I'm certainly not the first to use this analogy, but here's my version:
Our western civilization relies upon the strength of 3 vital institutions to remain standing. These institutions are (1) the Church, (2) the family, and (3) education. There are, of course, other important influences. I tend to see these three as the most vital, the most foundational to a functional and productive civilization.
Don't know about you, but when I look around at how much life has changed in recent years, I scratch my head and wonder what on earth has happened. And it seems that the answer is most often found in the deterioration of one - or all - of the legs of my metaphorical stool.
The Church is burdened with false teachers. Too often, local congregations are an inch deep and a mile wide, favoring entertainment and feel-good, self-help messages over discipleship.
The family, as God ordained it, is in deep trouble in America. Fathers have long been painted as bumbling doofuses by the entertainment industry. Under economic and social pressure, mothers are spread too thin keeping up with parenting, household, work, and personal obligations. The lives of our kids are radically different from our own upbringing, with influences and pressures we never even imagined.
And finally, our system of education is utter wreckage, failing to instruct students in basic academics while inculcating them with progressive political and social ideologies instead.
It's no wonder the world looks so disturbingly different these days.
We’re living in the upside-down.
