We Are Blind

We Are Blind

We, as a nation, are blind to certain problems and opportunities. If we as a nation are blind, then I, too, am blind. Jesus told us that we need to be careful not to point out the speck in someone else's eyes while we are sporting a beam in our own.

So, when I say that we as a nation are blind, I mean that we, me included, are at times blind to what is really going on around us.

For example, we know that greed can and does cause all kinds of problems, but we do not want to deal with the issue of greed, because that would mean that we would need to define it, and that I, and or others, would be guilty of such an attitude. Since we do not want to live with guilt or shame that is caused by the action of greed, we will just assume that we are not greedy, and those we suspect of greed we will not engage in debate, because we do not want to offend anyone.

We know that the consumption of alcohol causes great pains in our world. I tried to find accurate statistics, but found them varying greatly, so I do not even know who to believe. One thing is for certain, though, the abuse of alcohol causes more pain and sorrow than almost any other human activity. There are many statistics that tell us that the abuses of alcohol are cause for up to half of all the medical bills, up to half of the prison population, and up to half of all rapes and other violent crimes. All of the statistics I read told a story of more who die each year in this country than in the war in Iraq. The money spent to care for this, no matter who is telling the story, is astronomical.

There are also varied statistics (which is not surprise if you have ever studied statistics) on how many Americans are overweight and what that will do to us as a nation. The loss of productivity, medical bills, shortened lifespan, and decreased life enjoyment are apparent, as is the cause. We eat too much and exercise too little.

I heard a commentator on television say that abstinence would never solve the sexually transmitted disease problems and unwanted pregnancies. I do not know what this person was thinking because indeed abstinence would solve both problems.

Many years ago I was asked to be on a school sex education curriculum task force for a public school. As we sat and talked about ways we could help the teens of our district reduce unplanned pregnancies and stop the flow of sexually transmitted diseases, I offered the idea of teaching that abstinence be at least taught as a viable option. The committee members looked at each other and then at me, and frankly told me that it would never work.

My thought was "Why not?"

It seems we cannot solve the alcohol abuse problem in the nation because our people like to drink.

We cannot really solve the greed problem in the nation because we like being greedy.

We cannot stop the obesity problem in this nation because we like to eat too much.

We cannot stop the unwanted pregnancies, so we push to keep abortion an option, because we want to have sex.

We do not want to solve these problems; we just want to eliminate any negative consequences for any actions we enjoy.

It won't work.

Is it really too much to ask a people to abstain from alcohol, to eat only what they need to be healthy, to exercise on a regular basis, to abstain from sex when unmarried, to remain faithful in marriage, and to be generous with their resources with those in the world who are in need?

Can you imagine what this would do to our personal lives and relationships, our national economy, and our world's health?

Our nation is in trouble and we are going about the cure from the wrong direction. We are nation of kings in search of servants. We are busy amusing ourselves in life, while fearing death, for everything we have accumulated in life will leave us at death.

We need something outside of us to measure right and wrong and we need to know the difference between right and wrong and good and bad.

The choice, for now, is still ours and will have ramifications for our future.