Pratt: Basic problem is massive spiritual failure, not politics

While it is true that views differ markedly on the political aspirations and activities occurring today in American life, a verbal civil war rages within a country that once thought itself invulnerable to Marxist propaganda.

Meanwhile, the basic problem is massive spiritual failure, not politics. Many have turned to the gods of materialism, elitism and hedonism which have led to the downfall of nations throughout all recorded history.

Our problem is not racism, classism or any number of other “isms.”

Our idols may seem more sophisticated than those described in the biblical times, but the behaviors are remarkedly similar in kind – from the cultural diversity arguments to the practice of offering infants on the altar of idols to placate the greedy gods of our day.

Great civilizations rose and fell based on the unimpeded corruption of kingdoms.

But for all our technological achievements in ease of life and accumulation of wealth, we still deny our own part in the disintegration of community. It is the history of humanity.

We panic over a virus that could take our life, but embrace a lifestyle that will eventually destroy not only our lives, but the lives of many children as we embrace abortion as a legitimate method of birth control.

After all, the gods of the world declare such slaughter as “a woman's choice.” And perhaps it is, but honest research often tells a different story of despair and guilt. It takes a while until replication deadens the conscience and devours the soul.

If that does not kill enough of our children, we turn our eyes away from a spreading evil of sex trade that destroys the boys and girls it uses for the decadent, but profitable  prostitution business that we carefully avoid acknowledging.

It is no wonder that our lack of respect for human life results in a populace not only willing, but begging for enough drugs to deaden any sense of being human and responsible for oneself.

I know it is hard to see or to look at the world as it is rather than as we wish it were. We prefer to avoid knowing too much about what is easily visible in many of our own neighborhoods today.

But there is another factor involved in what can seem a hopeless task that looks bigger than any effort possible on our part. The secret is a spiritual promise about the actual power of pure faith.

Jesus often used the smallness of a mustard seed to illustrate the power of real faith. Once when his disciples were upset that they could not heal a boy of seizures, but stood amazed as Jesus immediately healed the boy, they asked why they had failed.

“Because you have so little faith,” Jesus tells them. “...if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” (NIV Matthew 17:14-20)

It seems today's general attitude toward what is lawful is that laws were created to be broken, and look at it as a dare. How else can we explain the casual release of murderers back onto city streets and general disobedience of law by many of us in too big a hurry to abide by a speed limit or caution sign.

Our children, following our example, will think nothing of doing as they please whether at home, at school or at play. Send them off to college and many consider it a rite of passage to discard all the “do nots” or “cautions” from parents, church and community.

They are easy prey for those who stand to benefit from offering numerous temptations. This climate of lawlessness has been building for a long time because we do not know history nor understand the difference between freedom and lawlessness.

We need to ask ourselves, not where do we worship, but whom do we worship.

Beth Pratt retired after 25 years as the religion editor for the Avalanche-Journal.