Letters: Churches can lead way back to old-time values

In response to a letter written on Sept. 13 by Sylvia Martin titled “Consider carefully before you vote”: I totally agree with, and I, too, value those things she stated she would like to get back to in this country, and particularly here in Louisiana. Back to a time when neighborhood schools prevailed, neighbors actually knew and helped one another. A time when everyone worked! When it seemed everyone went to church, to a time when decency and honor prevailed and not just “old fashioned values.”

Martin expressed a desire to go back to a time when God was respected, referring to God being rejected in the platform of the Democratic convention. I was actually moved by her conservative desires for our nation, schools, neighbors and more importantly for God! It is extremely important that those who have those same desires be careful in selecting whom to vote for as president of the United States of America. I personally believe this upcoming election is the single most important election of our nation’s history — simply because we are losing our identity as America! It is certain that if we continue to tread in the same direction we are currently going in, we won’t recognize our country as the America we once knew.

However, voting for our choice of the parties to lead the country will not bring back all the things those of us who have those conservative values wish to have again. Some of the problems are not all with either political party we choose! They only give what the majority of the people want. That is why polls have become so important to political parties; they want to know what the people want. The reason why we have moved from those treasured values once experienced is because a good portion of the people have moved from the desire of God.

The failure lies at the doorstep of the church! If our churches would preach and teach what the desires of God are rather than what our desires are, then people would once again have a greater respect for God and have the kind of conservative values we all would like to see again among our schools and neighbors. That is the only way we will get back to the desires of old. And our government will follow, with the desires of the people

Carl L. Brown

evangelist

Baton Rouge

Comments

1) Comment by Mygulfbleedsforu - 18/09/2012

Please realize that this, indeed, is America, and your dream is not something we ALL would like to see again.

2) Comment by chem - 18/09/2012

Mildred Citizen said, "...the pendulum is now ready to swing back to faith and away from secularism." Not likely. Polling over the years has shown the world, including the U.S., becoming more secular. And it makes sense. As people learn more about the natural world, the less they need some silly god to look to and worship. I for one am not going to be a slave to some idiotic notion of a supernatural god. The world will be better off when all of this idiocy is eliminated.

3) Comment by Mildred Citizen - 18/09/2012

The leading causes of poverty are due to abandoning basic values. Over 70% of children are born to single mothers in the black community. Over half of the black kids do not graduate high school. Whether religious or not, this is a serious problem. Our moral foundations are eroding and the cost to society, especially the black community, is huge. This is a problem shared by all of society, but it is epidemic in the black community. Where are the fundamental values that built America better represented than in our churches/synagogues/mosques? Faith in something greater than ourselves has inspired man since the beginning of civilization. I predict that the pendulum is now ready to swing back to faith and away from secularlism.

4) Comment by DMJ - 18/09/2012

"we are losing our identity as America!" Wrong, Mr. Brown. YOU are losing YOUR identity. I like my America just fine, thank you. We're becoming more socially liberal, more secular and more multicultural. I hate to think what the country would be like if people like you got your way. Evangelize somewhere else, please.

5) Comment by palefire - 18/09/2012

Let us not forget that there are more churches than ever in this country. So according to Mr. Brown we should be in our glory days as a country.

6) Comment by twinkie1cat - 18/09/2012

Unfortunately, the values of the "good old days" had an extremely rotten underbelly of discrimination and elitism. Certainly people knew their neighbors, but those neighbors, along with the neighborhood schools were full of people who looked just like one another. The poorly paid jobs were the ones the minorities were expected to stick with and, even if they were successful in business, they were forced to remain in the ghetto---Cadillac and TV antenna not withstanding. it does not seem that long ago, 1966 to be exact when my high school became desegregated and the Chemistry teacher asked me if I minded taking the "colored girl" as my lab partner. My American history teacher talked about the shock he felt when he heard to voice of his Sunday School teacher as he sat on a hill watching a KKK rally. Were these the "good old days"? And are those Rev. Brown alludes to really gone? I live in North Baton Rouge in 70805 where crime is supposedly very high. Almost all my neighbors are African American and I DO know them. But what troubles me is that most of the churches seem to be back in the day. They, except for a few, are still identifiable as "black" or "white" . We all worship the same God. Can we not combine some of our traditions and worship together as God's children united for a better America.

7) Comment by dday198 - 18/09/2012

Healing Place pastor resigns. is dino a conservative?

8) Comment by nimby? - 18/09/2012

organization breeds corruption . seems like there's a church for everything these days ; the church of the convenient , each with its' own amended bible . confusing . if you truly believe then there is no reason to pay admission to enter a building of brick , mortar and wood to communicate with your higher power via a mediator ....

9) Comment by Bouncer - 18/09/2012

Maybe I'm wrong, but the subtext of this letter seems to me to be, "Watch your back, heterosexual white man. Boogeyman is gonna get you." Part of the problem with wanting to rewind to the "good old days" is that nobody can quite agree on when that was.

10) Comment by Bighug - 18/09/2012

I fear the man who requires God to refrain from robbing or killing me. I also question a religion that worships a god so weak that he requires 10% of my meager earnings. Could it be that his priests are really the ones who need the money?

11) Comment by palefire - 17/09/2012

Oh nostalgia. How easy one looks back to the past through a rose-colored haze. It is hard to tell what time period Carl L. Brown is referring to since he never mentions the specifics. Perhaps Mr. Brown doesn’t realize how good we have it right now. Crime is down, “The last time the crime rate for serious crime – murder, rape, robbery, assault – fell to these levels, gasoline cost 29 cents a gallon and the average income for a working American was $5,807” (reported from The Christian Science Monitor). Perhaps he pines for the good old days when blacks and women couldn’t vote. Or maybe Mr. Brown would like us to go back to the time when children had to practice hiding under their desks in case of a nuclear attack, and when adults where scared into digging out holes in their yards for bomb shelters. Hopefully, he doesn’t want to go back to the time when our economy was run on the back of slaves.

12) Comment by krl777 - 17/09/2012

Our original "identity as America" was that half the economy was based on slavery. A century ago, women had no vote, African-Americans were oppressed by Jim Crow laws, Jews, Catholics and immigrants from everywhere but Western Europe were disparaged and excluded, and exploitation of child labor was routine. Ah yes ... the good old days. To the extent that things have changed for the worse, there are several factors responsible. But certainly ONE of the factors is the culture of commercial capitalism. Yet, somehow those pining for the Olde Tyme things won't get around to indicting it, or even noticing it.