Every once and a while, I get on my computer and go to You Tube, and watch old TV shows or even old TV commercials and public service announcements, I am constantly amazed how different those old TV shows were and some of those old TV commercials and public service announcements we be deemed rather silly by today's standards. The idea that a public service announcement could promote principals of good citizenship or good manners and common courtesy or how to behave appropriately at a party or on a date. My goodness, how silly and old fashioned those TV shows and public service announcements sure seem to be to many in America today.
Call me crazy, but sometimes I long for some of those out dated cultural values. I admit I miss some of the innocent idealism of shows like Leave it to Beaver or Father Knows Best or The Donna Reed Show. Andy Griffith, just past away and who can for get the down home traditional family values found in the fictional home town of Mayberry? I know all to well however, that American society doesn't live in this era any more. American, society today is so much more socially advanced and the youth today seem so much more socially aware of the word around them and yet, for all the knowledge America's youth has obtained through movies TV and music not to mention the liberal public school system and all of the technological advancements America, has made in the last sixty years or so, I am left to wonder at what cost? Have we not paid a price for much of America's cultural, and technological knowledge today? I believe we have. The cost for all this advanced knowledge has been the loss of America's innocence.
I liken much of this knowledge to the same knowledge promised to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. Genesis 3:5 says, that the devil who took the form of a serpent, promised Eve, that if she ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil her eyes would be opened and she would be like God, because she would be wise and have the knowledge of good and evil. The devil told a half truth Adam and Eve"s eyes were indeed opened and the did experience the loss of their innocence and they became keenly aware of good and evil and the end result was eventual physical death and eternal separation from God. God, had to cast Adam and Eve out of the garden lest they continue to eat from the tree of life and live forever in a body that would now slowly begin to decay because of sin. Man would have remained for ever separated for God had not God, stepped in and become God, in flesh the Son Jesus Christ became the second Adam and Christ, death on the cross redeemed mankind and thus made it possible to as many as receive Christ to live again eternally with God, in Heaven.
My daughter, is nearly ten and she attends a Christian, school she is a straight A honor student yet for all her knowledge she remains quite innocent and unaware of many things that seem to pervade American culture today. I will admit I'm happy to keep it that way for as long as possible after all childhood can only be lived once and my daughter will grow up soon enough and once she does grow up she will have to be a responsible adult for a long time but until that time comes there is some knowledge I would rather she not have until she can handle it .
I looked at some research from 2009 and it stated that 46% of high school girls admitted to having at least one sexual encounter and 37% of this 46% admitted to having unprotected sex in spite of all the education they have received on the subject. and in many cases some children are introduced to drugs and alcohol as early as the sixth grade. Oh yes, America, has bitten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but I'm afraid in far too many cases today such knowledge comes at the cost of America's innocence and I am left to wonder, was such knowledge worth it? As always, my friends, these thoughts remain, just, some words, to think on.
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