It happens countless times every day.

Someone decides to look at a new or different car.  After work one day, they swing by their local dealer having already decided the make and model of their next vehicle.  Arriving at the car lot, they notice three vehicles that match their new preferences–right color, year, trim package, etc.  Like any of us would, they walk up to the car, look at the price tag, check out the ‘sticker’ that details the specs and give the exterior a quick ‘once over’ glance.

At this point, we all do it.  To look inside, we cup our hands on the sides of our eyes and press our face close to the car’s window.  Shielding out the light seems to help us see more clearly what might be in the car’s interior.

But what is true when looking at a car is NOT true when creating a more civil, healthy or godly culture.  There, shutting out the light creates an increasing darkness that results in cultural arrogance, hostility, unkindness and murderous self-centeredness, to which the rash of recent shootings attest.

Arguments and blame begin within hours of these crippling events.  One person blames firearms.  Another blames legislation or the lack thereof.  Still another blames poor efforts to help the mentally unstable or chronically aggressive.  But all of these fall short of providing a good description of the REAL source of our  problems.

Simply stated, we do not have a GUN problem.  We have a GOD problem.

For far too long, we have culturally bonded together to close out true light from our public conscience and create a ‘darkness’ in our souls that has just begun to bear fruit.  I don’t believe we are going to benefit from reaching the goal to which we are heading.  Just in my lifetime, we have culturally adopted sinister thoughts that can only harm us.  We’ve said…

• You can’t pray in public whether at school, athletic events or other sanctioned functions.  Oh, we can have ‘student initiated prayers’ as long as they’re not at graduation ceremonies.  We’ll be forced to censor those.
• You can use God or Jesus’ names as long as they are curse words, but don’t include them in a speech where their dignity and worth are extolled and praised.
• We tell our children that they arrived on planet earth by evolving from ‘goo’ to ‘you’ by way of the ‘zoo’.
• We tell our students that it’s fine to kill a pre-born baby because, after all, it’s not human.  BTW, some stem cell companies will gladly ‘purchase’ your aborted baby so that ‘human genetic research’ can be conducted on him/her.  What heartless irony, that.
• We teach that whatever you think is truth to you and no one has the right to contradict your ascertains. And if they do, well, that’s hostility toward you.
• We teach that the Bible is ‘passe at best and hateful speech at worst’.
• We applaud ‘putting yourself publicly forward as priority #1, even if it’s at another persons’ expense.
• As for violent video games/movies–that’s ok.  That’s good entertainment.

Why do we wonder at the crass paucity of our increasingly uncivil, violent society when we have dedicated the last 60+ years of our lives to BLOCKING OUT THE LIGHT?   Let’s all realize that if you take G-O-D out of g-o-o-d, you end up with ‘0’.