According to the article, “Let’s Get Back to Basics,” in the July/August issue of Israel My Glory, “a recent Wall Street Journal/NORC survey found that values like patriotism, religion, and community involvement are in steep decline. Only 38 percent of  Americans in 2023 say patriotism is ‘very important’ to them, down from 70 percent in 1998. Twenty-five years ago, 62 percent of Americans considered religion ‘very important,’ while only 39 percent believe it’s significant today. Now, 30 percent of Americans believe raising children is ‘very important,’ compared to 59 percent in 1998. Americans who consider involvement in their community as ‘very important’ fell to 27 percent, down from a high of 62 percent in 2019. 

    Faith, family and patriotism are what hold our society together, but now “our social glue is losing its grip.”  Why?  Well, at the core of these values is a principle of selflessness which comes from the Bible. We find it in Philippians 2:3-5: “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus.” Faith is trusting in God and His Word and not “leaning on our own understanding” (Prov. 3:5,6).  The family unit, consisting of a father, mother and children, is to be the basic unit of society and they are to love and support one another.  And patriotism means caring for your fellow countrymen and women, having pride in your nation and being willing to sacrifice to  meet the needs of others. Remember President John F.   Kennedy’s famous challenge: “Ask not what your country can do for you–ask what you can do for your country?” 

     Now we live in a culture of “What can you do for me?”  Selflessness is being replaced with “selfies” and self-aggrandizement. One of the contributing factors is social media.  Research has shown that spending more time on social media leads to higher levels of narcissism, so it is no wonder that as social media has increased, our values have crumbled.  How many followers do you have on Facebook (or other social media)?  Did your last post get lots of likes?  In our social media obsessed world, it is very easy to become self-focused, for who among us doesn’t enjoy being the center of positive attention?  But, that is contrary to the principle of selflessness and humility described in Phil. 2:3-5. 

     “Another contributing factor to the decline of faith, family and patriotism is our (public) education system. Students from elementary school through college are being indoctrinated to abandon these shared bonds and are taught to dismiss faith in God, dismantle the nuclear family, and loathe the foundational principles that created our great country” (“Let’s Get Back to Basics!”). (NOTE: PTL, there are a remnant of schools that are holding on to basics!). In place of faith, family and country, students are being taught things like “Critical Race Theory,” transgenderism, and “Cancel Culture.” We have surely seen the evidence of this indoctrination in the recent pro Hamas/Palestinian and anti-Israel protests across our college campuses. 

     The solution to our problem of our “selfie society” is not through policy change in Washington. It needs to start in the home by reinstilling godly values. As we sit around the dinner table we need to turn off our phones, thank God for His provisions, connect as a family and get back to having family devotions, making them applicable to how to live in a culture that is anti-Christian.  We need to return to the basics that made this a great nation: a deep trust in our Sovereign God, strong families, and a love of country.  

      We need to remember, it is not about us, it is about Him.  We are here to spread the Good News about what He has done for us and who He is, and who we are in Him, to bring glory to His name.  I think of the ministry of John the Baptist whose role it was to introduce the Messiah to the world.  As he carried out his unique ministry, he gathered quite a following  and it would have been tempting with all that attention to lose focus and think it was about himself. But John definitely didn’t have a “look at me” or people-pleasing mentality; he called people out on their sins. No one got a hall pass, not even King Herod (Mk. 6…and it would cost John his life).  John’s mission was to shine the spotlight on Jesus. John’s disciples played the comparison game. “They came to John and said to him, ‘Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have borne witness, behold, He is baptizing, and all are coming to Him.’ John answered and said, ‘A man can receive nothing, unless it has been given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but , ‘I have been sent before Him’ (Jn. 3:26-28). John’s job was not to gain a name for himself, but to point people to Jesus. His motto in life was, “He must increase, but I must decrease”  (v. 30).  

     That’s a good example for all of us. As we turn the spotlight on Jesus, He will become the focus, and the attention placed on us will decrease. How might we do that in our activities today? For starters, you might consider what and why you post on social media. Maybe you can begin using it to glorify God and highlight another individual or organization that is doing His work. Let’s heed Paul’s advice to the Philippians and have the attitude Jesus modeled for us: “Who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men…He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:5-8).  

Forever His,

Pastor Dave