While the current president [referring to Bill Clinton, jlp] has done incalculable damage to moral values, Meredith Oakley is right—civic leaders alone cannot restore moral values; that must come largely from the home. A number of things have contributed to the moral decline of our nation.

Foremost is the failure to teach and exemplify moral values in the home. Solomon said, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). A person’s character, or lack thereof, usually reflects the home environment in which he was raised.

Failure of churches in having become largely social organizationsthat try to be politically correct, while emphasizing fun, food and frolic. Any moral teaching is just lip service, with members not required to live moral lives.

Immorality has been glorified by Hollywood in movies, television and personal lives of celebrities—fornication, adultery, out-of-wedlock births, dishonesty, homosexuality, and other sins.

Teaching evolution as fact in public schools. People who are taught that they are just animals will act worse than animals (consider abortion and child abuse).

Removal of prayer from schools left many without any positive mention of God in their lives. Without recognition of an authority higher than man, there is no basis for a standard—no recognized standard, no moral values.

The Bible says, “evil men will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived” (2 Timothy 3:13). With many that fit that description, even in the government, it is difficult to be optimistic.