There has never been a decade quite like the sixties; the diversity, conflicts, hope, anger, the music, the dance crazes and the fun that characterized these years. The 60s decade was a decade of change. Not only were those changes evident in fashions but world events, music of the 60s, automobiles, toys, and individual self expression as displayed during the largest outdoor rock concert ever performed, Woodstock. The television shows of the fifties and sixties depicted the morals and values of our society. The simplicity of our lifestyle were so evident at that time. The westerns on the televisions series were about the good guys always winning.
Music and events of the day interacted with one another as we progressed through one of the most turbulent decades in modern history. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and presidential hopeful Bobby Kennedy illustrated the turbulent and restless society. Lance Morrow said "The real 1960s began on the afternoon of November 22, 1963. It came to seem that Kennedy's murder opened some malign trap door in American culture, and the wild bats flapped out."
In contrast to what I said above, the sixties decade has been described by historians as the decade that resulted in the most significant changes in our history.
Music and events of the day interacted with one another as we progressed through one of the most turbulent decades in modern history. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and presidential hopeful Bobby Kennedy illustrated the turbulent and restless society. Lance Morrow said "The real 1960s began on the afternoon of November 22, 1963. It came to seem that Kennedy's murder opened some malign trap door in American culture, and the wild bats flapped out."
In contrast to what I said above, the sixties decade has been described by historians as the decade that resulted in the most significant changes in our history.
- In 1969 the race to space was won by the U.S. by putting a man on the moon. This one event caught more press and attention second to only the Vietnam War.
- The 1960s were also time of turmoil, probably described as such for the racial unrest during this period, social injustice and because of our involvement in the war in Vietnam.
- The magnitude of violence in the streets of U.S. cities as well as on college campuses in protest of the War in Vietnam was unprecedented in our history.
- The burning of the flag and draft cards were widely used as tools for protest.
Even though the 60s had its periods of unrest and violence, it was a great decade to have grown up in. If you don't believe it just ask anybody who was a baby boomer. (Anybody who was born from 1946-1964.) [I was born in 1946]
Here is "what was."
- The fashions and ideals of today were shaped by baby boomers.
- The "60's" were a time when life seemed so much more carefree and slower.
- The music was clean and fun and we actually understood the lyrics.
- We knew all our neighbors on the street where we lived.
- Innocent fun was the game not violence against our fellow man.
The school dances with the crazy dance steps of the popular dances at the time were fond memories. We invented steps to add to the ridiculous steps these had. We were having fun just as the sixties were meant to be.
The 1960’s games Ouija and Twister were all the rage, and this was the precedent to "satanic" worship, still prevalent today. The bingo halls were frequented often, a pastime which has since been in a steady decline, along with other pastimes have also gone out of fashion.
Stumbling through the 60s you will recall the famous and not so famous written and spoken words that were so much part of the 60s culture. Margot Kidder said, "It was a wonderful time to be young. The 1960s didn't end until about 1976. We all believed in Make Love, Not War. We were idealistic innocents, despite the drugs and sex." And John Lennon said "The thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn't the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility." As I look back, I can see why the 60's had so much impact on today.
Someone has said that we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes. Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.
I remember that we had no child proof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because......WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the street lights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K. We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We did not have Pay-stations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays,
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them! Little League had try outs and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!
The 1960’s games Ouija and Twister were all the rage, and this was the precedent to "satanic" worship, still prevalent today. The bingo halls were frequented often, a pastime which has since been in a steady decline, along with other pastimes have also gone out of fashion.
Stumbling through the 60s you will recall the famous and not so famous written and spoken words that were so much part of the 60s culture. Margot Kidder said, "It was a wonderful time to be young. The 1960s didn't end until about 1976. We all believed in Make Love, Not War. We were idealistic innocents, despite the drugs and sex." And John Lennon said "The thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn't the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility." As I look back, I can see why the 60's had so much impact on today.
When I was living in those days of the 60's, I thought they were a time of fun and innocence. But when I Think Back Over Those Days, I Wonder How Did We Survive?
Things would never be the same!!!
Someone has said that we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes. Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.
I remember that we had no child proof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because......WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the street lights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K. We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We did not have Pay-stations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays,
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them! Little League had try outs and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
The past 50 or so years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!
OR DID WE?
Anyone who lived through the ‘60s knew our country would never be the same. Not only did the sexual revolution shake our national innocence, but that era produced many congressmen, governors and state legislators who are adulterous, sexually corrupt, or just plain deviant. Although former Congressman Anthony Weiner and San Diego Mayor Bob Filner are the latest examples, who can forget Bill Clinton, who disgraced the highest office in the land?
Unfortunately, morally challenged leaders aren’t the worst product of that revolution. When our culture rejected sexual restraint, it laid the foundation for two sources of national shame: abortion, and the normalizing of deviant sexual behavior.
What’s the common root to this slide into moral relativism? The loss of an age-old virtue known as sexual purity.
For generations our nation upheld a thin veneer of sexual propriety in the public realm. Though artificial in many respects, it reflected a legacy of Christian modesty inherited from our nation’s beginnings. But that restraint was virtually abandoned over this last generation.
Consider what’s now commonplace:
- gratuitous sex in movies;
- infantile potty and sexual “humor” in most TV SITCOMs;
- advertisements delivering soft porn;
- songs and video games glorifying self-gratification, sexual indulgence and voyeurism;
- the evening news searching for stories having sexual details;
- young women’s clothing catering to exhibitionism;
- and the Internet providing unspeakably vile content to anyone who wants it.
Should any of this be a surprise?
Sexual impurity and societal decay have been commonplace (though generally condemned) ever since the fall of mankind. Whether it is:
Sexual impurity and societal decay have been commonplace (though generally condemned) ever since the fall of mankind. Whether it is:
- polygamy (Genesis 4:19),
- adultery (2 Samuel 11),
- rape (Genesis 34:1-7)
- or outright perversion (Genesis 18:1-19:29),
nothing is really new under the sun.
But as prior nations have learned, there’s an unavoidable cost when society openly glorifies sexual exploitation. An increasingly rotting legacy is passed to the next generation as they’re sexualized at ever younger ages and never taught the virtue of sexual self-control, or, as Hebrews 13:4 so aptly puts it, how to keep the marriage bed pure.
Obviously, there are consequences to casual sex: STDs; broken marriages; physical and emotional abuse; sexual harassment; public leaders living double lives; and yes, even personal regret and shame. Read what Romans 2:13-15 says about this:
Obviously, there are consequences to casual sex: STDs; broken marriages; physical and emotional abuse; sexual harassment; public leaders living double lives; and yes, even personal regret and shame. Read what Romans 2:13-15 says about this:
- 13 (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.
- 14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
- 15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)
- 3 Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
- 4 As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.
- 5 Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.
God instituted marriage as the best way to bring them into the world. But when sexual conquest becomes culture’s highest aspiration, abortion becomes the quick fix to an unwanted nuisance. This nuisance, however, is a life created in the image of God just like his parents (Genesis 1:27).
- 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Unfortunately, government is not a bystander in this destruction of life; it’s an accomplice. First, it makes abortion a legal right to be protected at all costs. Second, it treats students in public school as little more than animals with no control over their sexual appetites, providing explicit sex education, and then offering free condoms and trips to abortion clinics. It’s no wonder teenagers choose to follow their baser instincts.
If the death of innocent, unborn children provides little restraint to sexual promiscuity, it follows that deviant sexual appetites won’t have any restraints either.
Once sex is governed by a consumer mentality, any aberration can and will be quickly normalized. It’s not surprising that the sexual revolution opened the way for homosexuals to aggressively engage the public mind, the entertainment media, and the legal realm. Homosexuality violates the obvious compatibility of the male-female biological design created by God (Genesis 2:24)
If the death of innocent, unborn children provides little restraint to sexual promiscuity, it follows that deviant sexual appetites won’t have any restraints either.
Once sex is governed by a consumer mentality, any aberration can and will be quickly normalized. It’s not surprising that the sexual revolution opened the way for homosexuals to aggressively engage the public mind, the entertainment media, and the legal realm. Homosexuality violates the obvious compatibility of the male-female biological design created by God (Genesis 2:24)
- And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
Again, our Lord set the agenda for a man and woman in Matthew 19:4-6
- 4 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,
- 5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?
- 6 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
Homosexuality has devastating health and emotional consequences, but, irregardless, homosexuals have successfully convinced much of our nation that it’s normal, healthy, and above criticism.
When healthy sexual norms are discarded and homosexuality is mainstreamed, any manner of sexual perversion and deviancy will seek legitimacy. Look around. Gender selection and confusion, bisexuality, transexuality, and even man-boy love relationships are all being promoted as normal and healthy.
As a result, our nation is reaping what it has been sowing: heartache, pain, disease, confusion and self-destructive behaviors that no amount of government spending will ever be able to correct (Galatians 6:7-8).
When healthy sexual norms are discarded and homosexuality is mainstreamed, any manner of sexual perversion and deviancy will seek legitimacy. Look around. Gender selection and confusion, bisexuality, transexuality, and even man-boy love relationships are all being promoted as normal and healthy.
As a result, our nation is reaping what it has been sowing: heartache, pain, disease, confusion and self-destructive behaviors that no amount of government spending will ever be able to correct (Galatians 6:7-8).
- 7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
- 8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
- But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
- 18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.
- 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
- 20 And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.
In fact, common sense, reason and research have always shown that societal stability is best served when sexual desires are kept within clear, respectful bounds and cherished within marriage.
If our sexualized society continues to pursue this immoral path, our country is doomed. If God’s standards continue to be ignored and denigrated, inevitably our nation’s vitality will be dissipated and its moral conscience hardened against anything God has intended for our good.
If our sexualized society continues to pursue this immoral path, our country is doomed. If God’s standards continue to be ignored and denigrated, inevitably our nation’s vitality will be dissipated and its moral conscience hardened against anything God has intended for our good.
Can this slippery slope be stopped?
Only if the next generation can objectively see the rotting fruit that comes from embracing sexual impurity and decides to return to behaviors that God has declared as good and beneficial.
No comments:
Post a Comment