Manners are getting worse? – Dr. Paul J. Dean
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080428/od_nm/rude_dc

LONDON (Reuters) - Britons are ruder than they were a decade ago, according to a survey on Monday that showed almost three-quarters of people think manners should be taught at school. A third believe bad manners are the catalyst for much of the anti-social behavior in Britain, the ITV poll found. Experts interviewed by the network blamed a lack of respect for authority… [The head of the Campaign for Courtesy] commented, “But I think things should go back, not to the old deference, not to groveling, not to any of that but just to feeling respect, because I think that would make everyone's life more pleasant.”

Commentary

Manners are getting worse. This trend is no doubt due to a number of factors cited in the article including the fact that parents are not teaching manners to their children, there is a lack of discipline in the home, and there has been a breakdown of society related to a prolific lack of respect for authority.

Of course, the real problem is much deeper. In one sense, these dynamics could be considered symptoms even as a lack of manners is such. It is the erosion of the Christian Worldview within contemporary culture that lies at the root of these symptoms. Authority is something that God has established and His authority is ultimate. If there is a rejection or a marginalization of God in the larger society, and there is, then there will be a rejection of authority. There is a necessary connection from the one to the other. Once authority is rejected, then parental authority is jettisoned. The compulsion to teach children the need to respect authority is thrown overboard. The new norm is expressed in an oft seen T-shirt slogan, “Reject Authority!” When God is marginalized, other worldviews take hold. Regardless of which one holds sway at any given time, truth becomes relative and absolute authority is abandoned.

Put another way, a lack of manners is the result of sin and its pervasive influence. There is a trickle-down effect as it were. By way of contrast, good manners flow from a Christian Worldview. There is a trickle-down effect on that side of the equation as well. The loss of all things decent and good stems from the loss of a Christian Worldview in a culture. Even when pagans call for manners, they do so as a result of one of two things: either the influence of a Christian Worldview upon themselves some how some time, or, the influence of the knowledge of God within them that they continue to suppress but have by virtue of common grace.

The solution of course is ever the same. We must be salt and light in the context in which God has placed us. And, we have a great hope. If sinners are saved, authority and indeed manners will come to be respected rather than rejected. Hence, the answer is not education but evangelization. Only then it will be more pleasant for all of us.