In his very best C-SPAN, House debate voice, Bill Deal began:
"Well, son, you made two errors today, didn't you. Let's review them to be certain you will learn from them.
"First, you shouldn't have been caught talking in class, right?"
"Right!", Johnny answered. "I shouldn't have talked in class."
"Not quite son. Your mistake was getting caught talking in class. If you hadn't been caught talking in class, you wouldn't have been made to stay after class, right?"
"Right, Dad!"
"OK, then what was the second thing you did wrong today?"
"I shouldn't have taken the teacher's money, right?"
"Close, but no cigar, John. Once again, your mistake was admitting to taking the money. Son, the first two things you learn in politics is that you do everything you can to keep from getting caught in a bad situation and, second, when someone accuses you of something, deny it! Never admit to anything, John--never!"
Mrs. Deal slumped against the wall as she heard the "fatherly advice" her husband had just given her son!
"OK, Dad."
"Now run along to bed. I have some House Post Office paperwork to do tonight."
"G'night Dad. And thanks!"

Crazy for a father to give that sort of "advice" to his ten year old son? In a perverse way, maybe Bill Deal was simply being honest about the way today's real world works. And perhaps Mrs. Deal's reaction to her husband's words were an anachronistic manifestation of a system of ethics now dead--a vestige of the morality of some bygone era.
America has just come through a period (some would argue that we are still mired in it) notorious for such slogans as "If it feels good, do it!" and " you only go around once, so get all the gusto!" That generation, the generation of immediate gratification, has honed hedonism into an art form. Those same folks are now at the very center of power in America. That probably explains why much of modern, sophisticated America rejects anything not of the here and now. Years ago TV's Reverend Ike coined a phrase which covers it very neatly: "No pie in the sky by and by". For many, God is not of the here and now. We see no need for Him, and easily forget, Him!
In an America hell bent on the pursuit of personal comfort and affluence does "ethics" still mean a system or code of morals of a particular person or society, or does it now stand for Every Thing Humanistic Is Considered Satisfactory?
And in an America on the eve of the 21st century, does "moral" mean the capacity to differentiate between right and wrong under God's Law, or does it now stand for "Man Outside the Rule of an Awesome and Loving Sovereign"?
Some of us know the answers to those questions now. The rest may have to wait until Judgment Day!

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