Richard Ho Lung - DIARY OF A GHETTO PRIESTGUN-SHOOTING IN schools, wounding, street fights, domestic violence, tear-filled quarrels and shouting, indiscipline and alarmingly low grades in high schools, and at the same time a call to withhold punishment by beating, suspensions and expulsions at schools, a plea to legalise ganja, prostitution, abortion and even euthanasia, tell of a very confused age, and a lack of moral and spiritual leadership.
We learn in our religious life that one of the deadly sins - pride has as one of its expressions a love of human respect, popularity, being called a 'nice person'. Therefore, to go against the current trends would be tantamount to being a 'bad guy' or old-fashioned.
All of us, even adults, are giving in to the call to being modern and the conviction that we do not understand today's youth and the world around us. We know, for instance, that most TV shows and ads, most newspapers, radio music and movies present perverse and immoral material. While the media, in general, is crying out for more freedom of the press, on the other hand, it presents lewd people as the most to be admired, and outrageous behaviour as being courageous.
The well-behaved and respectful youngster or adult is not at all or very little presented as beautiful, valorous, and of the utmost importance in our modern world and for the creation of a good and civilised society.
MEDIA PRIME PHILOSOPHER
The media, let us face it, is the prime philosopher or teacher in our modern times. And, it has not proven to be responsible and the perpetrator of constructive values for the world to come. A wise young man or woman in our times, if daring enough to go against the flow, would turn off the TV, the radio, and never look at the papers, or, would only look at selections that are of value, or rather chosen and carefully selected portions of the media.
I personally wish there were prophetic figures or voices within the media which would take up the mantle of being a corrector so that the media would become a proclaimer of the good news, rather than the conveyor of the outrageous, the wicked, and the rebellious. Proverbs 3:11-12 tells us that the true love of a parent for his child is discipline, and that God's love is marked by discipline. In disciplining us, parents treat us as true sons and daughters. As Hebrews 12:8 says, "If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not true sons and daughters."
Is flogging really evil in itself? It certainly is, if it is extreme, but isn't it valuable in disciplining a child? Just about every adult my age, give or take a decade, got the strap at home or at school and it did them good.
Moreover, our parents punished us for bad behaviour for staying out late at night or not doing our homework (in those days there was no television and little interest in the newspapers and its sensationalising of outrageous behaviour and actions).
The punishment from our parents meant: no supper or no games next day, or, washing dishes for the next week after supper. That discipline led to a more stable family life, a sense of responsibility and an appreciation of right and wrong. Today, the only criteria for behaviour is to be exciting, bad, mad, crazy, bold, or an ultra-talented individual who has no care of what others think or do. As long as we are eye-catching as a personality we've done what is right. Parents of our times do not know what to do and have become undisciplined themselves.
WEDDED TO DISCIPLINE
That person who is disciplined will some day say thanks, though not right away, for others having been courageous in exercising discipline. Most of us, I believe, give thanks to the teachers, parents and pastors for having instructed us. Whether we obeyed or not, we know what was said to be true and good for us. Wedded to discipline is a sense of justice; in a wise parent, it is mitigated by a sense of mercy. Learning when to bind and when to loose is very important. Being loving yet strict, being gentle yet firm, are opposites that must combine in shaping our children, indeed our people, and all those left in our charge. When to do this or that must be sought in the sight of God, and is taught to us by the Holy Spirit.
One of the least disciplined areas of life today is politics. Politics tends to seek popularity at all cost, even when it results in bringing about an undisciplined nation. The point of politics today, which has led to a leaderless world, is to win voters by pleasing even the least common denominator, as long as it be a crowd. Whereas a leader, a true leader, does what is right even to the point of being hated even stoned to death. Isn't this the cross we must bear, to bring about a new civilisation in Jamaica and in our world?
Father Ho Lung is founder and leader of the Missionaries of the Poor.
