In a world that celebrates furthering one’s own interests and desires, we mourn the loss of Judeo-Christian values but often propose selfish reasons for seeking their return. We pick and choose what morals dominated the actions of those who came before us. We choose to remember the good times as we don rose-coloured glasses combined with blinders so that we can create a future dream based on a past hallucination to try to exterminate our current nightmare.

Were things really better?

Yes. No. Maybe. The truth is, it doesn’t matter. Our minds are not designed to perfectly remember the past. Think about it, would you really, really, really want to remember the past with every detail? The reason the past looks so good is often because we only remember what we want to remember. It works the other way too. If our strongest memories of the past are more negative than positive, the past will appear to us to be negative. Even when we are reminded of the opposite experience our rose-coloured glasses combined with blinders create the past as we remember it, mostly good or mostly bad.

Were you aware of what was really going on?

The past is much more messy that we want to believe. Sure there were strict laws that match much of our morality but often those enforcing the laws turned a blind eye to one group while making up infractions for another. Still, we were happy because “them people” by and large were stopped and us people were safe. The problem is, “them people” and us people may have had more to do with your class or race rather than your moral code. The truth is, what mattered was that things on paper matched our Judeo-Chirstian values and for the most part the average person lived them out.

What was going on?

The truth is, what was going on was the same as what is going on, it is just not illegal anymore. I would even push the issues and say most of us old-timers (you’re an old-timer once you say, ‘I remember when…’) knew of behaviours that did not conform with the morality of the majority but for the most part we choose to remember the good old days as good. For those affected by the nonconforming behaviours the good old days weren’t so good and that’s not only what they choose to remember but what they often feel they cannot forget.

What can I do?

Take off the rose-coloured glasses combined with blinders. Every time we choose to look at the past as good or bad and our memory of the past as accurate, we choose to see a world limited to our point of view. When we create a future dream based on a past hallucination to try to exterminate our current nightmare, even if our past hallucination is close to reality, we create a future that does not take into account that life was, is and will always be messy. In the perfect society, whatever you want to define as a perfect society, sin will exist. From generation to generation, the acts of godlessness will continue. Either we drive them underground or live them out in public, either way they still exist and they still need to be addressed.

What does it matter?

God is the only one that can truly look back to the good old days and say I wish things were the way they were. Only God can see so far into the past that He can remember a world without sin and, believe it or not, a world without Judeo-Christian laws and say those were truly good old days. The next time you create a future dream based on a past hallucination to try to exterminate your current nightmare, go to the one that remembers what the world was like before sin and ask Him what your future should look like.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2 (NIV)