KEY POINTS:
Things must be getting really grim when two newspaper commentators - Wellington veteran Rosemary McLeod and former Listener editor Finlay Macdonald - on the same day opine that the increasingly parlous state of our society is the result of the collapse of traditional morality rather than social dysfunction.
McLeod, writing last Sunday, suggested we have lost our moral compass. Not quite right. What we have done is take a secular humanist hammer to it and, over the past 30 years or so, smashed it bit by bit into smithereens.
For centuries our morality, and to a large extent our law, was based firmly on the Ten Commandments. But since the 1960s the precepts of the commandments have been corrupted, altered and even nullified by the liberal propensities of the state, which has assumed the right to decide what is morally acceptable.
I learned of the commandments in Sunday school as a nipper, and all my life they have been the basis of my knowledge of right and wrong, the pointer of my moral compass which has, more often than I care to remember, been way off course.
But these days I doubt that many people even know what the Ten Commandments are - and that, I fear, includes a large number of churchgoers.
So let's take a look at eight of them in the context of the dire condition of today's society with its daily helpings of murder, violence, property crime and general mayhem.
"I am the Lord your God and you shall not have any gods besides me."
But today our gods are money, property and prestige. A majority of us don't even acknowledge that God exists. And of those who do, most see him as an idea and only few know him as a person, present in our midst 24/7.
"You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain."
But these days "God" and "Jesus Christ" are used almost universally as epithets, and among many the very idea of an all-powerful, all-loving Creator, particularly one who is active in our lives, is treated with contempt and derision.
"Remember the Lord's day and keep it holy."
There was a time when most kids went to Sunday school, where they learned the fundamentals of morality, and when most people went to church on Sunday, where they were reminded of their moral obligations. It was a day of rest, a day for family and friends, a day, perhaps, to reflect on one's life.
But today Sunday is just like any other day of the week on which we pursue our money-making and money-spending and whatever other interest takes our fancy. Only a handful of kids go to Sunday school and not many more go to church.
"Honour your father and mother."
In my day, and perhaps for a generation after, parents were respected, if not always obeyed. But we all knew what disobedience was, and that there were consequences if you were caught. Children did not reach legal adulthood until age 21.
But these days children's "rights" are paramount (with no mention of responsibilities), government interference in family life, financially and otherwise, undermines parental duty, tens of thousands of children have no father (or mother) to honour, and tens of thousands more rarely see their mums and dads because they are too busy working.
The breakdown of the relationship between parents and their children, the disintegration of families, is one of the profoundest causes of today's social malaise.
"You shall not kill [murder]."
But today the concept of the sanctity of life, one of the fundamentals of any moral law, has been so diluted that unlawful killing is almost a daily event.
The gravest damage to our belief in the sanctity of life has been done by state-mandated abortion on demand. When the most defenceless of human beings are routinely killed in their thousands, what chance is there of life after birth having any sanctity?"
"You shall not commit adultery."
But for more than 30 years adultery has gone unpunished, even by public opprobrium, since legislation made divorce freely available. That has contributed hugely to the increase in broken marriages, serial monogamy, family breakdown, and has bred generations of children who have no idea of what genuine human relationships are and who find solace in drugs, booze and sex.
"You shall not steal."
But today theft is endemic to our society for, in their ignorance of morality, far too many have not the least respect for other people's property. So bad is it that literally thousands of thefts go unreported because the police are able to cope with only the most serious, and shoplifting alone costs businesses scores of millions of dollars a year.
"You shall not covet."
But we live in a society in which covetousness is rampant. We want more money, bigger houses, flasher cars, label clothing, sumptuous food, overseas holidays ... Instead of loving people and using things, we love things and use people.
So we have finance company collapses, a huge increase in mortgagee sales, repossessions, billions spent on gambling, voracious profiteering and increasing poverty - and scores of thousands of Kiwis living empty lives of quiet desperation.
Jesus said: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind." This is the first and great commandment. The second is like it: "You shall love your neighbour as yourself'."
Think about it: if we all obeyed just those two simple moral rules, none of the others would be necessary. It is a counsel of perfection to be sure, but at least we might give it a try.
