A reminder when I think we've gone downhill

Genesis 18-21
A reality check. There are times I am literally speechless over the degrading morals in our country. This morning as I drove into work, I was scanning stations for a song and ended up landing on a dj talk portion of the show on 104.7 (I think). This is a station I know my jr. high girls listen to all the time. This segment was called something "second date". Basic set-up - a guy and a girl have a great first date, but then the guy bails with no explanation as to why there was no second date. The girl calls in, gives her synopsis of the first date, then the dj's call the guy to find out what gives.

This young college girl from NAU was the caller this morning. She starts with this story about Christmas, going to a party, drinking and a guy she had no interest in during high school (because of how nerdy he was) is suddenly Mr Thing because he looks so good now. (By her mannerisms, I'm thinking all of a year has elapsed between high school and college life). She goes on and on about how they connected, drinking, left the party to have filiberto's, then went back to his house becuase his parents were gone. She continually eludes to "hooking up" which the dj is interpreting as kissing, but as I'm listening I'm thinking he's missing it. This girl has done more than some smooching. She talks about how she's hooked up with guys because she's been bored, but this is so much more than that. End of story - he doesn't come see her at NAU like he said he would. I was listening, a little stunned at the casualness of this conversation wih perfect strangers to her.

But what goes on to stun me more is the response she gets from these three djs (two guys, one gal). One is actually asking her what's wrong with her face because that's why the guy's not calling. He asks are about what she's insecure about when she looks in the mirror, etc. But the second dj sums it up with "so you're at a party with a guy where drinks are free, he buys you some filibertos, and he's rewarded with mattress mambo. So, for the price of free drinks, $6 dinner and 3 hours of time he gets mattress mambo." This girl is just not getting it! It's horrifying to listen to because dj one goes on to ask how strong was this connection. Girl's response "It was intense! I mean, I think I love him." Wow. My heart ached for the life this girl must lead and how she must feel - or if she doesn't feel it now, how she'll one day feel when she wakes up and realizes how she's treated herself. I turned off the radio, said a prayer for her and headed in to work, honestly still a little stunned over the whole on-air conversation.

But the story of the angels visiting Sodom and Gomorrah never ceases to amaze me more. These two angels go to a city as male visitors, where a stranger, Lot, befriends them and takes them into the protective walls of his home. He knows the city he's living in is brutally bad. Scripture goes on to tell us that every man, young and old, in the city comes and surounds Lot's house, demanding that he send out the two strangers so they can have sex with them. What?! As bad as I think this radio conversation was, this is so much more appalling. How does a town get so emeshed in sin that every male goes to a home to basically rape visitors? If this is just one example of what was going on in these places, it's really not shocking to see God's response of total destruction. This place needed to go.

But it makes me wonder. How did this place get so sinful? Did it start with conversations on a street corner that resembled the one I heard today? Or with boundaries of what's acceptable to talk about or see getting pushed every day? Sometimes I am literally amazed and what gets shown and/or said on tv. Amazed. Since when is that ok? In a professing "Christian" nation, how does God get removed? How does it get to where we are and where we continue to head? If true Christians found their voices and refused to bend to be "normal" in this culture - would things change? Or, like Sodom and Gomorrah, are the Lots of our society just waiting to get rescued?