[Rick Shabi] Do you remember this guy? He was the subject of quite a bit of controversy a few weeks ago. Harrison Butker is his name. He's a famous kicker on one of the NFL's best teams, but it wasn't his athletic ability that made the headlines. It was actually a speech that he gave at a university commencement that brought him the harshest of national notoriety. Here's a bit of what he said.

[Harrison Butker] I want to speak directly to you briefly because I think it is you, the women, who have had the most diabolical lives told to you. Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world. I can tell you that my beautiful wife, Isabel, would be the first to say that her life truly started when she began living her vocation as a wife and as a mother. All of my success is made possible because a girl I met in band class back in middle school would convert to the faith, become my wife, and embrace one of the most important titles of all, homemaker.

[Rick Shabi] So do you have an issue with what he had to say? Did it offend you? Did it make you angry? Did it move you to take action to try to get him kicked off of his team? Well, disturbingly, and I mean that word, disturbingly, that's the reaction he got from much of the media, from many of the fans of his football team and many of the city leaders. We understand that even some nuns in the Catholic Church where he attends were upset with him because his words would cause division.

If someone stands up for family, morals, and traditional long-standing values that have for generations and then is ridiculed and threatened, it's time we take notice and ask what is going on. Last week, I read a verse in the Bible that is brought to mind again as I think about this incident. In Isaiah 59:15, it says, "Truth is fallen in the street, and equity," or integrity, "cannot enter. So truth fails, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey."

There's a movement that should concern you going on in America the past few years. There's a rush to lawlessness and an abandonment of societal morals and decency, and along with it is a failure to protect our children from wickedness and a demented future. Who would have ever thought that our schools would rush to sexualize our children, that parents would yield to their children and allow their natural gender to be altered, or that states would actually enact laws that would take away parental rights? And anything-goes mentality toward sex, casting away all restraint, the dismantling of moral values seems to be championed in this society, and that is not good. Having children and parenthood are being talked about these days as being bad and unacceptable, not a good lifestyle.

Yet history shows that every successful society is based on strong family structures and values, and most parents will tell you that their children bring so much joy and purpose to their lives. I don't think most Americans agree with what's going on. Certainly, the woke culture of today that looks to rewrite history, destroy the nuclear family, and change society into a place where no one would want to live isn't supported by the majority. Yet they scream and holler, they attack in war against family and children, looking to destroy them, and only a few people dare to stand up against the vile things that are said and done. Most just stand by and watch as people's careers and lives are destroyed by those who hate them just because they choose to live their lives in a way that those others are uncomfortable with.

Ever notice how some espouse love and tolerance and expect their lifestyles to not only be accepted but also celebrated, yet that's not what they stand for at all in their personal lives? They expect you to accept and celebrate them and their choices, but they don't give the same courtesy to you. If you don't agree with them and if you speak out about it, they want to persecute you, destroy your life, and maybe even kill you. That isn't democracy. That isn't progress. That's backward. That's ancient. That's regressing into a darkness that describes the horrendous, atrocious days of the Middle Ages when people could do nothing without the consent of the king and those who lorded over them. Those days were dark. You wouldn't want to live there.

But Christ brought light to the world. He exposed the darkness, and things changed for the better with His teaching and truth. Living the truth of God always brings light, joy, and peace. The way our society is going, there are those who seem to be in a rush to extinguish that light and throw us back into a godless and awful existence that, again, none of us would want to live in. Our nation seems to be following an evil spirit, the spirit of Satan, and that only leads to hate, violence, destruction, and death. There is no love or future in that way.

There's a verse that pertains to our society today. We find it in Isaiah 5:20. There God says, "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil, who put darkness for light, and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter." Those who espouse these evil ideas, calling them good, are turning the world upside down in a very bad way. They try to win you over, forcing you through violence and threats to accept their ways. Christ says of them, like He said of those in His time, who rebelled against Him and the light he brought, He said to the Pharisees, "You travel land and sea to win one proselyte and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves." Don't listen to them. Stand up for morals, decency, and truth. Stand up for what is good. Shame on you churches who bow to this new morality. Shame on you who call yourselves Christians and yield to the lawlessness of this age and change the clear teachings of Jesus Christ to words and ideas He never said and never thought.

Harrison Butker, good for you to stand up for the biblical values that you believe. We need more people to stand in the gap and build a wall to preserve truth, decency, integrity, and civility. Again, in the Bible, in Ezekiel 22:30, God speaks to that as well. It says, "So I," God, "so I sought for a man among them who would make a wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land. I sought for that that I should not destroy it, but I found no one."

America, listen, don't cave into those who would turn you away from sound morals and who would lead you to hate, perversity, and destruction. Protect your children from the evil that society is trying to teach them. It's time to turn to God and Jesus Christ and His Word. If you say you believe in Christ, then learn what He actually said and the way to peace, happiness, and the life that He brought. That means you need to open your Bible and read exactly what He said. Don't rely on someone else. Let God speak to you. Read His Word and compare it to what you've been taught or led to believe He said.

America is on a dangerous path. Following a path that attacks family, children, and morality leads to destruction and death. Again, in God's Word, Proverbs 14:12, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." America, you don't need to die. There is hope, but you won't find it in the world around you. Find it in God. Turn to Him and away from the ways of this world. God said it in His own words in Ezekiel 18:30-32. There it says, "'Repent and turn from all your transgressions so that iniquity will not be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit, for why would you die? Therefore, turn to God and live.'" Learn more at ucg.org.