A Worldwide Moral Breakdown

“CHEATING is everywhere,” says David Callahan, who wrote the recent book The Cheating Culture. He points to, among other things in the United States, “cheating by high school and college students,” “piracy” of music and movies, “workplace theft,” “massive healthcare scams,” and use of steroids in sports. He concludes: “Add up all the various forms of ethical and legal misconduct and you have a moral crisis of serious dimensions.”

The New York Times said that Hurricane Katrina, which hit the United States late in 2005, “produced one of the most extraordinary displays of scams, schemes and stupefying bureaucratic bungles in modern history.” A U.S. senator reported: “The blatant fraud, the audacity of the schemes, the scale of the waste​—it is just breathtaking.”

Granted, there are still examples of selfless human kindness. (Acts 27:3; 28:2) But too often we hear: “What is in it for me? What will I get out of it?” A me-first, look-out-for-number-one attitude seems to have become the rule.

In the past, selfish, blatant immorality has been pointed to as a contributing factor in the fall of civilizations, such as the Roman Empire. Could what is happening now be a prelude to something even more significant? Is every part of the world now being affected by “the increasing of lawlessness,” which the Bible foretells would be a mark of the end of this entire system of things?​—Matthew 24:3-8, 12-14; 2 Timothy 3:1-5.

The Decline Worldwide

Africa News of June 22, 2006, reporting on a “workshop on sexual abuse and pornography” in slums in one part of Uganda, said it is the “parent’s neglect that has increased prostitution and drug abuse in the area.” The paper observed: “The officer in charge of Child and Family Protection Unit at Kawempe Police Station, Mr. Dhabangi Salongo, said the rate of child abuse and domestic violence had increased tremendously.”

According to a doctor in India, “society is losing its cultural moorings.” One film director there said that “the combination of increased drug use and greater sexual promiscuity is yet another sign that India is sinking into ‘Western debauchery.’”

Hu Peicheng, secretary-general of the China Sexology Association in Beijing, noted: “Before in society, we had a sense of right and wrong. Now, we can do whatever we want.” An article in the magazine China Today put it this way: “Society is growing ever more tolerant towards extramarital affairs.”

“It seems everyone is taking their clothes off and using sex as a sales tool,” observed England’s Yorkshire Post recently. “Little more than a generation ago such actions would have caused moral outrage. Today, we are bombarded with sexual imagery from every conceivable angle and pornography has . . . planted itself firmly in the mainstream.” The newspaper added: “Material that was once only considered safe for an 18-plus audience  is now often essential family viewing and, according to anti-pornography campaigners, often explicitly targeted towards children.”

The New York Times Magazine said: “[Some teens] talk about [their sexual encounters] as matter-of-factly as they might discuss what’s on the cafeteria lunch menu.” Tweens News, “the parentguide for 8 to 12-year-olds,” observed: “In a child-like scrawl, a young girl had written a heart-wrenching message: ‘My Mom is pressuring me to go out and date boys and have sex. I’m only 12 years old . . . help!’”

How times have changed! Canada’s Toronto Star noted that not long ago “the very idea of gays or lesbians openly cohabiting was a moral outrage.” Yet, Barbara Freemen, a teacher of social history at Carleton University, Ottawa, observes: “People now say, ‘Private life is private life. We don’t want other people interfering.’”

Clearly, over the past few decades, morals have deteriorated rapidly in many places worldwide. What has led to these radical changes? How do you personally feel about them? And what do the changes indicate for the future?