THE STATE OF THE UNION SPEECH

"If a society is to preserve its stability and a degree of continuity, it must know how to keep its adolescents from imposing their tastes, attitudes, values, and fantasies on everyday life." (Eric Hoffer, 1973)

Statistics show a discouraging picture:: More adults, eighteen to forty-nine, watch the Cartoon Network than watch CNN. (I know, you're thinking, "Maybe that's a good thing," but you get the point.)

Readers as old as twenty-five are buying young adult  fiction written specially for teens. The average video gamester was eighteen in 1990; as of 2003 he was getting close to thirty. I was recently at a gathering in which the adults were visiting with each other around the table in a home, yet one thirty-something was in the den playing a video game. One study has shown that the transition into adulthood doesn't end until thirty-four.(!)

POLITICS ASIDE

Although it's tough to put politics aside as politicized as our society has become, let's forget it  for a few minutes and discuss the recent State of the Union Address by President Trump. (Not the speech itself; I'll leave that to those with more expertise than I.) What I was interested in was the reaction of many of the members of Congress seated in the hallowed chamber.

It was as if the chamber for the deliberation of the laws of the Republic had become a romper room.* Seeing the behavior of some of the members of Congress during the speech was as if some maniacal hypnotist had entranced them by saying, "When I snap my fingers, you'll become children."

While the President of the United States spoke, adults became puerile. They toyed with their phones, they pouted by scowling, frowning, grimacing, glaring, or just sitting staring straight ahead with zombie eyes, making sure the cameras recorded their disrespect. They wanted the millions watching to see their antics. They were actually proud of themselves.

RESPECT?

While someone is speaking to you, is it respectful to toy with your phone, to pout, or to suddenly leave as one did? Children do it all the time because that's what children do to get their way. But adults are expected to do what Paul said he did, "When I became a man, I put away childish things," like childish behavior, for example.

TWO MEN IN WWII

There was a TV series portraying a platoon of soldiers fighting their way through Europe in WWII. One of the officers was inept, and if allowed to continue leading the group, his superior officers realized that he was going to get his men killed. He was that bad.

There was man in the platoon who was a true leader, so they promoted him to become the leader and demoted the inept soldier to be involved in another area in which he wouldn't be leading men into combat. His ego took a bruising. He was miffed.

Later in the series, the two crossed paths. As they did, the demoted soldier walked past the one who'd taken his place, and as he did, he didn't salute. The man who was now the leader called to him, stating the military protocol, "You salute the rank, not the man." Grudgingly, the soldier saluted, respecting the rank even if he, because of his still-aching ego, couldn't salute the man.

If that protocol were not in place, there would be chaos in the military. No matter the disagreement, no matter the ego, one should show respect for the rank even if he can't show respect to the man.

IT'S ALL OVER THE PLACE

The virus of perpetual childhood hasn't effected only the Congress; it's all over the place:

This report concerning the evening of November 8, 2016: "The Democratic presidential nominee, . . . [upon realizing she was going to lose the election] began shouting profanities, banging tables, and turning objects not nailed down into projectiles.

“Sources reported that on that Tuesday night, after Hillary realized she had lost, she went into a rage,” R. Emmett Tyrrell said, 'Secret Service officers told at least one source that she began yelling, screaming obscenities, and pounding furniture. She picked up objects and threw them at attendants and staff. She was in an uncontrollable rage.'” (Would it have been facetious for someone to advise, "Come on, take it like a man.")

Then in the general population, Mrs. Clinton's supporters, upon learning that defeat had been snatched from the jaws of victory, went ballistic--celebrities cryied on TV and went  on obscenity-laced tirades.

Rank and file Clinton supporters took to the streets, forming mobs that burned the American flag, torched buildings, and assaulted supporters of the winning candidate. Countless numbers got on YouTube and started screaming uncontrollably into the camera. Where were the adults to tell them, "Stop it!"

After that, someone infant began a petition which got over four million signatures, demanding the result of the election be reversed. That's what children do--"If I can't win, change the rules so I can." The-let's-change-the rules-so-we-can-win idea went the extreme of calling for a constitutional amendment to abolish the electoral college.

A GATHERING OF REALTORS

I was invited to speak to a realtors' association meeting and I was going to use the opportunity to present the gospel during my talk.The realtor who invited me had a word of warning before the meeting, although he had no idea what I was going to say. He told me, "We have one man in our group, who, if he's displeased with what our speaker of the month says, he'll stand up, turn his chair around, and sit with his back to you." This was in the days before the cell phone, so that tool wasn't available for him to show his disrespect of someone he didn't even know.

What he was actually telling me was, "We have an immature child in our group. He'll pout if he's displeased and will want everyone to know he's upset. So he'll pull his usual infantile stunt." Evidently he had done so in the past and kept doing it because the group kept letting him get get away with it, instead of giving him a much-needed lesson in courtesy.

Noel Coward once asked, "What's going to happen to the children when there are no grown-ups?"Good question. We're getting there, don't you think?

Paul wrote to the Corinthians, telling some of them, "Grow up!" They were acting like babies and it was high time they started acting like spiritual adults. We've seen people leave good churches because they didn't get their way, so like a child, they took their ball and went home, slamming doors as they left because everyone must know that they're upset.

One pouter decided not to slam the auditorium doors; instead this infant began to throw the hymnals out of the racks in the pews. In way too many congregations, various members wear invisible signs around their necks all beginning with the words, "I want ___________." And if they don't get it, they'll start disrupting everything they can. Puerile. What a testimony!

WORDS THAT CHILL

Let's go back to the behavior at The State of the Union speech. There's a chilling verse in the Old Testament where God told Israel through Isaiah the prophet that He was going to discipline them and that discipline would be, "I will make mere lads their princes, And capricious children will rule over them,"

Sound familiar? 

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*the generic name for a room for children