I wish to talk with you today about our youth, our homes, and our future.

May I first remind you that students of youthful trends and activities emphasize the fact that our juvenile problem is now more than ever an adult problem, and that the only way to solve it is to provide our youth with better parents. There can be no doubt that children learn most of their moral behavior within the family and that behavior patterns are fixed at an early age. To change them later in life is such a slow and difficult task that many consider it almost impossible. Hence, the only way to build good adults for the future is to provide children with better parents now.

In a recent address Mr. J. Edgar Hoover, the head of the F.B.I., expressed this thought: "Given discipline, young people will learn self-discipline; given training, they will learn to live useful lives. In almost every case, the failure to develop character is directly attributable to a lack of proper influence and guidance in the home."

Surveys and studies made in various parts of the United States indicate that 80 per cent of our delinquent children say that they had no real family life, and that their parents were too busy with other things to give them any guidance. Nearly all of these delinquents said that there was no religion in their homes, and that their parents set them a bad example.

Lack of Religion

Lack of religion is characteristic of delinquent families. It is interesting to note that a police report from one large American city showed that 84 per cent of the juvenile criminals in that city did not attend any church. A juvenile court judge in Michigan reports that last year, 91 per cent of the youngsters appearing in his court had no religious training.

Lack of faith among children generally reflects the attitude of their parents. If the parents have no religion, they can hardly teach it to their children. And yet, religion is our best deterrent to juvenile crime.

Mr. Hoover analyzes the problem in this way: "The basic cause of the present (juvenile delinquency) situation is that so many of our young people have no real sense of moral responsibility which comes from an intimate knowledge of God's teachings. The tragic void of God and Prayer in their lives weakens our homes and our Nation's welfare."

America seems to have forgotten that true religion is the very source of its freedom and strength, because nearly half the parents of this land appear to withhold religion from their children.

Does it shock you to learn that almost 50 per cent of our population belongs to no church at all?

Do you know the price which the irreligious have to pay for their rejection of God?

Antidote to Communism

It is a well-known fact that Communism is rooted in the irreligious. It is anti-religion and anti-Christ. Do we want Communism in America? When nearly half of our population is irreligious are you not frightened by the fact that Communism is based upon a rejection of religion? Living the Gospel of Christ is our strongest antidote to Communism.

Crime, which is increasing at an alarming rate in America, also is rooted in the irreligious. It too is anti-Christ, violates the Golden Rule which deals with our treatment of our fellowman, and which Christ taught during his earthly ministry  Matt. 7:12

Crime is selfish, brutal, and deceitful. Do we want criminals and gangsters to run our country? Is it within the range of possibility since so many of our people have practically banished all forms of religion from their lives, setting aside the very basis of character-building, honesty, and integrity?

Mr. Hoover has said that either faith in God must triumph in the United States, or we will be dominated by criminals and Communists.

Is being irreligious worth the price we must pay for it? Are ease, pleasure, and irresponsibility worth the price we must pay for an abandonment of good character?

Is there any real joy in wickedness, weakness, or carelessness? Is ignoring God the way to enduring happiness?

America may well remember that it is in Godless countries where people are slaves. It is in Godless countries where dictators reign, and where iron curtains shut out all freedom and opportunity for the average individual. In such countries worship of God is punished in many subtle ways because dictators know from past history that there is power and strength in religion, while it is their plan to keep their people weak and subdued.

In homes where parents are irreligious, the children grow up without God, without faith, or prayer, or the spiritual strength which builds good character.

Parents As Examples

In our love of pleasure and money-making, we too often neglect to set our children examples in good living, in dealing fairly and honestly with their fellows, in telling the truth, in doing unto others as they would be done by, in learning to respect law and order, in reading good books and seeing to it that their homes contain many of them; in looking on honest work as a duty and a privilege.

Many children now-a-days know but little about work, except that it is for the other fellow, and yet it is one of the first laws God ever gave to man.

Not one among us, if we gave it any thought, would purposely and with design nurture in the hearts of our children the seeds of failure and crime. Yet these seeds grow in a lack of faith in God, a rejection of church activity, a neglect of the simple habits which make parents and children a family, and which make a house a home.

We must learn to become better parents. We must build better homes. We can do this by showing our children the attention they deserve. We can provide them with the companionship they need, and set before them good examples in our own lives.

We can do many things together as a family. We can plan family recreation, and family work and responsibility from earliest childhood. Each child should have his own definite duties assigned to him, whether it be to help mother with the housework, or wash the car, or lend a hand with the yard work. Regularity of work responsibilities is vital to the development of children.

Truth and honesty should be held before them constantly. There can be no success without integrity. We rob our loved ones of their opportunities if we fail to prepare them for the advancement which can be made only upon the principles of good character.

Above all we can teach our children the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the foundation of good character. It is the way to success.

Live the Gospel

We can study the Gospel ourselves and live it. We can worship God in our homes. We can become active in our church and teach our children to do likewise.

Do you think that the children will resent it? Statistics show that 85 per cent of the young people of America hope their parents will give them leadership in religious and character-building matters. Delinquent children admit that there was no such training in their homes.

Then as parents, let us acknowledge that lack of leadership on our part in giving our children spiritual and character-building instruction may result in serious difficulty for them.

Let us be willing to face the fact that we really are the custodians and the guardians of our little ones, and that if we neglect that guardianship we do them irreparable harm.

We must not surrender our guardianship. Both the law of the land and the law of God make us the heads of our homes. Let us take the leadership there, assert our position and lead our children in love and kindness, but with firm and intelligent discipline, into the paths of right.

For the love of our children, for the sake of their future development, for their happiness and well being, let us restore family life and the true worship of God to our homes. Let us keep faith with our families. Their destiny is in our hands.