12 April 2023 Anno Domini, the Anglican Orthodox Communion Worldwide
“Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.”
Mark 10:14 (KJV)
After spending more than five years in Iran, my wife and family returned home to the United States to discover many changes had taken place of which we were not aware. The nation was in decline under a president (Jimmy Carter) who either wished to destroy the nation, or was incorrigibly stupid. The moral state of the country was in sharp decline following several deplorably misguided decisions of the US Supreme Court each of which undermined the moral and Godly pillars of a nation that once considered itself “Under God.” The Founding Fathers would have been even more dismayed than I to witness the immorality resulting from these irresponsible decisions of nine black-robed usurpers of the US Constitution.
The youth of America became exposed to political philosophies alien to the American values which they should have been taught instead in our public schools. Dialectical materialism – a central tenet of Marxism – became the predominant indoctrinating issue in education. If there is no God, then everything must devolve to a singular issue of materialism and pragmatic totalitarianism. There is no room for love and compassion under such rule. Our children lost direction other than self-satisfaction. There was no moral impediment to adhere to the moral and social contract of those men and women who built such a wonderful nation under the guiding hand of a Providential God. Drugs and promiscuity followed along with a lack of consideration for the rights of others. Please observe what has happened in a mere sixty years to the view of the rule of law, the attitude of self-sufficiency, the sanctity of marriage, and the value of human life. Below is a chain of decisions that had occurred that led to our political and moral demise:
June 25, 1962 US Supreme Court abrogates 1st Amendment Rights thereby outlawing prayer in school.
June 26, 1963 US Supreme Court, by same flawed reasoning, disallows the reading of the Bible in public school.
January 22, 1973 US Supreme struck down the right to life (specifically guaranteed in the Declaration of Independence – our Founding Document) of infants in the womb.
The trend continued when, on June 26, 2015, another decision came down that further eviscerated the sanctity of marriage when that same Court legalized same sex marriage as a Constitutional right but a right that can be found nowhere in the US Constitution. God exacts a severe penalty on individuals and nations which allow children to be abused, murdered, or exposed to ungodly acts. Pedophilia is even now being promoted in some quarters and actually publicly practiced in others. How do you feel this will be tolerated by a just God whose only Begotten Son has said: “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” Matt 18:6 (KJV)
As a nation and people, we all share in the blame for this inexcusable decline in morality of our children. Perhaps the most responsible for the current climate of lawlessness is the churches of America. How did the mainline churches of America respond when these ridiculous issues began to predominate on the American scene? They did not respond except with a resounding silence! Not long after my return to America in 1979, I spotted a flyer in our public library on a soon-to-be discarded rack of books free for the taking. I picked up a pamphlet entitled, “Our Schools Today: as they are, as they should be.” By Max Rafferty, Chancellor of Troy State University and former Superintendent of Education for the State of California. Impressed with his skillful account of what has happened in public education. I later acquired, and still have on my bookshelf, his book titled, “Suffer Little Children.”
The scope of this article does not allow a decent accounting of his remarks on education and how it has been undermined by those who wish this country woe, but I would encourage every responsible American concerned about the moral state of our youth to acquire Rafferty’s book. He served under then-Governor of California, Ronald Reagan, and espouses the same convictions about America as President Reagan did.
The problem with mass shootings in America is not related to the right to have and bear arms – it is a decay of morality. When I was in high school in the late fifties and early sixties, the school parking lot was full of pickup trucks with shotguns or rifle racks across the rear-view windows. Yet, there were no school shootings in those days! What changed? Wake up, America, and return to the God who has blessed and protected this nation.
