Girl Violence in Florida

I was appalled (as I’m sure you were) when I heard the reports and saw the film clips of the six teen-age girls severely beating another girl. The brutality of the attack, which lasted for about half an hour as I recall, and the total lack of remorse, once again proved the points I have been making for years:

·We aren’t bringing up our children properly when it comes to morals and ethics.
·Parents aren’t sending their kids to Sunday school where they can learn some good values and transcendent principles.
·The entertainment industry is constantly exposing our kids to all kinds of violence and immorality.
·Our ethically-challenged relativistic culture is distorting the God-given conscience we all have that helps us to distinguish right from wrong.

Some may look at this incident as an aberration, and it is to a large extent, but yet it certainly isn’t unique. Road rage, fights in schools, disrespect for teachers and parents, reckless driving, and teen-age pregnancies all point to societal ills that we must do something about. Much of that responsibility falls on parents.

·I see two year olds controlling their parents. Who’s in charge here?
·I see parents defending their child despite their child’s continuously bad behavior. My little darling wouldn’t do that!
·I see parents who care more about their own pleasure than spending time with their kids or being involved in their school work. Go to http://www.citizenlink.org/CLNews/A000007079.cfm.
·I see parents who don’t control what the kids watch on TV, what kind of electronic games they play, what kind of friends they hang out with, which movies they see.
The list goes on.

I hope this incident will wake up parents and our society to the dangers in the direction this country is going. Supposedly these girls came from “good families” yet didn’t seem to understand they had done anything wrong. I saw one mother interviewed in TV, and she spent most of the interview defending her daughter’s actions, and seemed clueless that these girls had committed serious crimes.

The Apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 6:7-10 (NRSV):

Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.