Showing posts with label Decay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Decay. Show all posts

Sunday, May 14, 2017

81 Percent Of Americans Are ‘Concerned About Declining Moral Behavior In Our Nation’

81 Percent Of Americans Are ‘Concerned About Declining Moral Behavior In Our Nation’ | Spring-Break-Public-Domain | Faith Society Special Interests US News


Could it be possible that Americans are more concerned about declining standards of morality than most of us initially thought? A very surprising new survey conducted by LifeWay Research has discovered that a whopping 81 percent of Americans agree with this statement: “I am concerned about declining moral behavior in our nation.” If you follow my work on a regular basis, you already know that moral decay is a theme that I keep coming back to time after time. To me it is quite obvious that moral behavior is deteriorating all around us, but I had no idea that so many other Americans were deeply concerned about the exact same thing.


Since so many people agree that we are facing a moral crisis, the solution should be very simple right?



Unfortunately it is more complicated than that, because there is very little agreement about what our moral values should actually be. Once upon a time the Bible formed the basis for morality in American society, but today things are entirely different.


In 2017, our notions of “right” and “wrong” are constantly shifting because they are not based on anything permanent. The same LifeWay Research survey that I quoted above also found that among Americans 35 years of age and younger, less than 40 percent believe that “right and wrong do not change”…



A new study from Nashville-based LifeWay Research found a significant generation gap in how Americans view morality.


More than 6 in 10 of those older than 45 say right and wrong do not change. For those 35 and younger, fewer than 4 in 10 make that claim.



Needless to say, these survey results appear to be quite contradictory. How can moral behavior be “declining” if we can’t even know for sure what is right and what is wrong?


The same survey also found that nearly two-thirds of Americans (63 percent) believe that “implementing laws to encourage people to act morally is not effective.”


To me, this doesn’t make any sense at all. The truth is that all laws are based on somebody’s values, and all laws are designed to get people to act in a certain way or to not act in a certain way.


If laws are not effective, why do our politicians constantly pass more of them? The reason why most of us adhere to the speed limit is because we don’t want the punishment of getting a ticket. I don’t even want to imagine what our roads would be like if those speed limit laws did not exist, and so I am quite glad that they are there.


The government is constantly “imposing morality” upon us, but most Americans don’t seem to like that.


And Americans are increasingly rejecting church as a moral authority as well. Sam Eaton is the founder of Recklessly Alive Ministries, and in his most recent article he noted a recent study that discovered that less than 20 percent of all American adults under the age of 30 “believe attending a church is important or worthwhile”…



According to this study (and many others like it) church attendance and impressions of the church are the lowest in recent history, and most drastic among millennials described as 22- to 35-year-olds.


  • Only 2 in 10 Americans under 30 believe attending a church is important or worthwhile (an all-time low).

  • 59 percent of millennials raised in a church have dropped out.

  • 35 percent of millennials have an anti-church stance, believing the church does more harm than good.

  • Millennials are the least likely age group of anyone to attend church (by far).

As I sat in our large church’s annual meeting last month, I looked around for anyone in my age bracket. It was a little like a Titanic search party…



The church in America is already in a state of crisis, and numbers like that should be deeply sobering to faith leaders all over the nation.


In article after article I have warned about the exact same thing. We are losing an entire generation of Americans, and yet most churches just continue on with business as usual as if nothing was wrong.


If we keep doing the same things that we have been doing, we are just going to keep getting the same results and church attendance all over America will continue to decline. Here is more from Sam Eaton



You see, church leaders, our generation just isn’t interested in playing church anymore, and there are real, possible solutions to filling our congregations with young adults. It’s obvious you’re not understanding the gravity of the problem at hand and aren’t nearly as alarmed as you should be about the crossroads we’re at.


You’re complacent, irrelevant and approaching extinction. A smattering of mostly older people, doing mostly the same things they’ve always done, isn’t going to turn to the tide.


Feel free to write to me off as just another angry, selfy-addicted millennial. Believe me, at this point I’m beyond used to being abandoned and ignored.




Perhaps Eaton could have been a bit more gracious in his remarks, but I am telling you that the anger and frustration that you sense in that quote are very real. Whenever I hear from Millennials, the same themes keep coming up over and over again, and it is time for the church to start listening.


Millennials tend to respond positively to authenticity, and they generally aren’t getting it at school, at church or from their government.


Since so many of them lack a solid foundation, a lot of them end up drifting through life without meaning and direction.


So what do we need to do?


We need to get back to the basics, and that means returning to the values and principles that this nation was founded upon. America was founded by strong Christian men and women that believed very strongly in the truths laid out in the Bible.


I have said it before and I will say it again. If we ever want to make America great again, we need to rediscover what made America great in the first place.


In this day and age so many believers are almost ashamed to stand up and say that they are Christians and that they believe that the Bible is the Word of God.


Those that wish to take America away from the values and principles that it was founded upon are very proud of what they believe, and we need to be even prouder of what we believe.


The fate of our country literally hangs in the balance, and so now is definitely not the time to be timid.

Saturday, May 13, 2017

Baltimore Has Become A Rotting, Decaying War Zone As A Raging Opioid Epidemic Eats Away At The City Like Cancer (VIDEO)

Baltimore Has Become A Rotting, Decaying War Zone As A Raging Opioid Epidemic Eats Away At The City Like Cancer (VIDEO) | Abandoned-row-homes-along-Monroe-Street-between-U.S.-Route-1-Wilkens-Avenue-and-Eagle-Street-in-Baltimore-City-Maryland-Photo-by-Famartin | Multimedia Special Interests US News


It is hard to believe that Baltimore was once one of the greatest cities in the entire world.  Unlike nearby Washington D.C., Baltimore is a blue collar city that is home to some of the hardest working people in America.  When I was in high school, my brother and I were huge fans of the Baltimore Orioles, and once in a while our parents would drive us from our home in Virginia all the way up to Baltimore to see them play.  As an adult, I spent a number of years living near D.C., and I would take frequent trips up to Baltimore.  To say that the city is in a state of decline would be a major understatement.  Everywhere you look there are abandoned buildings and homes, and as you drive through some of the worst areas you can actually see drug addicts just lying in the streets.  Just like so many other communities all over this country, decades of liberal policies have taken a brutal toll, and now the city is just a rotting, decaying shell of the glorious metropolis that it once was.


There are some sections of Baltimore that you simply do not go into once the sun goes down.  And actually it isn’t a very good idea to go into those areas during the day either.  The crime in the city has gotten so bad that authorities have actually formally requested help from the federal government



According to The Baltimore Sun Newspaper, the city has logged in 118 homicides today with the projection of >400 murders for year’s end. It’s so bad here that Baltimore’s Mayor has asked the Federal Government for help in attempt to regain control. Even the police union sounds the alarm of an officer shortage leading to decrease in patrols. All of this is occurring as the Baltimore population declines, nearing a 100-year low, U.S. Census says.




Through the end of April, Baltimore was on pace for the highest murder rate in the history of the city.


Yes, you read that correctly.


The primary factor fueling all of this violence is an opioid epidemic that is completely and totally out of control



The opioid epidemic is the quiet killer that has been leaving a trail of bodies on the streets of Baltimore.


“The individuals that are putting these drugs on our street, they’re killing people on our street,” said deputy commissioner Dean Palmere of the Baltimore Police Department.


Drug overdoses is expected to have killed 2,000 people statewide in 2016 and more than 800 in Baltimore alone.


“There are more people dying from overdose here in Baltimore City, than there are dying of homicide,” said Baltimore City health commissioner Dr. Leana Wen in February.



That last paragraph amazed me when I first read it.


Even though Baltimore is on pace for the highest murder rate in the city’s history, more people are actually dying from drug overdoses.


And now police in the city are warning of a new opioid that is reportedly “100 times more potent than heroin”.  It is called Carfentanyl, and it can kill people almost instantly.


I would like to share with you a short YouTube film put out by Alastair Williamson just a few days ago entitled “The Baltimore Experience”.  No matter how much I write, I could never communicate the devastation in the city quite like this little video does…



Did you see the part near the end where Williamson stops to offer a bottle of water to a man that is just lying in the street?

Hopefully that particular man is not on anything, but it is quite common to see people lying around like zombies in cities where an opioid epidemic is raging.  These are very cruel drugs, and they will utterly consume you if you allow them to.


The more drugs that come in, the worse the violence gets, and within the past 24 hours we have seen four more senseless murders in Baltimore…



Two men were shot and killed Tuesday morning in west Baltimore, police said. Officers responded at 5:52 a.m. to the shooting on the 2800 block of Lanvale Street.


Police said officers found the victims in and around a vehicle. Both had been shot in the head and were declared dead at the scene, police said.


A 35-year-old man was fatally shot Monday evening in southeast Baltimore, police said.


The victim, identified as Charles Gatuthu, 35, was shot in the head and body at about 7:45 p.m. in the 6100 block of Boston Street. He was taken to Johns Hopkins Bayview Hospital, where he died.


A 25-year-old was shot and killed Monday afternoon in west Baltimore, police said.



Of course Baltimore is far from alone.  On Monday, I wrote about how Chicago is becoming a gang-infested wasteland, and on Tuesday we got news of Chicago’s 200th homicide so far in 2017.



And an official bulletin went out to all members of the Chicago police on Monday warning them about the “high-powered weapons” that gangs are now using to kill people…



Chicago police issued a bulletin Monday warning its officers about gangs armed with high-powered weapons, after three people were shot to death over the weekend – including two attending a memorial for the earlier victim.


Department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the three people who were killed in the shootings Sunday were all members of the same street gang.



Sometimes it is hard to believe that this is still America.


The precious people that are getting hooked on these drugs and that are committing these murders were once innocent little boys and girls.  Somewhere along the way they were led down the wrong path, and this is happening on a massive scale all over the nation.


So what should we do?


What we need are some real solutions.  We need to restore the principles and the values that this nation was founded upon, and we need people that are willing to step forward and take this nation in a different direction.


In times of great darkness, light is needed the most, and at this moment in our history we are in desperate need of some lights.

Friday, May 12, 2017

Thousands Flee Chicago For Safer Areas Of The Country As America’s Third Largest City Becomes A Gang-Infested Wasteland

Thousands Flee Chicago For Safer Areas Of The Country As America’s Third Largest City Becomes A Gang-Infested Wasteland | Chicago-Skyline-At-Dusk-Public-Domain | Special Interests US News


Did you know that the number of murders increased by almost 60 percent in the city of Chicago last year?  And as you will see below, this year gang violence in the Windy City has risen to a new level of viciousness.  A staggering 9.5 million people live in the Chicago metropolitan area, and it was once known primarily for great pizza, bitter cold and some of the best sports fans on the entire planet.  But now the number one thing that comes to mind for many when they think about the city of Chicago is gang violence.  As it becomes clear that things are not going to turn around any time soon, thousands of residents are leaving the city for safer areas of the nation.  In fact, Cook County lost more people than any other county in America last year by a very wide margin.


When your murder rate goes up by double digits in a single year, you have got a problem.



But when it goes up by close to 60 percent, you have got a catastrophe on your hands



In 2016, the number of murders in the city jumped nearly 60 percent to over 760, more than New York and Los Angeles combined. There were more than 4,300 shooting victims in the city last year, according to police.



Of course we aren’t supposed to talk about the fact that this is quietly happening in communities all over America.  This is one of the reasons why there is such a disparity in real estate prices these days.  The wealthy are willing to pay a substantial premium to live with other wealthy people in areas that are far away from all the violence.


And the gang violence in Chicago continues to escalate.  For example, check out what happened just yesterday



Two people were killed and eight others were wounded in an attack at the site of a memorial for a man who was slain earlier Sunday in the Brighton Park neighborhood, police said.


Chicago police First Deputy Superintendent Kevin Navarro told reporters at the Southwest Side scene in the 2600 block of West 46th Place that the attack was “another brazen act of gang violence.”


Navarro said the victims, a mix of men and women, were taking part in a memorial for a man, identified by the Cook County medical examiner’s office as Daniel Cardova, who had been killed at that location earlier in the day when two people fired rifles from a nearby alleyway.



Would you want to raise your children in an area where this was going on?


Thanks to decades of open borders and unrestrained illegal immigration, gang membership has been absolutely soaring in major cities such as Chicago.  Five years ago the Chicago Crime Commission estimated that there were 150,000 gang members living in the metropolitan area, and by this point that number is certainly far higher.


According to Wikipedia, there are currently only 12,244 police officers in Chicago.  That means that the police are outnumbered by at least a 12 to 1 margin.


And according to an article published by the Chicago Sun-Times, some of these gangs have agreed to start using automatic weapons against the police…



The meeting took place Thursday between higher-ups from the Vice Lords, Black Disciples and Four Corner Hustlers, according to an alert issued to department members the day after the meeting.


The Four Corner Hustlers “provided guns” and have “a sniper in place” though authorities do not know where, according to the alert. The Four Corner Hustlers also are supplying the other two gangs with automatic weapons, which all three factions also have agreed to use against police, the alert states.



No wonder the police suicide rate in Chicago is 60 percent higher than the national average.


If I was living in the Chicago metropolitan area, I would be making every effort to relocate, and apparently there are lots and lots of people that see things the same way that I do.


In fact, net domestic migration for the Chicago metropolitan area was a staggering -89,000 during 2016…



One particularly stunning figure: net domestic migration, with an estimated 89,000 more people moving from the Chicago area to other portions of the country in the past year than those who moved in.


Liz Schuh, principal policy analyst for the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, said the figures are “of concern for the region’s continued economic success.”


“Residents often choose to stay in or migrate to a region because of economic opportunity and quality of life,” she added.



In particular, wealthy people are living the city in droves.  It has been reported that 3,000 millionaires left the city of Chicago in 2015 alone.  Certainly the ridiculously high taxes are one factor why so many wealthy people are leaving, but of course gang violence is also a major reason for the mass exodus.



If violence in our major cities is starting to spiral out of control while the economy is still relatively stable, what are things going to look like when a complete economic meltdown happens?


It is only a matter of time before widespread rioting, looting and civil unrest becomes commonplace in major cities all over the country.  With Donald Trump in the White House, the deep frustration that has been simmering in our inner cities is now reaching a boiling point.  It certainly isn’t going to take much of a spark to set off a tremendous explosion.


In anticipation of what is coming, large numbers of Americans have already been relocating to less populated portions of the country.  And the good news is that there are lots of areas to pick from.  According to Survival Dan, about half of the U.S. population lives in just 146 counties…



Recent U.S. census data indicates that out of the 3000 counties in the United States, fully 50% of the population lives in just 146. If you want to have any chance of surviving a widespread catastrophic event by avoiding the hordes that will be searching for critical resources in its aftermath, then check out the following map to get a visual reference of the areas you want to stay away from.



Thousands Flee Chicago For Safer Areas Of The Country As America’s Third Largest City Becomes A Gang-Infested Wasteland | Population-Density-Map-Survival-Dan-400x260 | Special Interests US News


Of course it can be quite difficult to find a good job in an area that is not heavily populated, and there are a lot of expenses involved in relocating to a totally different part of the country.


And there is certainly a lot to consider when picking out a new place to live, and so you would want to do a lot of research before making such a move.


But my wife and I did step out in faith and made a decision to relocate to a new area nearly six years ago, and it was one of the best decisions that we have ever made.