The Rev. Dale Sallans

In 1958, a movie came out entitled “God’s Little Acre.” It was about a poor Georgia farmer who thought there was buried treasure on his land. This movie had the critics and censors in a tizzy because of the profanity contained therein. In one scene, the word “hell” was used.

Fast forward to Lucy and Desi and the scene from their bedroom. Twin beds, all people fully clothed with at least one foot on the floor. And then there was the problem with that envelope pushing TV show, “Leave it to Beaver.” They had the audacity to have a shot of the boy’s bathroom and showed there was a toilet in there.

Fast forward to today where sin, perversion, foul language, nudity, sexual content, violence and depravity are commonplace during prime time. Many young people today are having their moral compass set by what they see on secular TV and in movies, let alone the pornographic content that is easily for them to find on the Internet. Any filth can be passed off with the motto “free speech.”

Society today has been boiled like a bullfrog. You know how to boil a bullfrog? If you toss him/her in a pot of boiling water, the dude/dudette will hop out immediately. No, you put the bullfrog in a pot of cool water, and then turn up the temperature a few degrees at a time until the frog is boiled. That is what has happened to us. Our society has become so “evolved” that we no longer need civility, religion, faith or even God. What ever feels good, do it! Our society has become more savage, we kill our unborn, we disregard God’s commandments, and have adopted the “anything goes” way of thinking.

And if we don’t repent, if we don’t do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God, we are doomed. Let us join together as people of faith, and take our rightful place in society. The church is not to be a thermometer, reflecting the temperature of society. We are to be thermostats, helping to set the temperature. If we don’t stand up together for things that are Godly and teach them to our children, we will have no future.

My prayer is not that God be with us, for God is with us all the time. My prayer is that God makes us aware of His presence and leading in our lives, our families, our churches, our communities, our state and nation.