A Lack of knowledge

​It’s Monday (as I write this blog/vlog for next week), but more important is the fact it’s Constitution Day when we remember and celebrate its importance to us as a people and a nation.  From what I saw this morning, we have at least one generation, I fear more, that haven’t a clue when it comes to knowing information about the Constitution of the United States.

On the morning news a number of people were asked questions about the Constitution.  I saw that folks at least 50 years and older did pretty good, some excellent in their knowledge of the content of the Constitution, as well as dates and places associated with it.  However, the under 30 years old crowd barely knew what the Constitution is, much less any specific details.
I wasn’t surprised because so many schools, it seems, no longer teach civics.  So, why should we be shocked when younger people don’t know about our  nation’s governing documents.  Nor do I blame them when we have an educational system that is more concerned with indoctrinating our children in today’s secular values and principles than holding firm on sound instruction in who we are as a nation with its glorious achievements and its disappointing failures.  I think they call it history, which no longer seems important to many today.  After all, that’s old stuff and we’re re-writing history to make it fit our modern morals, attitudes and ethics  anyway.

We run into the same problem in the church.  So many in the church, across all age lines, don’t know much about the Word of God as it is revealed in Scripture.  Oh, we have views of what some think the Bible says which is good enough for far too many.  Why should we as individual Christians be concerned since the church seems reluctant to adhere to its teachings anyway.  Few people have the desire to engage in personal Bible study.  Pastors don’t like to teach the basics of our faith, at least as Lutherans, in confirmation to our youth.  Even those who might be able to say what we believe as Christians don’t know why we believe as we do.

That kind of disregard and lack of interest in how our government works for the people results in people surrendering to “ISMS” that sound too good to be true because they are.  Remember, we have a rising love  affair with socialism among the young especially that threatens the very roots of our republic.  In the church, this disregard for the heritage of our past in the Old Testament, the re-writing the teachings of the New Testament and our Lord, Jesus Christ, to suit modern attitudes, and the lack of a need to know God’s Word becomes the new guide for Christian morals and ethics.  The result is we end up with false teachings and heresy.

I fear for the future which is why I try to put such a strong emphasis on the preaching and teaching of the Word of God.  It’s what I promised Him I would do.  Yet, no one person can do it.  It takes all of us who believe in our Lord to hold true to His Word.  And it takes an informed citizenry to hold up this republic, established by our founders, as a nation by which we have been blessed.  Embracing many of these secular (yes, that includes within the church) values, morals, and ethics is a sure way to lose the blessing God has granted us.
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And those are my thoughts.  God bless.
Pastor Lee