Losing Conscience

Its like I’m drawn to them.  It doesn’t matter where I go, where I sit, or what I’m watching/listening to, I always end up near the moron who can’t keep his/her mouth shut.  That’s always bad enough, but its even worse when the constant chatter is crude or profane.  Two instances in the recent past come to mind:

A few months ago Kristy and I returned to our alma mater for homecoming and attended the football game with my brother and his family.  And of course it happened.  When we sat down it was not too long before it was evident we had sat in front of “that person.”  There were two men behind us that could not keep their mouths shut about every little aspect of the game, but while annoying I can at least tolerate that.  What was worse was that those men cursed so casually and thoughtlessly throughout the game, particularly with young children in close proximity!

A second example I’m reminded of was during one of our regular trips to Walmart.  It was around Christmas and there were obviously several families in the toy section with their children and yet here comes one family traipsing down the aisle cursing at their children in full conversational tone.  And it wasn’t even an angry conversation.  It, too, seemed to be casual and yet profanity was so comfortably included without any thought.

How is it that we have developed into a culture that seems to have lost any sense of conscience?  We all remember Jiminy Cricket’s catchy song in Pinocchio when he told the young puppet that he need to let his conscience be his guide.  There is a sense in which that is true and there is a sense in which that idea can be taken way too far.  The problem as I see it is not that people are not letting their conscience be their guide, it is that they have no conscience at all.  They’ve lost any sense of right and wrong and readily “call evil good and good evil.”  But while this problem may have escalated in recent history it is not a new problem all together.

Isaiah spoke of a common attitude that had developed in ancient Israel and said, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20).  Israel, too, had lost conscience and suffered immense consequences because of it.  In the 21^stcentury we are taking that issue and continuing the moral slide.  We are losing conscience more and more everyday and it is leaving an eternal impact on our lives and our society.

-Andy Brewer