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     Our society when I was a boy in the 1950’s is a stark contrast from 2002.  My grandmother would whisper the word divorce, because it was an abhorrent thought and almost unmentionable.  Divorce was infrequent and was considered scandalous when it occurred.  Any sexual context other than lifetime monogamous heterosexual marriage was almost unthinkable, let alone condoned by society.  A girl being pregnant out of wedlock, was usually and immediately sent away to have the baby and give it up for adoption – to avoid shame in the girl’s family.

     Pornography had to be diligently sought as it was not displayed in your face at the local discount and convenience stores and now on the internet.  “Father Knows Best” and “Leave it to Beaver” were standard evening viewing on TV instead of the putrid bilge of immorality pouring into homes today.  Immodest dress was rare and was the mark of a morally loose woman.  Mary Quant, mother of the miniskirt said in 1967, “Mini-clothes are symbolic of those girls who want to seduce a man....”  My mother had not even heard of homosexuality until she was about 30 (1950s).  Just 20 years later, the “New Morality” and LTA, (the “Living Together Arrangement”) became the couched acronyms for the old immorality – fornication!  Another 15 years had passed when I asked a young waitress how her day went, she happily declared, “Great, I moved in with my boyfriend today.”  There was no discretion, no reservation, no shame in her response.  Why?  Because it had become normal, yea, the acceptable amorality in our society.

     Now, in the new century, even young girls are dared to hang the jeans as low as possible without revealing all.  Fornication of various sorts is in the middle school bathroom, even the classroom.  There is pressure to teach, beginning in the elementary grades, that homosexuality is a normal (meaning morally OK) lifestyle.  Several states have even given consideration legalizing to homosexual marriages.*  What has happened to our society’s morality?

     The standard of morality has been changing radically through the last 35-40 years so that it would be better called the “standard of amorality” which is literally no standard of morality.  We have been sliding down the slippery slope seeded by the Darwinian principle that we are in a continuing state of evolution.  John Dewey (was a professor at Columbia U. who greatly influenced our education system over the last 70 years) thought Darwin had hit on the principle governing all aspects of life – There is no absolute truth.  This idyllic pragmatism has glorified the “anything-goes” morality of Hollywood and garnished by the accommodative agnostic media.  Our society now lives by a morality no longer based on an absolute standard of right and wrong.  So ultimately anything will be acceptable to us after we have been bombarded by the idea long enough.  Society, i.e., we the people, establish the society’s morality, but what is the standard upon which we make morals?  Is it by an absolute and proven standard that creates a stable and honorable society.  Or, is it a standard of changing values created by an influential group who seek to satisfy the whims of their own delight and not knowing what society will become?

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     * EGW editor’s note:  For further information about the Bible’s warnings about the cultural dangers of homosexuality, please read listen to Jim's 2-part lesson “Homosexuality – the ruin of a nation”