Dear Marilyn
Thank you for
sharing your worldview with…well, the world.
Several years
on from your death and your worldview is the predominant worldview of our
society. Its long name is ‘hedonistic nihilism’.
So, you might be
wondering, how’s it going in 2014? It all sounded so promising.
Well Marilyn, I’m afraid it doesn’t seem to be going as well as you might have hoped. These are some stats I’ve come across just this week:
Well Marilyn, I’m afraid it doesn’t seem to be going as well as you might have hoped. These are some stats I’ve come across just this week:
Alcohol
For all the fun people have with alcohol, they’re
waking up with more than a headache.
There are an estimated 1.6 million people dependent on alcohol in England1
Deaths from liver disease in England have reached record levels,
rising by 20% in a decade2, with alcoholic liver disease accounting
for over a third (37%) of all liver disease deaths3.
STIs
For all the
amazing nights of passion and self-indulgent flings, the consequences of sexual
freedom have been painful.
Rates of sexually transmitted diseases are also rising. In 2009 there
were 12,000 more cases than the previous year, when 470,701 cases were
reported. If people remained faithful to one partner STIs including HIV would almost
disappear, cervical cancer would be eradicated and many other morbidities would
reduce including preterm labour and miscarriage.
Even emergency
contraception, which means that even if you forget your condom you can terminate
your pregnancy early, has its problems. A recent study in the states showed
that emergency contraception increases the risk of STIs and does not decrease
pregnancy or abortion rates4.
Abortion
Free-love and consequence-free
sex have led to a rise in abortions which even many of its opponents find
stomach-churning.
Get this.
Since 1967 in the
UK alone close to eight million preborn babies have had their lives taken by
doctors illegally (as 98% of all abortions in Britain (about 196,000 per year)
are authorised under Ground C and there is no evidence that continuing a
pregnancy is more harmful to maternal mental health than the risk of an
abortion5).
Abortion has been linked with a number of physical
and psychological consequences for women including abortion increasing a
woman's risk of future miscarriages by 60%6 and 31% of women
having abortions report suffering physical health complications7.
Mental Health and Happiness
We are not as happy as your statement makes out.
1 in 4 people will experience some kind of mental health problem in the course of a year8.
1 in 4 people will experience some kind of mental health problem in the course of a year8.
Self-harm statistics for the UK show one of the highest rates in Europe: 400 per 100,000
population9.
About 10% of children have a mental
health problem at any one time10.
In a recent
survey a third of people over 65 admitted feeling lonely some, most or all of the time11.
Family breakdown
Nearly 1
million women experience at least one incident of domestic abuse each year & 750,000 children/year
witness it12.
Divorce is a tremendously sad thing for most
families, and circumstances are often tragic. Unfortunately a society which
values individual self-gratification over commitment and self-sacrifice (which
are seen as old-fashioned, restrictive values!) will have a higher rate of
family breakdown and the concomitant problems such as children having more
chance of (among many others) being in poverty and poor housing, having depressive symptoms,
behavioural problems and performing less well in school13.
We are losing the belief that we look after our parents
in their old age. Grandparents are sometimes abandoned to some care home; we let
the government take care of it, we rarely visit them. Instead we live
autonomous, selfish lives doing ‘exactly what we want’. And then we feel low,
we self-medicate, we go for counselling, we talk about our hurt, and we wonder
why it’s not working.
So what's happened?
Despite all this, most
will protest that it’s going marvellously. But then I guess when you reject the
alternative, you have nowhere to go.
Marilyn, it seems obvious
that what you upheld as the ideal, hedonistic nihilism, isn’t working and it
isn’t as much fun as we perhaps thought.
What is missing is the sense of accountability, responsibility and empathy that has its roots in a Christian world view. A worldview
which says that there is a
God, an ultimate lawgiver.
A God who made us, who knows what’s best for us, and who will judge us for how we have responded to him. A God who calls himself a Father who wants the best for his kids. Who sits them down and says, you know what kids, I love you. I want the best for you. Don’t go beyond that garden fence, there’s a busy road outside and it’s dangerous and you will be happiest playing in the garden.That doesn't sound like a restrictive, fun-sapping, control-obsessed self-centred father
A God who made us, who knows what’s best for us, and who will judge us for how we have responded to him. A God who calls himself a Father who wants the best for his kids. Who sits them down and says, you know what kids, I love you. I want the best for you. Don’t go beyond that garden fence, there’s a busy road outside and it’s dangerous and you will be happiest playing in the garden.That doesn't sound like a restrictive, fun-sapping, control-obsessed self-centred father
A better way
Marilyn, I didn't know you or all your circumstances, but if you were here today, this is
what I would say to you:
The best life does last forever. What is best for us and our happiness is not always what we want right now. Instead it is finding our true purpose for living, to know our creator and to live life under his wise rule that brings true satisfaction.
1 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, 2007,
Health and Social Care Information Centre http://www.hscic.gov.uk/pubs/psychiatricmorbidity07
(online accessed 21/1/14)
2 Davies, S.C. (2012) Annual Report of the
Chief Medical Officer, Volume One, 2011, On the State of the Public’s Health London,
Department of Health (online accessed 21/1/14)
3 National End of Life Care Intelligence Network
(2012) Deaths from liver disease: Implication of end of life care in England
(online accessed 21/1/14)
4 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1465-7295.2012.00498.x/full (online accessed 21/1/14)
5 http://www.nccmh.org.uk/publications_SR_abortion_in_MH.html
(online accessed
21/1/14)
6 N. Maconochie, P. Doyle, S. Prior, R. Simmons,
“Risk factors for first trimester miscarriage—results from a
UK-population-based case–control study,” BJOG: An International Journal of
Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Dec 2006 (online accessed
21/1/14)
7 Rue et. al., “Induced
abortion and traumatic stress: A preliminary comparison of American and Russian
women,” Medical Science Monitor 10(10): SR5-16, 2004. (online accessed 21/1/14)
8 http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/help-information/mental-health-statistics/UK-worldwide/(online accessed 21/1/14)
9 http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/help-information/mental-health-statistics/self-harm/
(online accessed 21/1/14)
10 http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/help-information/mental-health-statistics/children-young-people/
(online accessed 21/1/14)
11 http://www.ageuk.org.uk/Documents/EN-GB/Factsheets/Later_Life_UK_factsheet.pdf?dtrk=true
(online accessed 21/1/14)
12 http://www.cps.gov.uk/news/articles/domestic_violence_-_the_facts_the_issues_the_future/
(online accessed 21/1/14)
13 http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/divorce-and-separation-outcomes-children
(online accessed 21/1/14)
No comments:
Post a Comment