There is a point in the history of society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining "punishment" and "being supposed to punish" hurts it, arouses fear in it. "Is it not enough to render him undangerous? Why still punish? Punishing itself is terrible." With this question, herd morality, the morality of timidity, draws its ultimate consequence. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, first published in 1886

Usually right before the collapse. People think it can not happen because America is too big financially and militarily.

Ripped from the Headlines!

3,000 years of doing the same thing has gotten us the same results.

God is dead.
–Friedrich Nietzsche, 1882

Nietzsche is dead.
–God, 1900

Well, of course we'll be throwing out everything that came before us so no problemo.

Extreme wrote a song about it.

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
God is dead.
–Friedrich Nietzsche, 1882

Nietzsche is dead.
–God, 1900

ROFL… God will always get the last Word.

The trend described in the OP is happening everywhere. I see it at work in the "justice" system every day. Offenders get treated better than victims, sweet plea deals are the norm, and sentencing is a joke. Much criminal activity is being reclassified as a "mental health" issue, and the system is more concerned with coddling offenders than protecting the public. We're even seeing this ideology grow in our church (a small, traditionally very conservative, protestant congregation).

My wife is the Sunday school coordinator, and is having problems with some of the teachers not wanting to teach stories that involve God punishing people for sin to the kids. Apparently they can't resolve their idea of a loving God who desires that everyone come to repentance with a God who is also just and requires obedience.

We've also had people leave the church recently because they have rejected the idea that hell exists...a doctrine that has been pretty fundamental since the beginning of Christianity.

Modern culture doesn't want there to be consequences for anything. But without those consequences there would be no need for Christ's sacrifice, or our redemption...which is kinda the whole point of Christianity in the first place.