Heaven . . . We've Had a Problem Here
There is a story of a twelve-year-old boy who wrote the Library of Congress requesting two books. He wanted one book on space travel, and another on sane living. The boy concluded his letter by saying, “If you can’t send both books, send the one on space travel ‘cause I’m more interested in that.”
Most of us would agree that it seems normal for a twelve-year-old boy to be “more interested” in space travel than in a topic like “sane living.” However, surely we should also recognize it to be the case that when many U. S. mental health groups are describing what they call “a national emergency in child and adolescent mental health,” it is not normal! In addressing this problem, one source describes the situation and the foundational cause of it in the following:
“[H]umans are born with an innate capacity for spirituality. . . . From K-12 through college, the disintegration of spirituality . . . has put youth in the United States at risk for the mental health epidemic of depression, anxiety, addiction, and suicide. . . . The historical grounding of the U. S. educational system supported the deep spiritual core, in both independent [private] and public schools. . . . [A] spiritual connection . . . disintegrated and [was] removed from the daily public square. . . . Today, we see . . . consequence of this pivot in culture and attenuation [weakening] of spiritual support. Youth in the United States face elevated risk in the form of suicide, addiction, and mental illness” (berkleycenter.georgetown.edu).
There are at least four basic institutions implied in the above that are in part responsible for what is happening among American youth. They include the home, the state, the school, the church, and other institutions to varying degrees. The foundational cause of the basic problem (i.e., “the disintegration of [true] spirituality”) has affected all of these institutions. It is the weakening of the awareness of the one true God in the mind, and it manifests itself in how one lives daily. In an interview in May 1963, C. S. Lewis called it “a culture that has lost its faith . . . spiritual collapse” and it is followed by “moral collapse” (God in the Dock, 265; cf. Romans 1:18-32). Sad and tragic as it is, the United States is presently experiencing the collapse of both the spiritual and the moral. They go hand in hand. The adults lead the way. The children follow. Both pay a terrible price. If not corrected, the nation will fall.
In a 2023 book, Signals of Transcendence, Os Guinness says, “For its spirit to grow, a child needs what is constant . . . something that does not fail . . . rock-solid grounds for trusting in the ultimate goodness of life and existence, despite the horror and sorrow of the immediate situation. The final reality behind the universe is God . . .” (26, 33).
Borrowing again from the image of space travel, we note what C. S. Lewis thought about wide-spread space travel when asked in the above-cited interview. His reply: “I can’t bear to think of it. But if we on earth were to get right with God . . . find ourselves spiritually awakened. . . . That is quite a different matter” (267). The seeds from which much of what we are reaping today as problems in America were sown the very year of 1963. Some of us recall the failed moon mission of Apollo 13 launched seven years later (April 11, 1970), and those memorable words, “Houston . . . we’ve had a problem here.”
Neither Houston, nor any other American city, is the answer to our loss of true spirituality today. “But there is a God in Heaven” (Daniel 2:28) revealed in creation and in the Bible, through His Son Jesus Christ, who is the answer!
Charles C. Pugh III
Executive Director