In looking for solutions to new
problems, either in our lives or in society, it often pays to look past “newness”
and instead ask, why are the “old” answers not working? Are older maxims and ethical rules not working
because they failed, or because they were found to be difficult?
This is a question especially important to Christians, since Christians know that there are eternal truths that do not change with the political season. Christians are not waiting for “God's Ten Commandments 2.0.”
It would be hard to find one of the Ten Commandments more ignored and more violated in our world than the First Commandment— “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Our secular society and all forms of utopianism are obviously in open rebellion against all religious faith and against Christianity in particular, and new gods are found and worshipped in abundance.
And yet, there is another of God’s Commandments which is violated widely, not by open rejection but by narrowing its meaning. In fact, it is a Commandment that our society superficially accepts and celebrates— yet simultaneously rejects in important ways. This is the Fifth Commandment, where God commands to “Honor thy father and mother.”
Yes, for generations we have had Father’s Day and Mother’s Day on our calendars. One day each May and each June we are expected to purchase flowers or lunch at a nice restaurant or in some other material way show our appreciation for the love and sacrifices a parent made for our benefit.
It’s past time to stop and ask ourselves: How’s that one-special-day-a-year thing working out? Does our modern secular society really honor parents and parenting? There is growing evidence to the contrary. In fact, respect for the indispensable role of parents is under widespread attack.
Our secular culture, especially our public schools but also in the new, intrusive information technology and 24-hour entertainment, is teaching our children that their parents’ values and beliefs must take a back seat to the requirements, standards, and demands of a progressive civic culture.
As a nation, we are sleepwalking through a cultural meltdown. This growing, increasingly assertive usurpation of parental authority is not in any way consistent with observance of God’s Fifth Commandment. The authority of parents is not only NOT honored by progressive incursions, that authority is being directly challenged and diminished.
Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are not government created holidays; they are the product of the corporate greeting card, flower and candy purveyors of our nation. Very likely, soon they will be pushing the consolidation of two days into one mega-holiday: “Parents Day”— with no genders specified. You have two mommies or two daddies? No problem!
The decline in parental authority over their children is not an accidental by-product of technology or expanding social mobility. Parental authority is under systematic attack.
The culture war is not a sideshow, as too many politicians of all political parties believe. The culture war is the main event, and we are already in Act Three.
In Colorado this past Spring, the Governor signed into law a “Codification” of “Women’s Reproductive Rights.” That new law REPEALED the parents’ rights to even be notified of a child’s planned abortion. The proposed federal “codification law” contains the same usurpation of parental rights.
God’s Fifth Commandment to honor our father and mother is not only under attack in our society; it’s on life support.
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