by Jed Estrada

There are some things that never get better with time. Gas never gets cheaper, taxes will never go down, and the concept of penny candy exists only in Norman Rockwell's nostalgic paintings. It happens by the law of gradients, or in Economics the "boiling frog" principle: that if you turn up the heat ever so slowly, a frog will boil without ever realizing it. After all, who noticed the price of bubble gum go from 1 cent, to 5, to 10, to 25?

 Sadly, the same is true for morality. From generation to generation, the line between what is acceptable and what is appalling sinks further and further. Many of the problems we face today can be directly tied into a break down of values from yesterday. Deborah Brezina, a faculty member for Summit Ministries, and author of several books calls this phenomenon “points and counterpoints in history.” Or consider it this way: the family used to be an icon of society. Dad's and their sons used to go fishing, or hunting together. Now many kids are hunting for the fathers they never knew. Justice used to prevail, and the Law would lock the crooks up, so children would be safe in the streets. Now we lock ourselves in our houses, while criminals roam the cities. When did these changes occur, and what caused them? The truth is, morality has been on a downward spiral for a long time now. Divorce became an accepted norm long ago, and kids who grew up without their parents didn't learn to be good ones. With marriage no longer being sacred, there came a rise of immorality. And can you guess what impact that has had on the value of life itself? Society is accepting abortion as legitimate, and now battles over euthanasia are not too distant. So it shouldn't be any surprise that after immorality has been accepted for so long that we are now fighting homosexuality. After all, if everything that family stands for is eroded, why should the very structure of family be respected any more?

Arthur W. Pink, a Christian evangelist and Bible scholar noted "We can form no conception of social virtue or felicity, yea, no conception of human society itself, which has not its foundation in the family." A. W. Pink himself was converted to Christianity due to his father's constant and patient admonitions from the Bible, and having lived in both England and the United States, he was able to witness the necessity of strong family values to the well being of society. "No matter how excellent the constitution and laws of a country may be, or how vast its resources and prosperity, there is no sure basis for social order or public as well as private virtue, until it be laid in the wise regulation of its families" said Pink in his book, An Exposition of Hebrews.

So what is it like when generations are firmly rooted in families? It still exists today, despite its disappearance from popular culture. Meet Al and Shirley Russ, long time residents of Elmira. In a city that is questioning the basic components of a family, (specifically a man and a women) Al and Shirley just celebrated their 66th wedding anniversary this past May.

Al was born in Canandaigua, and Shirley was born in Addison. They met in Elmira, at the intersection of Broadway and Franklin Street, where Shirley waited for the bus in front of the gas station that Al worked at. Al Russ joined the military at age 22, and he and Shirley were married in Rantoul Illinois, where Al was serving at the Chanute Air Force Base. Mr. Russ is a veteran of WWII, in which he served with General Chennault's famous 'Flying Tigers' in China as a mechanic. Shirley Russ went into nursing, and served in the Women's Nursing Core during WWII. Al and Shirley had two daughters, and today they have many grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Two of their great-grandchildren currently serve in the military; One in Afghanistan, and another in the Navy's maintenance division, while one of their great-granddaughters has also pursued nursing. But the greatest way that their children are following their steps is in their faith, which has been passed down throughout their family's generations.

So what is the secret to Al and Shirley Russ's strong family? "Good church affiliation" says Al Russ, and Shirley adds that strong Christian faith is also the key. These are some of the basic principles of traditional family values, and Shirley notes that a lack of fellowship with Jesus is part of the problem today. Or as A. W. Pink said back in 1954, "a nation is but the aggregate of its families, and unless there be good husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, there cannot possibly be good citizens. Therefore the present decay of home life and family discipline threaten the stability of our nation today far more severely than does any foreign hostility." The effects of the decay that A. W. Pink saw are sadly apparent today, and we are coming to a time when such degeneration will indeed threaten the very stability of our nation. The good news is that there still are many strong families today, and as we continue to build on the sacred and solid institution of family, we may see a generation that halts the moral decline, and institutes and upward spiral that lifts this nation to the heights that great men once dreamed of.