It has been at least twenty years ago now. I taught the Kitchen Class, a group of about twenty or so young adults who met in the ridiculously large kitchen of our church in Ohio. A good sized restaurant would have done well with that kitchen. Anyway, our class met there. It was handy to the coffee pot and someone could bring doughnuts and no one outside the class would know. Most of the group was already there. Coffee was flowing and doughnuts were being dispersed. Then, a lady who was fairly new to the church and the class came hustling into the kitchen. In her hand was clutched that day’s newspaper. She slapped it down on the table in front of me (nearly hitting my doughnut) and pointed to the story she had circled. It was actually a letter to the editor. The writer was expressing her horror that her nephew’s eighth grade class at a school in Kentucky had gone to a local slaughterhouse and had observed a cow being brought in, killed and slaughtered as part of the school’s field trip. The paper had done due diligence, though. Someone had called the school and asked about it. Only the kids who had signed parental releases had gone. I read the letter and the short article and looked up at her in confusion.

          “OK. Do you want me to take our Youth to a slaughterhouse?”

          She looked at me like I was crazy. “Are you crazy?!!? NO!!! Don’t you think that is terrible??!? Children should not be exposed to that!!!”  

          “Ah, I see. With my father’s help, I gutted and skinned my first rabbit when I was five. You probably don’t want to talk to me about this.”

          She actually took a couple of horrified steps backward.

          “Look,” I said. “That roast you have in the oven at home came from a slaughtered cow. Every hamburger you have ever eaten came from a slaughtered cow. Ever been to a chicken processing plant? I have. It is nasty. It will make you rethink those McNuggets for tomorrow’s lunch. Although that may not be real meat. But this is how it is done.”

          “But the children! Impressionable minds watching such a thing! So wrong.”

          At this point, one of our men, an Elder to boot, spoke up. “I wonder what type of slaughterhouse it was?” We all looked at him, waiting. “Well, some places put a deer slug right between the cow’s eyes and others use a sledgehammer.”

          The offended lady nearly had a stroke. The Elder’s wife punched him in the arm.

          “Look, the school sent registration/permission slips home. Parents could have said no. End of story.”

          “You mean this doesn’t bother you???”

          “No, it doesn’t.” She looked around the room for some backup. Very much a farming community. Almost every kid in the church a 4-H kid. No one was going to help her. She left in a huff.

          This event came to mind as I read yet another article in the news about someone being offended about the actions of another. In this article, from an online news outlet, a high school girl and her mother were offended because the high school made the girl leave the prom because her dress was inappropriate. (It was in Florida, so I guess they can have prom whenever. Here in the north you have to wait until Spring or else get snow boots that match the gown.) They ran a picture of the girl in the dress with the question, “You don’t think this is inappropriate, do you?” They wanted you to respond to their little poll. When I looked at the picture I thought that she needed to make sure that her panties matched her corsage, because the panties were certainly going to be on display. But, the writer, the mother and the daughter were all offended at the school having rules.

          Society is a mess. Back in the late 1950s, church attendance began to fall. This meant God was being removed from the family. Then, God was removed from schools and government. Now, God has less and less of a place in our churches, as large portions of the Bible have fallen by the wayside. Yes, society is a mess.

          And this has happened because politically and theologically liberal thinkers have taken action to remove God and let the world go over to Satan and politically and theologically conservative thinkers have let it happen.

          This has been going around for a couple of years on the internet, but it is very true;

---If a conservative doesn’t like guns, he doesn’t own one. If a liberal doesn’t like guns, he wants all guns banned.

---If a conservative is a vegetarian, he doesn’t eat meat. If a liberal is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned.

---If a conservative is down and out, he thinks about what steps to take to improve his own life. If a liberal is down and out, he wonders who is going to take care of him.

---If a conservative doesn’t like a talk show host, he changes channels. If a liberal doesn’t like a talk show host, he wants that host and all hosts who share the same views banned.

---If a conservative is a non-believer, he doesn’t go to church. If a liberal is a non-believer, he wants any mention of God and Jesus silenced. Allah and Mohammad, though, are OK, for some reason.

---If a conservative wants health care, he goes shopping for it. If a liberal wants health care, he demands the rest of us pay for it.

          I hesitate to even write about these things. Not because I am afraid of the reaction it might create. Rather, I would rather write about the great things of our Lord. But I was told, not so long ago, that I hated homosexuals, that I didn’t care if a woman was impregnated by rape and I only cared for people who went to church. None of these things are true, but because I am a politically and theologically conservative thinker, I must be a hater. I am tired of being told that I, and others like me, are the haters and the liberal thinkers are the tolerant ones.

          I suppose I am unbending. If I see a man follow a little girl into the restroom at Wal-Mart, I am not going to wonder if he identifies as a girl that day or if he is transgender or whatever is going through his miniscule brain, I am going to grab him by the collar and yank him out. Yes, I am an old guy. He would likely beat me to the floor. But at least the pervert would be stopped.

          However, more to the point, there is something we can do about society. It isn’t marching on Washington nor walking around done up like an arsenal. We can turn our country over to the Lord. To really be able to do that we need to turn ourselves over to the Lord completely. Society is a mess, but Christians make a mistake when they get off their knees. Changing our own lives and then committing to prayer is what changes things. Nothing else comes close.