Penna Dexter
On a recent trip to Greece, I learned that during the Athenian Golden Age, 449-431 BC, there emerged a fervent belief in the ability of man. 
Our tour leader, David Sparks explained the development of democracy in ancient Greece, which culminated in Athens taking power from the hands of a single ruler or aristocratic ruling class and redistributing that power to all male citizens regardless of social or economic status. “Each male citizen over eighteen was allowed participation in the Assembly, the legislative body that elected magistrates and created legislation.”
It’s hard to overstate the importance of this “shift from rule-by-the-few to rule-by-the-many.” This idea, democracy, is foundational to our government and culture. Sometimes our leaders forget that.
Nine years ago this week the U.S. Supreme Court rendered a landmark ruling that violates the very principles of democracy. 
In the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision, the Court struck down all state laws specifying that marriage is the union between one man and one woman, bringing legal same sex marriage to every state. 
When you get a bad decision from the Supreme Court, it’s worth reading the dissenting opinion. In this case each of the four dissenting justices wrote his own. All lamented the damage the ruling does to democracy. The dissenters agreed, the question in this case was not whether same-sex marriage is a good idea, but who should decide. It should not have been the Court, but the people and their elected legislators.
Chief Justice Roberts spoke of the sheer arrogance of the ruling, saying: 
“The Court invalidates the marriage laws of more than half the states and orders the transformation of a social institution that has formed the basis of human society for millennia.” He wondered: “Just who do we think we are?”
Since then, the Left has pulled out all the stops to force acceptance of same sex marriage into law and policy.

Kerby Anderson
The latest polls show a moral slide of generations. A good example can be found in George Barna’s American Worldview Inventory 2024. He concludes that “what Millennials began, Generation Z is accelerating.” This is a generational transformation of this country’s moral landscape.
Let’s begin at the top level and then work down to specific moral issues. The percentage of Americans who have a biblical worldview has been declining over five consecutive generations. The number of adults with a biblical worldview plummeted from 12 percent to 4 percent today.
A majority of adults accept lying, abortion, gay marriage, and consensual sexual intercourse between unmarried adults. This is due in large part because they reject the concept of absolute moral truth. And less than half of all adults embrace the Bible as their primary guide to morality.
Let’s look at some specific issues. A majority (54%) of Millennials say telling a lie is of minor consequence in order to protect your personal best interests or reputation. And six in ten of Gen Z also believe that is morally acceptable. Two-thirds (67%) of Millennials endorse abortion, and a slightly higher percentage (69%) of Gen Zs endorse abortion.
Two decades ago, two-thirds of Boomers did not support gay marriage. Today more than six in ten (61%) endorse two people of the same biological sex getting married. Those percentages are even higher for Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z. We also can find similar increasing percentages from one generation to another concerning premarital sex. This ranges from 59 percent for Boomers to 73 percent for Gen Z.
The first step back to a moral foundation is to make sure we teach biblical morality in our families and within the church.