No. 514 - WHAT HAPPENED WHEN WE SAID OK....

No. 514

Jim Davidson Ð NEWSPAPER COLUMN

WHAT HAPPENED WHEN WE SAID OKÉÉ

It's just human nature to want to read and hear things that make us feel better, things that are positive and things that give us hope for the future. Unfortunately, there are times in each of our lives, and the collective lives of the American people, when we need to face reality and to understand where we are as a nation. Sometime back I got a personal note, along with a very disturbing article, from a faithful reader by the name of John Millett, who lives in Minneola, Kan., and reads my column in the Dodge City Daily Globe. Good people in this part of our country, and I was out there and met many of them a few years ago.

What John sent me was a letter from a concerned student addressed to God. To be sure, there is a message here that we should all think about on a regular basis. It begins, "Dear God: Why didn't you save the school children at ... Moses Lake, Washington 2/2/96; Bethel, Alaska 2/19/97; Pearl, Mississippi 10/1/97; West Paducah, Kentucky, 12/1/97; Stamps, Arkansas 12/15/97; Jonesboro, Arkansas 3/24/98; Edinboro, Pennsylvania 4/24/98; Fayetteville, Tennessee 5/19/98; Springfield, Oregon 5/21/98; Richmond, Virginia 6/15/98; Littleton, Colorado 4/20/99; Taber, Alberta, Canada 5/28/99; Conyers, Georgia 5/20/99; Deming, New Mexico 11/19/99; Fort Gibson, Oklahoma 12/6/99; Santee, California 3/5/01; El Cajon, California 3/22/01; Red Lake, Minnesota 3/22/05." The letter is signed, Sincerely, Concerned Student.

God''s answer is very brief and to the point. "Dear Concerned Student: I am not allowed in schools." Sincerely, God. Then the article continues: How did this get started? ... Let's see, I think it started when Madeline Murray O'Hare complained she didn't want any prayer in our schools. And we said, OK. ... Then, someone said you better not read the Bible in school, the Bible says "thou shall not kill, thou shall not steal, and love your neighbors as yourself," and we said OK. ... Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem. And we said, an expert should know what he's talking about so we won't spank them anymore.É

Then someone said teachers and principals better not discipline our children when they misbehave. And the school administrators said no faculty member in this school better touch a student when they misbehave because we don't want any bad publicity, and we surely don't want to be sued. And we accepted their reasoning. ... Then someone said, let's let our daughters have abortions if they want, and they won't even have to tell their parents. And we said, that's a grand ideaÉ

Then some wise school board member said, since boys will be boys and they are going to do it anyway, let's give our sons all the condoms they want, so they can have all the fun they desire, and we won't have to tell their parents they got them at school. And we said, that's another great idea. ÉThen some of our top elected officials said it doesn't matter what we do in private as long as we do our jobs. And we said, it doesn't matter what anybody, (including the president) does in private, as long as we have jobs and the economy is goodÉ.

And then someone else took that appreciation a step further and published pictures of nude children and then stepped further still by making them available on the Internet. And we said, everyone's entitled to free speech. ... And the entertainment industry said, let's make TV shows and movies that promote profanity, violence and illicit sex. ... And let's record music that encourages rape, drugs, murder, suicide, and satanic themes. ... And we said, it's just entertainment and it has no adverse effect and nobody takes it seriously anyway, so go right ahead. ... Now we are asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, classmates and even themselves. Undoubtedly, if we thought long and hard enough, we could figure it out. I'm sure it has a great deal to do with ... "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW." (Gal. 6:7)

Most of the points this article contains are no big deal, that is, until it happens to us or our loved ones. When I present material of this nature, I realize that I alienate a lot of readers who do not share my values. Believe me, the last thing on earth I want to do is make people unhappy, but what we should all stop to realize is that when we have another school shooting in America, it causes heartache for those directly affected, but also strikes at the very freedom that we all cherish so much. We should all stop and ask ourselves why we are having these shootings that we never used to have in this country. The answer is not technical and it's not that hard. Thanks, John.

(Jim Davidson is a motivational speaker and syndicated columnist. You may contact him at 2 Bentley Drive, Conway, AR 72034.)