Many are asking how to stop violence in schools and communities.
I believe society will not find answers by focusing on violence. Nor resolutions by imposing laws that provide temporary relief and appear to fix the situation.
They’re a band-aid solution for a more significant problem.
The problem is within the heart of humanity; it is something people don’t talk about or acknowledge. Society will not find a remedy for it through human-made solutions.
To find the answer, you must understand how humanity got into this condition and what needs to happen to stop the epidemic of violence.
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I’ve learned a valuable lesson after suffering from child abuse, child sexual abuse, and domestic violence. The past has the answers to the what, why, and how questions you must ask yourself to move forward in life.
The biggest takeaway –
You can’t move forward in life carrying the baggage of past generations.
When you spend time in human self-reflection and look back over past generations, you will see what happened and why acts of violence occur.
Discover why our country and others are in this condition. And what the exact solution is to end the epidemic of violence.
Reflecting on Past Generations
I started caring for the elderly and disabled by taking a six-month course in California. I spent twenty-three years helping a generation of people in their seventies and eighties.
Many had honorable moral values and strong work ethics. These men and women were the moral fiber and backbone of our country.
They made America great!
They grew up during the Great Depression, and some went on to fight in World War II (Greatest Generation on Wikipedia).
They lived during periods of great struggle, endured several hardships throughout their lives, and rarely gave up. Numerous were Christians who lived by the Word of God.
They valued the God-given freedoms and liberties that made our country great. They believed in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And that God did indeed shed his grace on them.
Many died in battle to uphold those freedoms and liberties.
This generation lived with integrity. A handshake meant you had their word. The last name was held in high regard and secured by their actions.
Their work ethics were outstanding, and most would never take anything for anything. It was a disgrace to sign up for unemployment insurance or take a welfare handout.
Many patients from this generation tried to tip me for helping them.
They wanted to and insisted on paying their way. When you kindly declined their offer, they stuffed the money in your pocket when you weren’t looking. The money went into a coffee fund for all staff members.
The Children of Obedience
The children of this generation were no strangers to hard work or obedience.
Children helped around the house with chores, and some worked to earn money. Children would (and could) walk to school, sometimes for miles, and obeyed their parents.
During their formative years, television was beginning to emerge.
Hollywood entertainers displayed moral values and standards on the movie screen. Husbands and wives slept in separate beds, and nudity was not allowed.
The Word of God was allowed in public places, and children read the Bible in school.
One gentleman reminisced about his childhood, sharing a favorite book, “The Pilgrim’s Progress,” which he read in English class.
The Pilgrim’s Progress is a Christian allegory by John Bunyan, rated as necessary as the Bible in Christian documents.
In their generation, a man worked hard to provide for his loved ones. And he sheltered and protected them to the best of his ability. It was uncommon to hear of a man killing his wife. It is uncommon to hear of parents abusing or killing their children.
The woman showed her love, appreciation, and respect for her husband by supporting his efforts to provide for his family.
She didn’t try to exceed his efforts or belittle him for them. Most women stayed at home to care for and nurture their families. She was the helper and mate God intended her to be.
They stood side by side and supported one another in love. They kept the bonds of marriage and words of commitment to one another.
Not all, but many marriages from this generation lasted a lifetime. I have seen a few husbands and wives who died within a few hours or days of each other. They were partners for life.
The Backbone of Small Communities
This generation is the backbone of smaller communities. Many are still working at 70 plus to better their communities, and helping others is in their blood.
In our small town, you will find them starting and involved in not-for-profit organizations, volunteering on the ambulance squad and fire department, and participating in church functions.
They are a dying breed, and the generations after them are unprepared to walk in their shoes and not willing to take their place.
I cared for one guy who, in his younger years, had a family to support. His car broke down, so he walked over twenty miles one way to work and back again “in the winter months” to provide for them.
The generations after them lack the backbone, work ethic, moral standards, and godly values needed to survive and lead abundant lives.
As each generation passes, we are forging our way in life. We are moving further away from God and no longer want Him to be the supreme ruler of our lives. We are closing the church doors and turning our backs on God completely.
We fail to understand that without God, our source of life, death, and destruction will follow us. And now that it is, we are attempting to fix our problems with human-made solutions.
A Generation that Moved Far Away from God
My generation, the people in their fifties, witnessed the most significant moving away from God in our nation’s history.
We saw the rise of the Hollywood, Music, and Pornography entertainment industries—the shift from producing wholesome family entertainment to providing immoral content.
In doing so, our minds, heart, and spirit became corrupted by images of sexuality, rape, horror, murder, drugs, violence, and other atrocities.
Sound familiar?
The older generations would never even talk about such things in public. Let alone watch immoral content for entertainment purposes.
Heavy metal music was popular among teenagers in the late 70s and early 80s, and Christians raised their voices. They disapproved of the “explicit lyrics” and thought the music contained subliminal messages.
They fought to warn parents. To save the children and stop the production of this devil-worshiping music. Were the Christians right?
Related Stories:
- 2 Families Sue Heavy-Metal Band As Having Driven Sons to Suicide
- The Greatest Pop Culture Parental Scares of the 80’s
- Black Sabbath We used to have cocaine flown in by private plane
- The Devil Has the Best Tunes: The Fundamentalist Crusade against Rock Music
The Path of Destruction
This generation remained on the path of destruction.
They continued watching immoral storylines on the big screen and listening to music with profane lyrics (not music to praise the Lord and lift the spirit).
They partook in drugs and alcohol to make them feel good.
This generation has seen the highest increase in the daily usage of drugs and alcohol. And many became addicted and enslaved for years. While countless others overdosed and died.
The prisons became overrun with offenders. Individuals caught dealing or possessing drugs during the “lock them up” drug era. And people who committed heinous acts of murder, rape, and other atrocities.
Over the generations, we have rebelled against God and moved far away from his proper way of living. We failed to obey his word and method of raising our families and loving our neighbors as ourselves.
Man’s mind, spirit, and heart became polluted by ungodly thoughts (evil imaginations).
As a Salvation Army officer named Bruce once said, you can’t put this stuff in your mind, heart, and spirit and not expect it to come back out in some format.
It doesn’t work that way!
The Reprobate Mind
Has God given us over to a reprobate mind?
Romans 1: 23-32
Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,
Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:
Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. KJV
Has our mind, heart, and spirit been corrupted over the years?
The song “Highway to Hell” by AC/DC comes to mind now.
We have given the devil a full path to travel on in our daily lives. And he roams about, seeking to rob, kill, steal, destroy, and devour anyone in his way. That is his nature.
His task is to keep you from trusting in a loving God for salvation.
Broken Families
The family units shattered. The bonds of marriage no longer hold that special meaning: “till death do us part.”
We break those bonds on a whim or at first sight of problems. Many live together, are unmarried in God’s eyes, and have children out of wedlock.
God didn’t intend for man to live this way, and it was taboo to past generations.
When a woman became pregnant, the man was to marry her. The chance for a no-fault divorce was not obtainable until 1969 when then-Governor Ronald Reagan signed the nation’s first no-fault divorce bill. Since then, the Divorce Rate has doubled, breaking family units even further.
To learn more about Divorce Rates, visit:
The Epidemic of Abuse and Violence
We have seen the highest risk of child abuse, child sexual abuse, and domestic violence. Growing up in this environment has lasting effects on your mind, spirit, and adult life.
I’m a witness, having endured the consequences for years.
According to ChildHelp.org,
More than 3 million reports of child abuse come in every year in the United States. And in 2012, state agencies found an estimated 686,000 victims of child mistreatment.
To learn more about Child Abuse and Domestic Violence, visit:
- Child Abuse and Statistics and Facts
- 30 Shocking Domestic Violence Statistics That Remind Us It’s An Epidemic
- The National Domestic Violence Hotline
Men are no longer honoring and cherishing their wives and children. Some commit adultery, hit their wives and children, and sexually abuse their children.
Women fail to show their husbands love, appreciation, and respect and support their efforts to provide for their families.
Instead, they seek to be independent, to better themselves in the workforce, and often do better than men. God intended women to be helpers and mates for men.
Did the Devil Turn the Tables Upside Down?
The tables are upside down, and we no longer follow God’s way of life. Our morals, values, and living standards have degraded over the generations.
We are not living as God intended us to live.
The consequences of our personal choices and actions are evident in the heinous acts of violence seen in society today. And the generations following after us are moving further away from God.
Thus, we can “expect” to see a more considerable falling away from God and a “greater increase” in immoral values and inhumane treatment.
Removing God and His Word
When you remove God and his Word from your life, you no longer have the light of Christ to shine in the darkness where sin abounds.
The light of Christ brings people hope, love, compassion, empathy, and God’s rescuing grace. Without the light of Christ to direct your path, the only thing you will see before you is utter darkness.
Without the light of Christ to rescue you from the darkness, you will remain enslaved to the devil, for he is the ruler of darkness.
In the darkness of sin are pain and suffering.
You’re weighed down and overburdened, unable to pick yourself back up by any human-made efforts. The path they travel on is the Broadway, and destruction will be their end.
People who walk in darkness can be proud or arrogant. They cling to corrupt and immoral ways, are blind to the truth, and resist change and obedience.
Don’t you see it!
The More Significant Problem is Us
We have chosen to turn away from God and his standards for moral living. We raise our children without the Word of God, and they don’t have a solid ethical foundation. And now we are reaping what we have sown into our minds, spirits, and hearts.
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Galatians 6:7 KJV
When you don’t trust God and obey his word, you will continue to stumble and fall away in a dysfunctional world. A world filled with darkness, corruption, murder, violence, destruction, and death.
How do we end the epidemic of violence in Schools, Communities, and the World?
The healing light of Christ shines from above, with love, to show you the narrow way out of this darkness. It is the answer you are seeking and the only solution to our problems.
So come to the Lord, those of you who are humble and meek. Walk forth by faith and embrace the Lord’s gift of eternal salvation. He died on the cross to rescue you from the powers of darkness and to cleanse you of sin.
Open to genuine spiritual change and renew your mind in God’s word. Only then will the powers of darkness flee from you. And the light of Christ will remain to ease your pain and suffering.
His burden is light, and he will never forsake you.
The Lord Jesus Christ is “the only way” to end violence and fix our problems. He alone can heal humanity and provide a way out of the darkness of sin.