Little Flower Parish at 204 1st St. N.W., Browning, MT 59417 US - Sin And The Modern World

DE LA SALLE BLACKFEET SCHOOL PROJECT By Fr Ed Kohler January 6,2002 A big mistake of the Secular Revolution in the 1960s had to do with sin. Even Catholic schools were impacted by the power of the Secular Revolution clouding the moral teachings of the church to where it seemed not politically correct to teach limits and boundaries to personal behavior. I remember jokes being told about Nuns trying to teach limits and boundaries to young people around the time they began to be interested in the opposite sex. By the late 1960s those teachings were being eliminated from the Catholic school codes governing student behavior. I need not describe the consequence of the sexual revolution. But I need say that I am absolutely amazed at how far we have gone away from what was taught at the beginning of the 1960s and how gross sexual behavior is made manifest in the modern world. How I now long for the teaching of those Nuns in our Catholic schools. But today I hear adults say that we can never recapture the innocence of those days, that we have to rewrite the moral code to fit the experience of the new millennium. The point of this writing is to show that those adults are dead wrong and that we need Catholic schools to focus their energy in accord with the Gospel so as to turn the Secular revolution around and back to Jesus Christ and His plan of salvation. The Secular Revolution has done much spiritual harm at many levels in society, but let me focus on only two of them because they directly affect our children today: they are the sexual revolution and the drug culture we know today. Sin causes serious harm to the soul. Children and young adults are not psychologically mature enough for sexual intercourse out side the context of marriage. The experience takes over their whole being to where they cannot think of anything else. A sexually active child becomes obsessed with sex to such a great degree he or she becomes incapable of doing any meaningful study or disciplined work. Because sex outside the context of marriage is not according to God's plan it always causes spiritual harm to the person. Besides being spiritually harmed, many bad things happen to the person when they live in an unholy environment. Rape, disease, unwanted pregnancy, and beatings come quickly to my mind. The human person never forgets any wrongdoing or shameful act done personally or by someone else against him or her. The memory of events in our lives never goes away. It’s the harm done to people and the memory of the event that today fuel the drug culture. Even when one just experiments with alcohol and drugs today they set themselves up to be used and abused. The drugs or alcohol plus the unholy events that result from the use of them make people want to numb the memory of the event. So they often do the drugs again and often invite others to join them. Consequently the cycle of harming spiritually not only deepens in the souls of young people but also actually reaches out to bring more young people into the circle of destruction. Even when a person betters their life style and protects him or herself from future harm they are forced to deal with the memory of past unholy events. Blessed is that person today who does not have too many unholy events to deal with. Those who in freedom cause unholy events are responsible for what they have done. Our God is a just God and He will make the judgment, and His justice will be done. Some people are more responsible than others for the spiritual harm done to people in our modern world. I always say to young girls who get abortions that they are just children who are only minimally responsible for their act. The greater responsibility, by far, falls to the Pro Choice people who cooperate with the Secular Revolution and actively create the environment for abortion. Theirs is a huge character defect, and if they ever convert from their sin they have a lot to atone for. In my next article I will discuss God's mercy, but mercy cannot be understood without an understanding of justice. The sad thing is that these people feel that they will not be held accountable. They just do not understand the power of sin and the accountability that justice puts on us for the real harm we do to others. Sin and its consequences mean something to God and to harmed individuals striving for the Kingdom of God. Jesus states in Matthew's Gospel Chapter 18:6 "It would be better for anyone who leads astray one of these little ones who believe in me, to be drowned by a millstone around his neck, in the depths of the sea." The demands for justice will be met by God. Imagine a child three years old caught telling a little lie. At three years old the child's lie seems innocent and with out consequence. But what if no one takes the time to correct the child's wrongdoing and lying becomes a character defect. As this child grows into adulthood the lies will tend to become more sophisticated and the consequences more real. For example if at age forty the adult lies to his or her spouse or becomes unfaithful the lie takes on new power. This lie deeply hurts not only the spouse, but also the children. If this person with this character defect holds a position of authority in a corporation or in government and acts in a dishonest or unfaithful way the consequences can have a devastating affect in the lives of many people. We all can find examples of deceit done by people in government or in other positions of power. Our character defects take on more power the older we are and the more responsibility we have. Now project these character defects off into eternity. If they are not corrected they will continue to grow in power and can take on the evil intent of Satan himself. One can easily see why God cannot let an unconverted sinner into His Kingdom. One can pick out any character defect as an example, project the sin into its final stages of development and understand that all these character defects must be rooted out of us before we can enter the Kingdom of God. For example, we can see already the destructive consequences of the sexual revolution on personal lives, on family lives, and on the world. We have to understand that God is not going to let people with character defects that promote self centered behavior destroy His Kingdom too. Those who do not want to convert from their sin will not enter the Kingdom of God. In this new millennium He will not let us redefine the moral code according to our own desires-- but He will help us learn His truth. Moral teachings must begin at an early age if we are going to protect our children from long lasting spiritual harm, and we Christian adults need the courage to teach them. We need to observe character defects at their beginning, then discipline our children and lead then toward the holy life. As part of the Body of Christ we have some accountability in this regard. Also we need to provide an environment that protects our children from unholy events. Catholic schools provide a graced filled environment where our children can grow in wisdom and in God's truth. I will not trust the world to this task. It is for this reason that I praise God for our new De La Salle Blackfeet Middle School. I pray that the Lord Jesus strengthen this project and make it grow into all twelve grades. If you are interested in known more about our parish or our De La Salle Blackfeet Middle School please see our Web Site: http://LittleFlowerParish.Catholicweb.com. If you are interested in helping us financially, please write us at, Little Flower Parish, P.O. Box 529, Browning MT. 59417. We pray for our benefactors. (Please feel free to copy this article and share it with others.)

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