The moral standard in America has shifted so far off-center that those on the fringes have been pushed over the edge.

In a foolish attempt to make tolerance into a virtue, our nation has failed to teach kids to make sound judgments about right and wrong.

Leadership demands that a person discern the times. Those in positions of leadership in our day lack even a drop of discernment. This is because discernment requires an intimate knowledge of absolute moral truth. Instead, they respond with a knee-jerk reaction.

You cannot provide an amoral education without producing immoral students. It is time for business leaders and parents to demand that public education stop using schoolchildren for social engineering.

One of the top criteria for recruiting new business to any city is a sound educational system. One which not only teaches each student the three Rs, but which establishes a work ethic and instills respect for the absolute moral code.

Thus far, public education has served as the best advertisement for the private religious academy and for home schooling. Unfortunately, this leaves behind most of the next generation.

Leadership demands that the next generation be instructed in the only moral code that was written in stone by the finger of God (see "Stone Tablets" page 8). We must abandon moral relativism – "what’s right for you is not what’s right for me."

The leadership vacuum in America is evidenced by politicians, educators and media prognosticators who confuse the symptoms for the cause. It is leadership malpractice!

If a physician prescribed aspirin for fever (the symptoms), while letting the bacterial infection (the cause) go untreated, we would be shocked. And if, upon the condition growing worse, the physician simply prescribed extra-strength aspirin, we would be outraged!

There is only one man left whom politicos seek out for photo ops when they need a moral leader – Billy Graham. (Who will they phone after the Lord calls him home?)

Concerning the Columbine High School massacre, Billy Graham said, "the

problem is not guns - rather the hearts of people which need to be changed." Graham added, "only God can change our hearts."

John Tomlin, a parent of one of the victims, said, "The only system that has failed is that God is left out of everything." His wife Doreen said, "Schools are disintegrating, partly because prayer has been removed from them."

All the moral capital of America has been depleted. (A shortage of capital will quickly bankrupt any business.) Leadership demands that we reinvest in Biblical instruction for the next generation.

While Christians have been relegated to debating moral minutia, the entire foundation-stone of all ordered society has been excavated, chiseled away and blasted to powder.

The result? The once noble institutions of government, education, courts of justice – are crumbling upon the sifting sands beneath.

With each individual failure of self-government, personal liberties are lost by all. The answer is not found in placing further limits upon the individual freedoms of all Americans.

Rather, the answer is found in teaching and nurturing self-government, founded upon an absolute moral code. This must be accompanied by measured and certain accountability.

Resolve to stand in the gap of moral leadership. Resolve to walk and talk the truths which are written in stone. Resolve to discern the times through prayer and the study of God’s Word.

And resolve to lay again the foundation - stone by stone, precept by precept - applying the mortar of God’s grace.