Possibly the most dangerous life path that an individual can take is this one which guides their every action-that life path I call shamelessness. It seems that having no shame is spreading in our society at epidemic proportions. That which was once unspoken is now flaunted and accepted. That which once was disgusting is now the topic on talk shows, the subject of what is considered hilarious comedy, and not even hidden from our children. Today a fifth grader knows more about sex than I did when I was a young adult. There is no shame. A child can do something he shouldn’t do and mommy scolds him. He begins to cry. Mommy feels so bad that she hugs him, apologizes and rewards him with ice cream. It’s no wonder that these children grow up having no shame about much of anything today.
I saw this trend begin to evolve when I was a teacher in the 1980s and ‘90s. A child would be punished in school for something they did. The parent would show up the next day angry because their precious child was being picked on by the teacher or administrator. Their child never would do anything wrong. I found that many students from some of the more depressed neighborhoods were taught by their parents to take every opportunity to claim what they perceived they were owed. One young man came to school with a five dollar bill. He was excited because he had seen a man at a convenience store drop it on the floor as he was taking some money out of his pocket to pay for the item he was buying. He knew the man didn’t know he dropped the five dollar bill. The young man waited hoping the man didn’t notice, and he didn’t. When I told him that was wrong he looked at me like I was crazy. He said, “Finders keepers, losers weeper.” How can a kid have shame for something if he has been taught from an early age is right and is even encouraged.
There is no shame today because morality has been thrown out the window. Several years ago the president through most of the 1990’s was caught doing a vile act with his intern in the Oval Office. Jokes were made on the talk shows about what he and the young lady had done. Children heard this on TV, and from their friends who had heard their parents talk about it. During our last presidential campaign our current president was exposed as committing some immoral acts in his past and even now other such actions continue to be mentioned on every network. Young and older couples are living together. Spouses cheat on each other. When they get caught the say they are sorry indicating shame. Yet for some they are experiencing despair that their affair might be over, not shame. The fashion word today doesn’t leave much room for shame when it comes to the sexy revealing attire that young ladies wear. The cute, funny TV shows today and the reality shows like the Bachelor and Bachelorette would have been deemed grossly obscene thirty years ago. When the attitude of society is “anything goes” there will be no shame.
I think we have departed from the views found in God’s word. I’m sure a lot of people would laugh at the words God gave Paul in his letter to Ephesians.
But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving... Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. Ephesians 5
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