The Depravity of Today's Society

I am sure you remember I just had Jury Duty. This was a completely new experience for me, and it brought me face to face again with the depravity of our society.


The trial was for a rape. Yes, in our little town, a couple of teenagers made the gravest mistake of their lives. Whether this young man committed the crime or not, I will never know (as he plea bargained and I don’t know which way the judge ruled), but it was the still the gravest of errors. Sex outside of marriage, the sacred bond God intended for marriage only, they desecrated and turned it into a form of cheap entertainment.

The lawyers asked us if seeing some pretty graphic text messages would bother us, if we could still serve on the trial. And of course, being the out spoken person that I am, I told them what I thought.

We have nothing sacred in our society. Nothing is private, nothing belongs to one person and that one person alone. Travel with a bus load of teenagers for 4 days and you will know exactly what I mean. Anything and everything that enters their mind, every body part, every inappropriate thought is given voice and once those words are in the air, they cannot be retracted.

Morals are terribly hard to find in today’s young people and look at where it has gotten us? I should never have had to sit on a trial about an 18 year old young man raping his peer. Who knows, he could have possibly never committed that crime, but at this point, this is beside the point. There was obvious evidence/ thought to at least accuse this young man- but who’s evidence? It takes two to commit such an act. I know not about this situation, only what I have seen in other places, we are surrounded by this perversion of something so sacred.

The lawyer asked if the worry that a guilty verdict would ruin his life would drive us to free him. The only problem is, his life was ruined long before the sheriff slapped the handcuffs on his wrists. And not just his life, the girl’s life, their family’s lives and the courtroom full of jurors were all affected when they decided to commit this act outside the sacredness of God’s institution. His life was ruined long before this trial. Our sin has a horrendous ripple effect. Being the self centered humans we are, we never sit back and wonder how something, seeming so innocent, can affect so many people.

This was a harsh reality check. We have degraded so deeply in our society. Our total lack of propriety and modesty have brought us to this point. I can only pray that this is his reality check that God will be made known to him.