Moral values deteriorating

THE horrifying news headlines in the media every day about the barbaric killings of innocent citizens is a clear indication that we are about to be done for as a nation and as a people.
Unless the moral structure and political integrity of this beautiful nation are rebuilt, we cannot survive.
We are so taken up with our money-making plans and with amusements, places and comforts of the modern social life that we do not realise that the forces of evil are closing in on us.
It is only human nature that we have a tendency of blaming the government when confronted with crisis of such magnitude, wringing our hands over the situation, wondering what misguided policy could have been the cause of those evil forces of lust, greed and hate that are manifesting themselves everywhere before us and are being played upon the primitive superstitions of certain cultures.
Others, however are beginning to blame the churches in their guilt of neglecting the spiritual side of man.
All these are only symptoms – the result of deeper underlying disease.
Our political and surprisingly many of our so-called religious leaders are blinded by this basic problem of our society and do not seem to have any remedy for it.
They never seem to fully recognise the fact that man is basically a spiritual and moral failure, and the fact that our problem is not economical but educational, not social but spiritual and theological.
Sorcery-related violence, gender-based violence, payback-killings and other heinous crimes caused by alcoholism and drug abuse and other social ills such as premarital sex and undesirable pregnancies.
We should face it, we have lost our moral and spiritual direction and our contact with God.
Positive mindset at an early age is needed in man’s development to adequately equip him /her to be able to thrive and participate fully in a society. As a concerned citizen, the need for Christian education has always been one of the greatest burdens of my heart.
Separation of the religious instructions from school, I hope, was never meant to separate children from God.
Thousands of our school children are going to secular, humanistic, and materialistic schools, colleges, and universities.
But only a few are being provided with Christian instructions in a proper and spiritual environment with moral and spiritual qualification or theological soundness.
Our education system should be equipped and resourced to supply young men and women with instructions that might give access to wisdom.
We now have many young people lacking wisdom who are out in the society confused, bewildered and frustrated with very little or no moral direction.
Remember that prevalence of knowledge without wisdom is one of the unmistakeable “signs of the end”.
Let us not see education as an investment for physical development of a person only, but also spiritual, as it opens a world of books and learning that enables a deeper understanding of the Holy Bible, the inspired Word of God.
This encourages us to anchor our choices that do not change with time, such as honesty, integrity, and truthfulness – the choices that built time-honoured virtues like good character, loyalty, commitment, and hard work; the choices that are bases upon which we can progress.
Let us make a difference here by making it our humble duty either individually or collectively in establishing a spiritual climate for our government and the nation through manifestation of our Christian faith through works, sacrifices and prayers.
Let us involve in the affairs of our nation by putting God-fearing leaders in authority so that godliness is projected through them, even though only God has all the answers to our problems and miseries.

Mathew Damong,
Pari Village