The Depravity of Our Culture: Limbaugh's Right and Wrong

Rush Limbaugh makes some interesting observations about the depravity of our culture. Here are some excerpts:

Quote:

 I watch Ray Donovan but I've not told anybody, because you know what?  I thought that if you knew that I watched Ray Donovan that you would think that my own morality had hit the sewer....

And I was shocked.  I really was.  I probably shouldn't admit this.  I was shocked to learn of the people that I think would be not just offended, but angry about such filth, loving it, which is all good.  I mean, the surprises learning that you're wrong, those are all good things to happen.  But some of the people that I can't believe not only watch it, but like it, are the same kind of people in the past that have told me that TV needs to be cleaned up, it's going to hell in a handbasket, all the sex and violence and crude language.  Now I guess everybody has given up.  We've defined decency down now that we look at the entertainment value of it, whether the acting is good, the writing is good, the story is good, no matter the depravity, we'll watch it....

[Editor's note: Rush then talks about Derek Medina who shot his wife in Florida and then bragged on Facebook about being in the news.]

Well, the reason... I don't know this guy and it's just one example, but look at what this social media... Look, I'm really running a risk talking about this, because I'm going to come across as an old fuddy-duddy and that's not the point.  (sigh) It's all about wanting a great country.  It's all about wanting this country to stay great with plenty of prosperity and opportunity.

And every time I see something like this, I think that there's no putting the genie back in the bottle.  I just think it's unfortunate there aren't any standards here. We have so many people so obsessed with becoming famous that they're engaging in activity that ruins their lives in this quest.  We have people who are destroying their own humanity.  Now some would say, "Rush, don't worry about it.  These same kind of people have always existed. They just destroyed themselves in different ways before this social media hit."

That may be. 

It may be. 

I just think that there's a rising level of ignorance, stupidity, surfaceness, shallowness, self-absorption, and all of these things that... People are pursuing happiness, but they're pursuing things that will never, ever make them happy, and they don't know that.  They've got a distorted view of what will make them happy, what happiness is, and it's based on what they see on television. That just makes me sad at the end of the day and it makes me wish there was something I could do about it, and, of course, there isn't....

 My brother, David, sent me a note.  He says, "You're right about one thing, wrong about the other.  We're experiencing no greater depravity today than ever.  It's the same, because human nature is human nature."

Then he said, "I think there is a striking difference now in America, in that our politically correctly liberal culture is condoning and glorifying all of this and calling it 'tolerance,'" and you know, that is right.  That sort of rings the bell for me.  That's what it is.  It's not that it's happening; it's always happened, this kind of depravity.  "There's nothing new since Genesis." You've heard the old thing.  What is bothering me is that it doesn't bother as many people. 

It's Moynihan, the "defining deviancy down" business, and we end up condoning this stuff -- and if we don't condone it, we glorify it, because the left wants to take every one of these acts of depravity and use it to advance their agenda or an element of their agenda, such as guns or what have you.  "We have to understand the rage," it's said. "We have to be tolerant of people who have come from unfortunate, low-class socioeconomic circumstances."

It's called tolerance and acceptance and understanding, rather than some of this stuff being condemned and dealt with, and that's what's disturbing.  Then you add to it that the secular left, the people that traffic and love immortality, love throwing standards out the window; they don't want any standards. That's exactly what it is.  It is the lack of being shocked, lack of revulsion, and even the laughing at and acceptance of this stuff.  

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End quote.

While Limbaugh's concerns about depravity are right, he's wrong, as is his brother to this extent: while total depravity is the result of the Fall when Adam and Eve sinned against God (Genesis 3), the days will grow darker indeed. What he's so shocked at, that those more "conservative" folks who were against the filth on tv, etc., is really the hypocrisy of such people. 

Romans 1-2 show this: people know right from wrong because God placed it in their conscience. Everyone knows that murder is wrong; that adultery is wrong; that homosexuality is wrong. But by refusing to acknowledge God and His Word, their hard hearts become hardened even still, as God removes His hand off their hearts and minds. 

Rom 1:28  And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, 

Rom 1:29  being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 

Rom 1:30  slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 

Rom 1:31  without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 

Rom 1:32  and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. 

2Ti 3:1  But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.
2Ti 3:2  For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
2Ti 3:3  unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,
2Ti 3:4  treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
2Ti 3:5  holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. 

Mat 24:5  "For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will mislead many. 

Mat 24:6  "You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. 

Mat 24:7  "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. 

Mat 24:8  "But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs. 

Mat 24:9  "Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. 

Mat 24:10  "At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. 

Mat 24:11  "Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. 

Mat 24:12  "Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold.

And then there is also Revelation.

For info about when God judges a nation by abandoning it, go here.