With respect to the recent flurry of exposure, we find, through the investigation and reporting of the media, deceit, duplicity, fraud, guile, selfishness, lies etc. of some elected officials including persons in the private business sector. We are confronted with reports of the largest amounts of finances swindled in the history of this nation via a Ponzi scheme, corporate executives executing unscrupulous business practices, elected and non-elected officials representing their own interests, along with married men in supposed positions of role models and authority, defiling their vows and trust. Judges refuse to hold people accountable for crimes and various other vile behavior and actions. I was prompted to write this article on some possible reasons why we have been experiencing this upsurge of iniquitous and precarious life styles over the past 60 years or so. As humans, not one of us are perfect, no matter what your mother has told you, she lied!. We all have the tendencies to do what is wrong, as a matter of fact, most of the time to do what is wrong is easy, just do what you really feel like doing. But doing what is right is work and requires discipline, something we find bothersome or even difficult to do at times. It is so much easier and convenient to give in to our emotions and desires. Just think for a moment, if we did not have in place laws and parameters, with a means of enforcement, and instead everyone did what they felt was right in their own eyes, what a chaotic and dangerous world we would exist in. Being ignorant of other's thoughts, emotions, desires and beliefs, we would most certainly venture into situations in which our very lives would be in jeopardy. With no penalties in place or reasons to refrain, others who have the ability to overcome would surely engage their desires without any regard to your well being or beliefs. But this is not so in our great country; we are a land of rules and regulations, law and order, giving our established Government the ability and authority to enforce them. The majority of people are not properly taught nor do they ever consider the bases or origins from which our laws are derived. This is where I believe, the seed took root and the upsurge had its beginnings, and has now grown into a large disease-ridden tree with many branches reaching into multiple aspects of our culture and society. It's root system is shallow but intricate, with its many veins running randomly and chaotically, unwilling to feed on the life giving true living water, but instead feeding hopelessly on the secular stagnant waters of deceit, relativism and excusatory argumentation, rendering our consciences and hearts hardened as if they were as dried up clay.
" Is there no virtue among us? " asked James Madison. " If there be not, we are in a wretched situation...To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea". Our Nations character is determined by the character of our people.
In my research, I have found some statistics that were quite sobering. In this country, along with other civilized countries, we have in place an education system in which every child is required to partake. Awhile back, CBS News reported on the most prevalent problems facing teachers in the class room in the year 1940. They revealed seven problems: talking without being acknowledged, gum chewing, noise making, running in the halls, cutting in line, improper dress code, and littering. They then compared their findings to their investigation of the most prevalent problems facing teachers in the year 1980. The results were astonishing. They presented the problems to be: suicide, assault, robbery [this requires some sort of weapon], rape, drug abuse, alcohol, and pregnancy. In just one generation we realized an unprecedented turn of behavior. As for the present, the American people are established as #1 in the world in violent crimes, divorce, teenage pregnancies, along with voluntary abortions and all the ramifications which accompany each category listed. Also,we have confirmed ourselves first amidst our Western nations in illegal drug abuse and illiteracy. "How did this happen?" you may ask. I submit to you that this drastic and disastrous behavior did not take all of forty years, but less than twenty. In 1963 we removed from our public schools the teaching and practice of absolute truth with the Supreme Court's decision to remove prayer and Bible[Scripture] reading from the classrooms. Prayer and Scripture had been intertwined in our public school curriculum for hundreds of years and had even been the basis of how all school children were taught to read.Replacing it are relativism, secular progressivism, and all inclusiveness. We witnessed a massive decline in moral, ethical and devout people entering the secular Education system, Governmental public service, media, arts, and financial institutions. It is true however, that the primary responsibility of morality and ethical values falls on the parents to instruct at home and in Houses of Worship. Nevertheless, the reasserting of these secularized values by prominent and trustworthy figures, which have our [and our children's] attention in one form or another throughout the majority of the day and evening is tantamount to the reinforcement of these behaviours and ideologies. Our laws, regulations, rights, liberties, principles and conduct on which this great nation was foundationed were the very doctrines we ejected from public observance. The fact of the matter is, whether you choose to accept truth or not, this nation was founded on Christian doctrines and beliefs. We are a Christian nation which allows the practice of all other beliefs. If we could travel back in time, just as few as 60 years, we would soon discover the vast majority of the American people, who did not consider themselves Church goers, would still concede belief in the Almighty God, reverence for the Bible and be instilled with moral conduct.
As a legacy of the removal of the symbols of absolute truth and the confirmation of the Divine, we have witnessed and recorded the devastating affects of these decisions; a small minority has forced its agenda on a silent great majority. In place we have replaced " In God We Trust ", with our own intellect, abilities and appetencies for self-glorification, displaying to Him and the world, represented by our actions, that we are no longer in need of His intervention, guidance or truth. We strive to demonstrate Independence from the Divine, exchanging it with the enlightenment of mans own aptitude to be self sufficient. In order to justify our actions, we substituted for the convicting word "Sin", ear candy words such as calling adultery; having an affair, homosexuality; gay, lying; disingenuous, an unborn child; fetus, unethical and illicit behaviour; short comings, murder; abortion, drug users and alcoholics; addicts. We have substituted medical terminology for actions committed by criminals or one that violates a law of morality or well-doing. Not wanting to instill the blame or responsibility on one particular person, but yet offsetting the reasons to some other form of consequence dispersing the motive to a separate issue or issues, thus rendering the offender not responsible for his or her actions at that time because of anger, child abuse, being under the influence, stress, anxiety, P.M.S, so on and so forth. I may continue, but you already understand the intent. The media and arts have blatantly supported the absolute acceptance of sexual promiscuity, along with the unyielding display of violence which renders one's conscience and heart hardened to the action and ultimately accepted as the norm. Programs, movies and songs have since been written in a way to denigrate fathers and mothers, ministers, and the elderly to the point of them representing virtual idiots, substituting teachers, professors, authors, governmental officials, singers, actors, even the children themselves as possessing the only true knowledge with the capacity and aptitude to relay that knowledge. This is what I believe to have been the catalyst for the turning away of what was once known throughout the world as a most moral, ethical, religious and devout people. We have substituted absolute truth for relevancy, and have removed the all convicting word "Sin", and replaced it with easy on the ears phrases, thus playing "The Name Game", to justify our rebellion and actions. We so willingly appease what remains of our conscience with words/names of non-intimidation or conviction.
"Defining Conscience Because conscience is a word that has sadly fallen into disuse in a culture preoccupied with self-interest and material gain, let me be clear what I mean by the term. Conscience is the faculty within each of us with which we search for life's ultimate meaning and distinguish right from wrong, good from evil. Conscience is informed by many sources: families and friends, communities of faith, and of course schools. Conscience inspires us to act for a higher purpose, to do what we must do because we believe it's right. The freedom to follow what the framers of the U.S. Constitution described as "the dictates of conscience" is a precious, fundamental right founded on the inviolable dignity of the individual. That's why liberty of conscience is often called our "first freedom." In recent decades, our national conscience appears to have fallen asleep. Consider that in fall 2008, when credit dried up and the stock market fell, the government declared an emergency and provided billions of dollars to rescue Wall Street. But when millions of people go to bed hungry, lack health care or employment, and live in poverty and despair, there is no declaration of national emergency, no bailout, no rescue plan, and no special session of Congress. We must never forget the lesson taught at Yad Vashem: No matter how highly educated or sophisticated, a nation without a critical mass of citizens of conscience may become indifferent to suffering and fall prey to tyranny and intolerance.
At a time when we most need to graduate people of conscience, many of our schools are prohibiting students from practicing civic habits of the heart and exercising their freedom of conscience. Growing numbers of schools are shutting down student voice, closing student newspapers, avoiding discussion of ethical issues, violating the First Amendment rights of students, excluding students and faculty from decision making, and sending dissent underground or onto the internet [Hudson, 2003, 2005]. Even in those schools committed to developing character and conscience, much of the curriculum continues to undermine the ethical message the schools say they wish to convey. Because we are in the worst economic crisis in more than 70 years [a crisis rooted in greed and exacerbated by unethical behavior], let me single out economics education for special concern. As Warren Nord and I [1998] have pointed out, the national content standards in economics-and most texts-never make moral judgments or discuss morality. They make not reference to the environment, materialism, poverty, justice, rights, codes of ethics, or the dignity of human beings. Why? Because the disciplinary framework that shapes the standards and the textbooks is neoclassical economic theory, according to which people are essentially self-interested utility maximizer's and values are personal preferences. Economics, in other words, has nothing to do with ethics. Shouldn't we also expose economics students to the humane, religious, and ethical ways of thinking about economics? The standards and texts ignore poverty as a moral issue, are silent about economic and social justice, fail to even mention charitable giving, say nothing about work as a calling, and avoid any mention of the effects of economic growth on the environment [Nord & Haynes, 1998]. Given this morally impoverished view of the human enterprise, why are we surprised at the widespread corruption, greed and just plain selfishness that contributed to the current economic crisis? Growing numbers of business schools, including George Washington University's, are now dramatically reframing their curriculum's to focus on ethics. It's about time. It's also about time to do the same at every level, in every school."
Charles C. Haynes
Charles C. Haynes is Senior Scholar at at the First Amendment Center [www.firstamendmentcenter.org]. Washington, DC; CHaynes@freedomforum.org
Below I have inserted a memo from Proff. Brian Edgerton with certifications in special Character Education Programing dated July 7th. 2009:
Character Education - an intentional teaching of moral values in school
Traditionally, for centuries, society's values have been transmitted to the next generation in three main venues: over dinner at the dining room table , through religious instruction at houses of worship and through schools. However, families rarely eat dinner together anymore, and if they do, the TV usually replaces meaningful discussion; the impact of religious instruction has become greatly diminished over the years and schools have backed away from any discussion of morals for fear of being accused of violating the Establishment clause. In the absence of these three traditional means of transmitting societal values, the television, music, movies and other media have become the great dispensers of values to our children; but are they the values we desire for them? The recent emergence of the Character Education movement has allowed schools to re-enter the values/morals education business by teaching universally held (by all religious groups as well as the non-religious) morals to children and training them as to the their importance and practice.
Brian A. Edgerton
