SOURCE:
PJ MEDIAURL:
https://pjmedia.com/parenting/2016/06/03/is-not-recycling-more-immoral-than-porn-teens-say-yes/by: Rhonda Robinson
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It was hard to put my finger on it, but I knew something had changed. A shift in the atmosphere, maybe? No, it was a shift in the morality of a new generation. I realized exactly what it was when I read this portion of a study published by Barna Group called "
The Porn Phenomenon" [Link:
https://barna-resources.myshopify.com/products/porn-phenomenon] :
When asked to rank a series of action statements (lying, over-eating, stealing, etc) according to a five-point scale: “always OK,” “usually OK,” “neither wrong nor OK,” “usually wrong ” and “always wrong,” teens and young adults rank “not recycling” as more immoral than viewing pornographic images. Combining the percentages of those who chose always and usually wrong for each statement, theft (taking something that belongs to someone else) ranked #1 at almost nine in 10 (88%). Not recycling ranked #4 at 56 percent, and porn was all the way down at #9 with only a third (32%) of teens and young adults ranking it as morally wrong. [Emphasis mine]
We are at a point where our teens consider viewing porn less of a moral issue than over-eating, energy consumption and not recycling. What has happened? Of course, we can point to a multitude of factors. The vast availability and ability of smartphones to make every wicked desire a handheld visual are not the least of the culprits.
It's one thing to point to a decaying culture and decry it. It's another thing to try to shelter our children from it. Let me clarify: there's an age where sheltering is vital for children. Then there's a time when we have to teach them to withstand the storm, also known as moral training.
Eighty-three percent of Americans identify themselves as Christian. Morality is a basic human need. It satisfies our sense of justice. We want to know what is right, wrong and fair as toddlers. However, if we as parents don't give our children a moral compass based on our Christianity, they will make their own, or borrow someone else's. This is what is happening in the culture today.
This is going to seem off track, but bear with me. Remember I said our sense of awareness begins as toddlers? That's where the battle begins. Toddlers must learn to obey you as their parent. Every time. On the first request. They should never be allowed to scream, hit, and utterly defy their parents. Ever.
What does this have to do with teens viewing porn? It's simple.
Children who don't learn to respect and follow the rules of the parents they can see will have a much harder time following the laws of a God they cannot see.
When we teach our children to obey our rules and respect us from toddlerhood we are teaching them self-control. A child who believes life is all about his pleasure will be a hard teen to convince that anything he desires should not always be his.
It's our job as parents to teach our children that there are absolutes, consequences for sin, and benefits in keeping the laws of God and man.
