Theory v. Practice

Theory without practice is dead. Practice without theory is deadly.

Moral Decay

A Ioved one recently posted a comment about the root cause of school shootings being the moral failure of our culture.

My first thought after reading his post was "Yes! Our culture has rejected its Judeo-Christian values and Greco-Roman rationalism and so this is what we get."

I think that is true (e.g. cultures throughout history have declined following a period of decadence in which the values that established and nurtured society were abandoned), but if we look at where this started in the West, it was with those of us who were entrusted with passing on these  systems of belief and thought.  My own nominalism and licentiousness are far more responsible for "moral decay" than the most stridently atheist monologue Bill Maher has to offer. 

Legalism is equally wrong, especially when applied to others and in particular when applied to people without faith. (It would make no sense for a rabbi to be concerned that I'm not keeping kosher, right?).  But many of us have rejected the notion of self discipline born out of love and gratitude towards God for what He's done for us.  If we can, by His grace, bring ourselves to the point where we as Christians are concerned first and foremost with loving God and loving our neighbors, with real zeal, we would be sowing the seeds of cultural transformation we long for.

Quote from Arthur James Balfour

"So it is with those persons who claim to show by their example that naturalism is practically consistent with the maintenance of ethical ideals with which naturalism has no natural affinity. Their spiritual life is parasitic: it is sheltered by convictions which belong, not to them, but to the society of which they form a part; it is nourished by processes in which they take no share. And when those convictions decay, and those processes come to an end, the alien life which they have maintained can scarce be expected to outlast them"