by admin | April 17th, 2009
Has Courtesy Civility & Honesty Gone With The Wind?
Webster defines courtesy as: consideration, cooperation, and generosity in providing something.
This was once common place in America.
I was reading a cute, snippy tongue in cheek Hub page by an authoress called Pgrundy entitled Satan Works for a Cell Phone Company in which she describes her heroing experience in a late night Michigan snow storm car accident. Apparently poor visibility, icy road conditions and an inexplicably stopped Dodge Ram Pickup Truck conspired together smashing her car into a frozen country roadside ditch. Possibly surmising that this unfortunate woman was not seriously injured the unscathed rear ended “Rammaroo” truck and driver sped away after a hasty perusal of the situation. Still dazed and now abandoned with not so much as a by your leave she turned to her trusted cell phone for her promised deliverance but could find no signal in the teeth of the chattering cold. Pgrundy did not exactly explain how the tow truck was dispatched, to her panic stricken relief, but it was. When the shock of her potential near miss with personal disaster ebbed away, rage over the faulty cell phone emergency motivated a prompt visit to the delinquent mobile provider. The ensuing cell phone sales office confrontation is relayed in a sarcastically amusing tone but drives home the “up yours” attitude of contemporary sales and business personnel in America today. The apparent callous attitude of the truck driver, sales persons and Cell Phone Company gives us pause as we puzzle about what has happened to American society. She refers to Americans’ lack of civility, honesty and common courtesy as “The United States of Who Gives a Crap”. Southern Chivalry has been poo-pooed since the Civil War but I believe Miss Pgrundy would have received the services of gentlemen with exceeding appreciation.
Consequences of the Theory of Evolution
I believe the lack of personal integrity is the inevitable by product of the repudiation of Biblical Christian Principles in favor of the religion of Darwinian Evolution and Secular Humanism. America has rushed headlong, without realizing the consequences, into a purge of Christian ethics from the public discourse under the pretense of the false “separation of church and state” doctrine. Government Schools prohibit Bible Reading and prayer in the class room while teachers openly ridicule the Bible and intimidate young Christians into silence. Three successive generations have been “educated” under the concepts of natural selection and survival of the fittest. If man is only the sum of his material parts, a soulless animal, an accident of random chance then there are no eternal consequences for his actions. If there is no God who judges actions then there is no absolute moral authority; self restraint removed the lowest common denominator becomes main stream and people eventually behave like the animals they are believed to be. Mankind eventually devolves into a ravening creature that grabs as much as he can from whoever he can for as long as he can; euphemistically known as the Law of the Jungle.
When we are personally assaulted by verbal abuses and scams or slighted by neglect we should not be surprised because it confirms what the Bible says about man; that he is dead in sin and trespasses and needs redemption. Ephesians 2:1 The Scriptures name the problem and also name the solution in the person of the Jesus Christ. Romans 10:9 When reverence and love of God is stripped away from men, self restraint and genuine concern for others becomes a casualty and the primary motivation for living revolves around self-preservation/gratification. Little wonder that men leave women to fend for themselves out in the middle of nowhere during blizzard conditions or that young 20 year old salesmen mock and ridicule customers who need their help or that corporations defraud their customers/stockholders and promise more than they intend to deliver. America has sown millions of their children to the wind and now we are just beginning to reap the whirlwinds of societal dissolution. Hosea 8:7
While we Christians are not without our faults one cannot imagine a True Christian Gentleman leaving a damsel in distress or ambushing her with language of contempt or disrespect. The conduct of a gentleman is a civilizing influence upon society and inspires others to elevate the nobility of the human race. Rightly understood, Biblical Christianity is a preserving influence upon society and that is why the scripture refers to regenerated believers as “the Salt of the Earth”.
Robert E. Lee Christian Gentleman
Robert E. Lee was described, even by his enemies, as a “Christian Gentleman”. Today few strive to emulate his godly example. He describes a gentleman not by his birth but by his conduct as follows:
The forbearing use of power does not only form a touchstone, but the manner in which an individual enjoys certain advantages over others is a test of a true gentleman.
The power which the strong have over the weak, the employer over the employed, the educated over the unlettered, the experienced over the confiding, even the clever over the silly — the forbearing or inoffensive use of all this power or authority, or a total abstinence from it when the case admits it, will show the gentleman in a plain light.
The gentleman does not needlessly and unnecessarily remind an offender of a wrong he may have committed against him. He cannot only forgive, he can forget; and he strives for that nobleness of self and mildness of character which impart sufficient strength to let the past be but the past. A true man of honor feels humbled himself when he cannot help humbling others.
