How We Raise Our Kids

Back in the early 80’s I taught evening classes at a local business college.  One afternoon, Robert, the janitor was cleaning around my desk and asked me to check a drawer to see if the morning instructor had forgotten to take his pistol home again.  He hadn’t, and as we talked, Robert mused “you know, he keep doin’ that, one of these days I’m gonna get that gun  … almost did the other day .. if I could have got away with it”. 

This was the Moral Majority era and it struck me how telling a comment this was of life on the south-side where Robert grew up & still lived.  There stood a man who worked hard all his life, always on time, always there.  Yet this same dependable man just admitted that he would steal from a fellow employee if he could get away with it.   Does he really believe stealing is ok if you get away with it?  Does he think I agree?  Does his social circle think this way and is this what he taught his kids?  Is this what’s wrong with America that the growing Christian Right movement is talking about?

I was reminded of Robert the other night as I watched the Republican convention.   They ran a short promotional video introducing John McCain and part of the video highlighted how John met Cindy and how magically telling it was that they both lied to each other about their ages. (He told her he was 44 when he was actually 48 and she said she was 28 when actually only 24).

It was telling all right, I thought.  But what does it say about someone who lies to you the very first time you meet them?  Forget that he was married & cheating on his wife at the time - what does this say about his own moral compass and those around him when they put up their deceitfulness as a cute thing to know about themselves?   What does it say about the audience if they see nothing wrong?  Is this what their social circle believes – that lying is ok?   Is this what they teach their kids? 

Yet Americans cheered and clapped and chanted for more.  The show went on and they said a lot things. The Associated Press tried to be as generous as possible the next morning,  but still felt compelled to published a long list of the missleading statements made. (Link below.)

And in the end the truth didn’t make any difference – they had gotten away with it and that’s what really mattered to them. This the “family values” party.   It made me sad, really.  I’m only glad my daughter is too young to have grasped it all – that such a large group of her fellow Americans have so little regard for the core American value of telling the truth, the need to stand firm on it, and to tolerate nothing less.

I still believe we are a nation of Christians, but after that spectacle, I’m not too sure we’re any kind of a Christian nation - at least not by any living witness of those who boast so loudly we are.   Our Lord is the Way, the Truth & the Light.  As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord and continue to value the truth. 

Sheepgoat 

Ref:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h4Os_NvbBurz0R8IejrDDj-4sRlAD930AQV01

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