In a period of loose and sagging morals, Satan provides many rationalizations for improper behavior. Those who would live faithful Christian lives must nor be ignorant of his devises. (II Cor. 2:11). Wrong is always wrong despite our efforts to excuse our actions.

WRONG IS WRONG, EVEN If You Don't Get Caught! Let us remember "the eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good" (Prov. 15:13).

WRONG IS WRONG EVEN If You Do It for a Good Cause! The honorable purpose does not justify a dishonorable deed or action. The end never justifies the means. "All sin is transgression of the law" (I John 3:4; 5:17, II John 9).

WRONG IS WRONG, EVEN If Others Are Doing Worse Things! To the lost in the day of judgment, it will be little comfort to know others committed worse sins. "The thought of foolishness is sin" (Prov. 24:9).

WRONG IS WRONG, EVEN If It Doesn't Bother the Conscience! The conscience can be trained or educated to accept wrong-doing; even an honest sin of an evil done in sincerity is sinful in the sight of the Holy God. "Whatsoever a man sows, that shall be also reap" (Gal. 6:7).

WRONG IS WRONG, EVEN If It Is Commonly Considered Acceptable! The Bible says, "Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil" (Ex. 23:2). The Christian should "enter not into the path of the wicked, and not, go in the way of evil men. Avoid it, turn from it and pass by" (Prov. 4:15). "Prove all things and hold fast to that which is good. Abstain from all appearance (form) of evil" (I Thess. 5:21, 22)

REMEMBER, THERE IS NEVER A RIGHT WAY TO DO WRONG!

The young town know-it-all walked into the village blacksmith shop shortly after the blacksmith had thrown a horse shoe on the ground to cool. Seeing it there, the young man reached down, picked it up but instantly cast it aside as it burned his fingers.

"Kind of hot, isn't it, son?" said the blacksmith

"No, not hot," said the young braggart "It just doesn't take me long to look at a horseshoe!"

In the days of the great actor Edwin Booth many ministers considered it a sin to attend theatrical performances. One clergyman, anxious to see such a famous actor as Mr. Booth, sent him a letter asking if he might be permitted to enter the theatre by a private door so that no one would see him enter. Booth's reply was direct and to the point, "Sir, there is no door in my theatre through which God cannot see!"

BILL BENNETT "WHAT REALLY AILS AMERICA" R.Digest 4/94 p. 198 ff.

Last year I compiled The Index of Leading Cultural Indicators, a statistical portrait of American behavioral trends of the past three decades. Among the findings:

* Since 1960, while the gross domestic product has nearly tripled, violent crime has increased at least 560 percent.

* Divorces have more than doubled. The percentage of children in single-parent homes has tripled. And by the end of the decade 4o percent of all American births and 80 percent of minority births will occur out of wedlock. These are not good things to get used to.

The United States leads the industrialized world in murder, rape and violent crime. At the same time, our elementary-school students rank at or near the bottom in tests of math and science skills. Since 1960, average SAT scores in our high schools have dropped 75 points.

In 1940, teachers identified the top problems in America's schools as: talking out of turn, chewing gum, making noise and running in the hall. In 1990, teachers listed drugs, alcohol, pregnancy, suicide, rape and assault.

We have become inured to the cultural rot that is setting in. People are losing their capacity for shock, disgust and outrage. During the 1992 Los Angeles riots, Damian Williams was filmed crushing an innocent man's skull with a brick, while Henry Watson held the victim down. When Williams was finished, he did a victory dance.

On television, indecent exposure is celebrated by all ages as a virtue. There was a time when personal failures, subliminal desires and perverse tastes were accompanied by guilt, or at least silence. Today they are tickets to appear as guests on talk shows. In one recent two-week period, these shows featured cross-dressing couples; a three-way love affair, a man who fools women into thinking he is using a condom during sex, and prostitutes who love their jobs. These shows present a two-edged problem: people want to expose themselves, and other people want to watch.

Dostoyevsky reminded us in "The Brothers Karamozov that "if God does not exist, everything is permissible." We are now seeing "everything."

E=MC2 STARTS THEORY OF RELATIVITY Pulpit Helps 11\95

Albert Einstein declared the still unproven theory of relativity, and a new way of looking at all things was born. We are taught that matter, when accelerated fast enough, becomes energy. Parallel lines are said to meet in infinity. That would seem to require a new

definition of the word parallel, but common understanding was that things may not really be as they appear.

Everything became relative.

And the fascination with relativity spread into other fields of endeavor, and situation ethics was born. That doctrine holds that under certain circumstances, any activity is

understandable and allowable.

Schools got involved in 'values clarification' and I can remember being taught that cannibalism was excusable under certain circumstances. After a plane crash, while

awaiting rescue for example, it would be acceptable to eat a passenger who had died.

Everything became relative.

NO ABSOLUTES - YOU FLUNK Our Daily Bread

People who reject absolute standards of right and wrong are often inconsistent. When they think they are being treated unfairly, they appeal to a standard of justice that they expect everyone to adhere to.

A philosophy professor began each new term by asking his class, "Do you believe it can be shown that there are absolute values like justice?" The free-thinking students all argued that everything is relative and no single law can be applied universally. Before the end of the semester, the professor devoted one class period to debate the issue. At the end, he concluded, "Regardless of what you think, I want you to know that absolute values can be demonstrated. And if you don't accept what I say, I'll flunk you!" One angry student got up and insisted, "That's not fair!" "You've just proved my point," replied the professor. "You've appealed to a higher standard of fairness."

TRUTH DEPENDS ON WHAT I'M ASKED R.Digest 2/95 p. 145

An election court Judge was hearing the cases of voters who'd been turned away from the polls because their registrations weren't on file. If they could swear they hadn't already voted, the judge could authorize them to cast a ballot.

One voter approached the clerk to be put under oath. "Do you swear to tell the truth and to answer honestly all questions the judge puts to you!"

Suddenly, the man became very anxious. "Well, that depends," he stuttered. "It all depends on what he asks me."

BUCKING THE MORAL SYSTEM by Gertrude Himmelfarb: The de-Moralization of Society (Knopf) From: July 1995 Reader's Digest page 17 & 18

Values imparted by the reigning culture have now received the sanction of the state. This is reflected in the distribution of condoms in schools, in the prohibition of school prayer, in the official rhetoric: non-marital child bearing or alternative life-style and in other ways.

It takes a great effort for the individual to decide that something is immoral and to act on that belief when the law declares it legal and the culture deems it acceptable.

THE CLOSING OF THE AMERICAN MIND by Ralph Kinney Bennett R.Digest 10/87

The eternal conflict between good and evil has been replaced, says Alan Bloom, philosophy professor at U of Chicago, with "I'm okay, you're okay." Men and women once paid for difficult choices with their reputations, their sanity, even their lives. But no more, says Bloom. "America today has no-fault automobile accidents, no-fault divorces, and it is moving with the aid of modern philosophy toward no-fault choices."

They unthinkingly embrace a blind tolerance in which they consider it "Moral" never to think they are right because that would mean that someone else is wrong.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD RESULTS American Family Assoc. Journal April 1991 p.4

During the last 20 years, more than $2.2 billion dollars have been spent under Title X to reduce teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. How much have those billions helped achieve their stated goal?

The Dept. of Health and Human Services reports that in 1988, 52.6% of teenagers were sexually active compared with 31.7% in 1971; in 1988, 65.3% of births to teenagers were out of wedlock as compared with 29.5% in 1970; one third of the annual 1.5 million abortions are performed on teenagers; and we now have 50 different venereal diseases as compared with only 5 in 1950.

"One wonders how much better off our society would be if we had not received help from Planned Parenthood and other experts," notes Donald E. Wildmon. Eagle Forum Press Release 2/21/91

SHOCKING BEHAVIOR "Our Daily Bread" April 5, 1991

Some people need a little help to know how to behave in public. So taxi cab drivers in Paris came up with an idea to help their riders behave themselves. It's an electric cushion rigged to a powerful battery. If the driver notices that his passenger is about to do something unacceptable (like robbing or assaulting him), he pushes a button and zaps the rider with 52,000 volts of low tension electricity.

That may seem like a drastic way to alert someone who is out of line, but it is a little like the right / wrong monitor God has put in all of us. Each of us is equipped to receive signals to warn us when we have done wrong. It's called conscience, and it works in everyone - religious or not.

ACLU ON HOMOSEXUALITY Pulpit Helps 11/92 p.17

In mid 1988, the ACLU wrote to the California Assembly Education Committee, opposing a proposed sex education bill. "It is our position that the teaching that monogamous, heterosexual intercourse within marriage is a traditional American value is an unconstitutional establishment of religious doctrine in public schools."

THE TALMUD ON ETHICS R.Digest 9/77 p.104

"What is hateful to you, never do to a fellow man: that is the whole Law - all the rest is commentary."

FIRM FOUNDATION R.Digest 1/77 p.10

My wife & I were looking over some New Jersey ocean front property with a young real estate agent. The sales pitch was appealing, but I couldn't help looking at the ocean, which seemed fearfully close - especially on a day when a storm was whipping up waves. Noticing my apprehensive glance, the agent remarked, "Sir, I would like to emphasize that our houses are built on very firm sand

WHAT IS VIRTUE? Newsweek Magazine June 13, 1994

Despite the call for virtue, we live in an age of moral relativism. According to the dominate school of moral philosophy, the skepticism engendered by the Enlightenment has reduced all ideas of right and wrong to matters of personal taste, emotional preference or cultural choice. Since the truth cannot be known, neither can the good. In this view, the most any government can do is carve out rules, that like a traffic cop-ensure that a rough justice prevails among its citizens. Within agreed upon social limits, therefore, people are free to make what they will of their private lives.

QUOTE: Margaret Thatcher explained: "Of course it's the same old story. Truth usually is the same old story."

EARLY BASEBALL MORALITY U.S. News & World Report, August 29, 1994 p. 63

History remembers John Joseph McGraw primarily as the famed and ferocious manager of the New York Giants. But as unrelenting as McGraw was as a manager during the first 3 decades of the 20th century, he had been even more unrelenting as a player in the 1890's. It was an era of dirty baseball and the Baltimore Orioles delighted in being the dirtiest....

Although he was short and weighed barely 155 pounds, he held far bigger runners back by the belt. He blocked them, tripped them, spiked them. When they did the same to him, he was usually not one to complain. "We'd spit tobacco juice on a spike wound," he remembered, "rub dirt in it and get out there and play."

Describing one particular "play," McGraw noted: "We were in the field, and the other team had a runner on first who started to steal second, but first of all he spiked our first baseman on the foot. Our man retaliated by trying to trip him. He got away, but at second Heinie Reitz tried to block him off while Hughie (Jennings)... covered the bag to take the throw and tag him. The runner evaded Reitz and jumped feet first at Jennings to drive him away from the bag. Jennings dodged the flying spikes and threw himself bodily at the runner, knocking him flat.

"In the meantime, the batter hit our catcher over the hands so he couldn't throw, and our catcher trod on the umpire's feet with his spikes and shoved his big mitt in his face so he couldn't see the play."

WHERE IS THE SIN IN SINCERE Chicago: Moody Press, 1974 -- George M. Bowman, "How to Succeed With Your Money,"

You see, the word "sincere" comes from two Latin words meaning "without wax." Artificers of Middle Eastern countries fashioned highly expensive statuettes out of a very fine porcelain. It was of such fragile nature that extreme care had to be taken when firing the figurines to keep them from cracking.

Dishonest dealers would accept the cracked figurines at a much lower price and then fill the cracks with wax before offering them for sale. But honest merchants would display their uncracked porcelain wares with signs that read, "sine cera," "without wax."