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- As we enter the end of what has been billed "the
Century of America," our society is in the midst of a moral and cultural
crisis unlike at any time in its history.
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- There are ten signs that depict the end of a culture.
Great civilizations of the past were destroyed when people saw these signs
but failed to act. Each of these indicators is with us today.
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- The first sign of the end of a culture is that of a society
which no longer worships or acknowledges God. In 1998 it has actually become
unpopular to advocate traditional Judeo-Christian values, such as the Ten
Commandments. Thanks to Political Correctness, the popular culture ridicules
those who worship God as the sovereign creator. Instead, it is popular
to put our faith and trust in ourselves or in other creations of God.
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- A second indicator of the end of a culture is the decline
of the family. Today, statistics show divorce is at an all time high in
the United States. After 25 years, we are now seeing the consequences of
no-fault divorce laws. It is now so common for young people to grow up
in divorced households that the term "broken family" is now a
forgotten expression in the popular culture. Fathers are living apart from
their natural children. Mothers no longer stay at home, but work as a head
of the household. As a result, women in our society have lost their feminine
identity. As worship has declined, the spiritual values communicated by
mothers have all but ended with a generation. The moral authority of fathers
is undermined by a society that no longer embraces the structure of the
family.
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- A third important indicator of cultural demise is a society's
low view of life. Today, the popular culture now views abortion as a "right."
The failure of our government to outlaw partial birth abortion demonstrates
how intolerant of life the culture has become. Steadily, society's undermining
of life has grown to include calls for legalizing euthanasia, assisted
suicide, and scientific experimentation. But history warns no society can
last without a high view of life.
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- Another sign of the end of the civilization is the prevalence
of base and immoral entertainment. In its last days, Rome had become a
society with an insatiable appetite for debauchery and immorality. Perverted
entertainment translated into perverted speech and behavior. The Roman
society began to accept and encourage open homosexuality. The people turned
away from God and forgot his commandments and precepts, and Rome crumbled.
And today, our culture has begun to embrace the same kind of entertainment.
In music, a song eulogizing a murdered rap star has held the top spot on
the charts for two months. Many of our movies now feature heroes who triumph
by copying the vises of the villains. Television has scuttled its family
hour for more dramas and sitcoms that treat perversion as normal behavior.
Wholesome entertainment is becoming a forgotten relic.
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- Still another troublesome indicator of society's demise
is the increase of violent crime among young people. Riddled with gang
violence, many of our inner cities have become powder kegs portending future
collapse. Today, young people think about death and dying more than any
other subject. In fact, surveys indicate they think about death even more
than they think about the opposite sex. There's a popular new sport called
extreme fighting, in which combatants injure one another like the gladiators
of Rome. The demise of the traditional family and absence of religion have
combined to create a culture of children who are morally retarded. In the
wake of this, our Politically Correct society offers young people no consistent
arguments against violence.
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- Another key cultural indicator is the declining middle
class. Politicians have discovered one of the keys to reelection is to
advocate more spending and government programs for the poor. The traditional
middle class is now defined as rich. The work of the federal government
has become the business of redistributing wealth through taxation and new
government programs. After years of bureaucratic growth over the last fifty
years, the United States has witnessed shrinking numbers of middle class
wage earners, many of whom have become the working poor. The family structure
has disintegrated over the last twenty-five years in part because of the
economic pressure for women to join the workforce. This has lead to the
increased polarization of the working class and the wealthy. Earlier this
century, Russia witnessed just such a polarization before a revolution
ushered in the communist era.
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- Yet another sign of cultural demise is that of an insolvent
Government. The French Revolution occurred against the backdrop of a bankrupt
government. Today, our government has not managed a balanced budget in
nearly thirty years. Beneath the annual budget lies a debt of unmanageable
proportions. History warns that a government rendered insolvent cannot
quell its disenchanted masses.
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- Related to this, a government that lives off of society's
moral decay is another sign of the end of a civilization. The Roman civilization
crumbled under the weight of an immoral and corrupt government. Over the
years, our government has devised the creation of whole agencies that exist
for no other reason than to manage some of the most immoral aspects of
the culture. The National Endowment for the Arts and the Legal Services
Corporation are examples of agencies that foster society's decline. Within
the judicial branch of government, judges accountable to no one have helped
undermine the religious freedoms that were once the centerpiece of our
society.
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- One obvious indicator that a culture is in decline is
when the ruling class loses its will. Our nation's leaders no longer see
the world according to right and wrong. Instead, the objective of today's
foreign policy Establishment is to maintain the status quo. In like manner,
our elected leaders have lost their moral authority. Elected officials
no longer seek office for the good of the country but instead seek reelection
to further lucrative careers within the Washington Establishment. Also,
our nation's defense Establishment has traded military readiness for social
experimentation with a feminized military.
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- The final indicator of the demise of a civilization is
the failure of its people to see what is happening. In nearly every case,
citizens of past civilizations which ended witnessed all of the signs of
demise but failed to act. Today, the popular culture has helped society
forget the lessons of history.
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- All of the signs of the demise of our culture are with
us today: the hostility toward religion, the breakup of the family, the
declining view of life, the appetite immorality, the violence and crime,
and the declining middle class are coupled with a federal government on
the brink of insolvency, whose leaders are living off of society's moral
decay leading to the loss of leadership and moral will.
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- In the days of Noah, God warned a faithless, immoral
and violent civilization of the imminent catastrophe that was about to
take place, but few listened. Tonight, our civilization is at the crossroads,
but few are noticing the signs that are before us. It is time to take notice,
and to pray for spiritual awakening in this country, before the light of
our civilization goes out.
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