Earlier
this year Colorado became the first state to legalize the sale of marijuana for
“recreational use.” One analyst on a Sunday TV political forum pointed out that
users of marijuana typically drop 9 points in their I.Q. (100 is considered
average) and commented, “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t have
that much to spare.”
A
New York Times article several weeks ago (August 2nd) promoted the
positive impact of the new law on increased tourism and that DUI arrests were actually down compared to the previous year.
By
contrast another news report pointed out an unintended consequence of
legalizing the drug. Some homeless shelters in Colorado have doubled the number
of people they are serving compared to last year. The increase is directly tied
to marijuana users moving to the state. One man interviewed at a shelter said
he moved to the state so he could “enjoy his weed.” Apparently he believed “enjoying
his weed” entitled him to a bed at a homeless shelter . . . or maybe it was the
effect of losing 9 points of his I.Q. doing the talking.
On
the heels of Colorado’s legalization of marijuana debate comes a report (BBC
Aug 8th) on Americans’ trust in government. According to Pew Trust Surveys
begun in 1958, Americans in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s had a nearly 80%
trust rating of the government. Subsequent surveys have shown trust has been
eroding ever since and now is at a low of 24%.
Some
mark the 1962 Supreme Court decision removing prayer from schools as the
beginning of the moral slide in this country. This was a year after the
introduction of “the pill” helped birth the “sexual revolution.” Then a few
years later some in the academic community resurrected the idea that “God is
dead.” Since the early 60’s our nation has gradually become increasingly
secular, more cynical and dysfunctional. God and his values have increasingly been
marginalized by society.
This
begs the question, “As a society are we better off now than we were before this
shift in values?” With the possible exceptions in the area of race relations and
women in the workplace the answer is no.
Secularism
with promises of “freedom” only made us slaves to disillusionment and cynicism.
Its broken promises of happiness have been replaced it with the evil twins of
entitlement and victim mentalities. Secularism’s ethics, which may be have been
defined by the Greek philosopher Protagoras over 2,500 years ago “man is the measure
of all things,” has produced a dysfunctional government and an impotent
economy. Ultimately we do not answer to the measure of man, we will one day
answer to the measure of God.
The
Bible’s response to secularism is, “There is a way which seems right
to a man, but its end is the way of death.”
(Proverbs 14:12 NASV)
Secularism
is not just a problem of government, business and culture at large it is a
problem in the church too.
After
years of empty promises and moral decline spurred by secularism our nation desperately
needs to return to Godly values.
Where do we
begin? “Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to
the father except he come by me.” We need to look beyond religion to find our
answers, we need to look to a Savior. We need to reexamine the promises of
God’s word . . . before it’s too late.
Rev. Charles G. Jones is a Baptist
minister who lives in Watkinsville, Georgia.
