Britain's Declining Respect for Biblical Values

Traditional values, like basic respect for the rights and dignity of others, are fast disappearing from a society steadily undermined by secularism and growing ignorance of the Bible. How do we rebuild a culture of respect?

by John Ross Schroeder

Have you experienced a driver carelessly cutting in front of you recently? Or walked past a group of youths who hurled abuse and foul language in your direction? What about people pushing in line? Today we see a serious and growing erosion of traditional biblical values such as respect for the dignity and rights of others.

"It's a tradition we have lost as our values are eroded," stated British Home Secretary David Blunkett as he "blamed parents who fail to accept responsibility for instilling values of respect in their families and a breakdown of neighbourliness in villages, towns and cities" (Daily Mail, May 21, 2004, emphasis added throughout).

Of course, Britons in the hundreds of thousands still show respect for others while conducting their daily lives. They not only behave in an orderly, civilized manner, but also have raised their children to imitate their own conduct. Nonetheless, many observers freely acknowledge a serious and growing erosion of traditional biblical values.

Myriads of examples

Newspaper columnist Melanie Phillips laments the waning of the quality of respect in the British Isles: "You can see examples everywhere in the myriad incivilities of everyday life: the shouting and swearing in the streets, the lighted cigarettes dangled carelessly in children's faces by rush-hour crowds; the casual slovenliness on the Tube [subway], as passengers anti-socially chomp their way through hamburgers and leave rubbish littering the carriages.

"You see it in schools where teachers find it increasingly impossible to impose their authority upon badly behaved pupils. You see it in those children's parents who proclaim the impossibility of controlling their children and then threaten teachers with physical violence if they dare to discipline them" (ibid.).

Read the full article at www.wnponline.org/wnp/wnp0408/biblicalvalues.htm

Related Information on UCG Sites:

Sidebar: Once Upon a Time: Our Green and Pleasant Land
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