Will Allendale Have a Happy Halloween?
Rev. John R. Greene
When something becomes everyday, you might say it is old hat. When it goes on and on, we tend to forget the value of the thing or action. In this day and age, many of us have become DESENSITIZED! This word means that the negative around us does not have the affect that it did years ago. We read the paper and someone is murdered. We turn on the news and we see a terrorist bombs a bus. All this happens, but we know that we must live out our lives so we grow DESENSITIZED!
Danny Dawson, chief of the Orange-Osceola County state attorney's juvenile division in Orlando, Florida said, "Ten years ago, it was a shock to see a 7, 8 or 9-year-old come into the system; now it's not. It's the trend."
In the next 10 minutes some very disturbing things will happen to America's youth: 10 kids will attempt suicide; 105 kids will quit school; 618 high school seniors will smoke marijuana; 20 girls between 15-19 will become pregnant; 5 of these girls will give birth to illegitimate babies and 8 will murder or have murdered their babies.
Why do our kids, today, dress up like Dahmer, Ramirez, Gaisey, or Capone on halloween? If this holiday is so much fun, then why do our kids look so evil? When being evil and gruesome is acceptable to society, you only need to read the paper to see the death of society being recorded each day!! You say, "This is stupid. There's nothing wrong with my kids or their enjoyment of halloween." 1994 statistics for Allendale County show: 26.4% of births are to teen mothers; 64.7% of mothers are unwed; 49.3% of homes are single parent families; 21.5% have less than a 9th grade education; 24.8% have no high school diploma.
The week that my family moved to this town an officer was murdered in a drug bust gone bad. There have been several deaths of inmates to AIDS in last couple of years all at young ages. Last year, a brutal stabbing of a woman took place after a man was released from ACI.
Crime begins somewhere, but we don't want anyone to tell us that we have a responsibility. Maybe it's because the movies show so many rapes, murders, drugs, and sex? Perhaps, but maybe, just maybe, it is because we have forgotten that evil is evil no matter how you dress it up! Why do we have all the needles, razor blades, LSD, arsenic and the like in brownies, candy and apples that are given in fun for halloween?
If you got into a good church that preached and taught the Word of God, you just may become a little more aware of your surroundings! That big word, DESENSITIZE, could be thrown away because you would learn what is right and what is wrong. The Bible does give us absolutes! Amen!!
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