who got pregnant in high school were ashamed, when
abortions were illegal, when the divorce rate was not 50% because couples
stayed together for the kid's sake, when there were no X-rated movies,
when milk cartons didn't have missing kid's faces on them and I didn't know
anyone personally who used drugs. I remember when kids were taught respect for
authority and accountability to God.
     I hear people say that the good old days weren't always so good but
please don't tell me you think these are better.
    Last night I attended a high school football game that was covered by
local and national news. The news coverage was not about the football teams, but
about the defiance of a court order by one brave little Texas town to
preserve the right to pray before a football game. The more this country
struggles to free itself from religion, the more we become entangled in
the consequences.
     If people are taught that they came from slime, the obvious questions and
consequences must follow; What is the purpose of my existence
[hopelessness],  who made you the boss of me [lawlessness], why are your rules good and
mine bad [relativism], what does it matter how I live if I came from slime and
return to slime [immorality and inhumanity]?
     I realize that in any given poll, the vast majority of Americans claim to
believe in God. I claim to believe that running is good for me but that
does not make me a runner. Putting on my running shoes and running makes me a
runner.
     The climbing abortion rate, murder rate, divorce rate, alcoholism and
drug abuse rate, child and spousal abuse rate contradict that claim and prove
that actions speak louder than words. It is an observable truth that the best
time you will ever make on any American City freeway is on Sunday morning
because there are no traffic jams getting to church. For thosewho believe that
separation of church and state is not enough, that the world would be
better off with no church at all, ask yourself this question:
"How many hospitals, universities, orphanages, homeless and abuse shelters
have been founded by the ACLU or American Atheist Society?"It is the
inclusion of the word Catholic, Baptist, Presbyterian, Christian, etc., in
the name of so many of these institutions that proves by actions, not just
words, who really cares for the suffering of mankind and desires to make
the world better.
    The question that people should be asking is not "Why does God allow
tragedies?" but "When will we realize that no nation, in the history of
the world, has ever separated itself from God and evolved to a better
society?"
 Of course, to answer, you would have to know history.Most people, it
would  seem, prefer People magazine."
                            Author Unknown

Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like Eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not be faint.
Isiah 40:31