A Figment of the Imagination

I have been thinking about danger and how the amount of danger has increased throughout history, culminating in the mess we have in our world today. Whenever I watch the news, I repeat to myself, "Why do these people do this?" I always try to come up with an explanation that avoids the main problem. Whenever my mom hears me say this, realizing what I am trying to do, all she has to say, is the world doesn't know Jesus. It always seems to aggravate me, mainly because she is right. Our world has fallen away from Jesus and it has been happening for decades, if not centuries.
 I was recently talking to one of my friends about the degradation of society in the recent era, and it became obvious that society has taken a sharp downturn in just the past several years. This is not a linear degradation. This is an exponential decay. While the decay is noticeable, there is not a strict relationship, both because it is subjective, but also because there are events, such as revivals, that have cause this to go up and down. It's just tending in an exponential decay.
 My friend tried to explain this, but it is very hard to define since the factors surrounding it are hard to distinguish if the factors are actually causes, or effects of the societal decay, but it is still possible to look more deeply at what has happened and analyze it. Looking back at the past century, we begin by looking at the 1920's. This was a time of great prosperity for the United States. The country was immediately out of the First World War, and the economy was booming from the increased manufacturing of war materials during the war. At this time, Christianity was still important for country. There were a lot of Christian groups who were part of the temperance movement and they still had enough power to be able to gather enough support to enact the 18th amendment, outlawing the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages. However, there was still a lot of people walking away from God and violating morals that had long been held dear before that. A good example of this is how well known this time period is known for Flappers. Flappers were people who were promiscuous. They would drink, smoke cigarettes and engaged in generally dangerous behavior. They were not subscribing to the morals that generations before them had. They were pulling away from God. However, many people were still willing to believe that the morals were important and subscribing to them.
 Skipping ahead by several decades to the 1970's, in protest of the Vietnam war, teenagers and young adults were challenging the authority they were under that was telling them to risk their lives in defense of their country. In this challenge of authority, the society became even more promiscuous and they would strongly reject religion and the morals that it brought with it because they found it oppressive. Even during this time, there were a lot of people still believing in the Judeo-Christian moral system and abiding by it, although this group was shrinking.
 In the very recent past, we are able to see how different ideologies have began to be accepted with increasing frequency. For example, pre-marital sex was considered very taboo up until around the 1970's, but being gay was still not generally okay. By 2010, this was generally accepted and people were supposed to concede that a gay relationship should be treated as the exact same as a straight relationship. When Obama ran for president in 2008, he admitted that he did not believe that gay marriage should be legalized. Donald Trump was the first president to be sworn into office in support of gay marriage and stores who stand up for their beliefs by denying service to gay weddings are punished for doing so. More recently than that, the term, minor attracted people started to be circulated in academic settings as a replacement term to pedophiles since the word pedophiles is "too offensive." Hookup culture where one night stands are common-place is continuing to gain traction. Within this, feminism is telling young women that if they participate in this culture, then they are more empowered than those who don't. Feminism is also telling women that having an abortion is empowering. Because of this, there are young women trying to get pregnant only so that they have the opportunity to have an abortion. We have men pretending to be women who are going into women's locker rooms and competing against women where the men have a huge biological advantage, no matter what they end up doing to their bodies, including taking hormones. We have men dressing as women to talk about women's issues and being invited to the White House only for their popularity they received from identifying as a woman.
 What is the worst part of all of this? Well, the worst part is that there are Christians who are saying that these people are right. They are taking scriptures out of context to try and "prove" their point and use the scripture against Christians. 2 Peter 2:1 says "But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them -bringing swift destruction on themselves." The truth will eventually win out. That does not mean that we do not need to rebuke false teachings. There is not an inch to give. There is no room to give. There are issues in life that a middle ground can be found on. But issues dealing with things that morals, there is no middle ground. Abortion is wrong in ALL cases. There is not a logic that continues to be consistent unless it is a baby with a consciousness from the time of conception. There is no middle ground on the issue of LGBTQ issues. It is either right or wrong. There are no concessions to be made. This is a group that has a 17% suicide rate that is continuing to increase as the group is becoming more accepted by society. Anyone who truly loves these people, will not just look the other way.The further people were drawn away from God, the more figments of the imagination over took their lives. Their imagination began to tell them that abortions and sex were empowering. Their imagination began to tell them that they were born in the wrong bodies.
 This decay is not just something that is a figment of my imagination either. Below is a table of different categories of a poll that was conducted three different years by the Wall Street Journal in coordination with NBC. (Source: National Review)

 This poll shows the alarming decline in the values that people hold. This has been happening exponentially. Some believe it is because of COVID. I have no doubt that COVID had something to do with it, but it does not explain this much of a change. The country was already headed this direction. This can be shown by the legalization of gay marriage. Christians ended up giving an inch, and those pulling took 2. Then they gave 2 and had 4 taken. It was a slow enough decay that these concessions led to what we have today.
 There is not any reason to give any concession for a figment of someone's imagination. Christians are right and the entire world will know at some point that Christians were right. We are only to fear God. We are in a fight for the souls of those around us. Christians are not to assimilate to the world, but rather stand out as a shining light. We are to shine our light for all those around us and let them know that there is a God who loves them. The will know that we are Christians by our love and this display of love will make them want what we have. "For if you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved." -Romans 10:9-10