What in the world is wrong with society today? I’ve heard that question asked several times this week. People were shocked when they heard that an Australian baseball player and college student in Oklahoma had been shot by 3 teenagers.

The news media quickly laid the blame for this incident at the feet of the absent parents and the socio-economic conditions in which the boys lived.

I disagree. I think the problem runs much deeper, and it is a result of a subtle change in the way society views truth.

We have moved from a concept that there are absolute truths that remain unchanged; that truth is not created; it is discovered. A large number of people now espouse the idea that truth is not discovered—it is created.

The view of truth that is permeating our society is called relativism, and it mistakenly believes several things:
• Truth is whatever you belief
• Self is the standard of truth
• Truth is not determined by an outside reality

If there is no objective truth, to what then do we appeal when there is a clash of paradigms? The murder of the young baseball player is an example of cultural values that are void of absolute truth. The mentality that prevailed was: What is yours is now mine and your life has no value when it runs contrary to my selfish desires.

Call me old-fashioned, but I still believe in the righteous truth of God’s Word: Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people (Proverbs 14:34).