How to Stop the Epidemic of Violence in Communities Around the World

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Last updated: June 2, 2020

Many are asking; how to stop violence in schools, communities, and around the world? 

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; something people don’t talk about or acknowledge. – One, society will not find a remedy for thru human-made solutions.

To find the answer, you must understand how humanity got in this condition. And what needs to happen to stop the epidemic of violence.

I’ve learned a valuable lesson after suffering from child abuse, child sexual abuse, and domestic violence for years. The past holds the answers to the what, why, and how come 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 reflect 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 Over 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 time of the Great Depression. And some went on to fight World War II (Greatest Generation on Wikipedia).

Living during periods of great struggle, they endured several hardships throughout their life, and rarely give 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 of people lived with integrity. A handshake meant you had their word. The last name held in high regard and secured by their actions.

Their work ethics, outstanding, and most would never take something for anything. It was a disgrace to sign up for unemployment insurance or go for a welfare handout. 

There were many patients from this generation who 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 of childhood days, sharing a favorite book, “The Pilgrims Progress,” which he read in English class. 

The Pilgrims Progress is a Christian allegory written by John Bunyan; it’s rated as necessary as the Bible in Christian document.

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. And uncommon to hear of parents abuse or killing their children.

The woman showed her love, appreciation, and respect for her husband. She supported him and 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 her family. She was the helper and mate God intended her to be.

They stood side by side, together and supported one another in love. The bonds of marriage held special meaning, and words of commitment to one another often kept.

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, fire department, and participating in church functions.

They are a dying breed, and the generations after them are not prepared to walk in their shoes. Not willing to take their place.

I cared for one guy, who, in his younger years, had a family to support, and his car broke down. 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 and work ethics needed to survive. And moral standards and Godly values required for an abundant life.

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 and 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.

I remember in the late 70s and early 80s; Heavy Metal Music was popular with teenagers, and Christians raised their voice. They disapproved of the “explicit lyrics” and thought the music contained subliminal messages.

They fought to warn parents. To save the children and tried to stop the production of this devil worshiping music. Were the Christians were right?

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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.

The mind, spirit, and heart of man became polluted by ungodly thoughts (evil imaginations). 

As a Salvation Army officer named Bruce once said, can’t put this stuff in your mind, heart, and spirit and not expect it to come back out in some format or another.

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 became 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 and are not married in the eyes of God and have children out of wedlock.

God didn’t intend for man to live this way, and it was taboo to past generations.

Back then, when a woman became pregnant, the man was to marry her. And 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 more than doubled, breaking family units down 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. And 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 Child Help.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:

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 are failing to give their husband’s love, appreciation, and respect. And support his efforts to provide for his family.

Instead, they seek to be independent. To better themself in the workforce and often do better than men. God intended women to be a helper and mate for man.

Did the Devil Turn the Tables Upside Down?

The tables are upside down, and we are no longer following God’s way to live. Our morals, values, and standards of living became 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, 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 overburden and 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 resistant to 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 moral foundation. And now we are reaping what we have sown into our mind, spirit, and heart.

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. The healing light of Christ 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. 

Be open to genuine spiritual change and renew your mind in God’s word. Then and 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 the violence and fix our problems. He alone can heal humanity and provide a way out of the darkness of sin. 

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L.M. Carleton

Hi! I'm Linda, an abuse survivor rescued by grace. I write to raise awareness and encourage abuse victims to grow in wisdom and restore their lives. I conquered adversity by faith and worked caring for the elderly and physically and mentally challenged for twenty-plus years.

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