"As individual responsibility for crimes and bad behaviors continues to be diluted and diminished in our society, we can expect a rise in antisocial behavior and crime".

 

Illegal Is Legal, Immoral Is Moral

The moral norm in American society has shifted, and not for the better.

E. Jeffrey Ludwig | May 24, 2026 www.americanthinker.com

The moral norm in American society has shifted during the years from 1910 to the present, but especially during the past 50 years.  The link between being a “good citizen” and a “moral person” has atrophied, and we find ourselves in a decline, where so-called “good citizens” are regularly engaged in behaviors that in earlier decades were considered immoral or illegal.  Bad behavior is now “not so bad,” and crimes are often believed to be merely “adjustment problems.”  This shift in cultural values and norms has divided the population to the point where the more moral people tend to be older and deem younger generations less than moral.

On this writer’s block, there are two houses that have LGBTQ flags on poles in their yards.  Another “gay” couple has the flag outside in June, the official month for “appreciation” of those relationships.  The flag announces for all to see the victory of Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015, where the SCOTUS legitimized homosexual “marriage” nationwide as constitutional.  The Court reached this decision even though plebiscites by 30 states had previously voted against attempting to redefine marriage — even including California, on two occasions.

A young man who lives on my block is in his twenties and conversed with me the other day while smoking a joint that was as big as a small blunt.  His eyes were glazed and his expression tired, which he attributed to the “joint.”  At the same time, he was sociable and even engaging as he related a recent video production where he had been employed.  For him, being high and having a conversation with a neighbor was a completely normal activity.  The thought that anyone might question his stability or goodness as a person would never cross his mind.

Prostitution has been largely decriminalized in New York City, in particular in the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn.  In Queens, there are Human Trafficking Intervention Courts, which were established more than 20 years ago in 2004 to “[treat] women arrested for prostitution as victims rather than criminals.”  The fact that worship of Ashteroth in the Holy Bible, involving prostitution invading the premises of worship in the temples, was repudiated by God does not even come into play when evaluating our laws.

We also are contending with millions of foreign nationals who were admitted illegally during President Joe Biden’s administration, whom Democrats defend against being rounded up and deported.  This expulsion of illegals is an affirmation of our legal system, which has set up rules for legal entry into the USA.  The rules were approved by our legislative system, but now and for the four years of the previous administration, those laws are being denied and repudiated by one of our two major parties.  The Democrats are doing what they can to defund the offices of government responsible for rounding up those illegals.  They are encouraging illegal behavior yet do not believe that a stigma is attached to that intention.

They are sentimentalizing immigration laws as though our already generous laws were overly strict and against the pro-immigration traditions of the USA.  Illegal entry by “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” is being propagandized as being more “moral” than obedience to the legitimately passed laws.

Also, our society has gone from a country honoring Ben Franklin’s saying, “neither a borrower nor a lender be,” to a society that is itself deeply in debt to the tune of trillions of dollars.  We are drowning in a credit-based marketplace where not only the government, but individuals and families are deeply in debt.  There are many companies that exist to negotiate “deals” for those debtors to reduce their obligations.  It seems incredible for our debt-ridden society to think there were prisons for debtors in England as recently as the 19th century.  In today’s world, if someone is drowning in debt, he will surely justify himself with the thought “that does not make me a bad person.”

A pastor friend of mine invited my wife and me to a service celebrating the second anniversary of a church he had established in Brooklyn, N.Y.  As part of the service, the youth choir made up of teenagers came forward to sing.  I was amazed to see one of the singers.  He was a student in one of my high school social studies classes, who was absent (cutting!) most school days.

The following Monday, he showed up for class.  I told him I was in the congregation when he was singing at the event on Friday night, and I asked him, “Are you a Christian?”  He nodded.  And I asked him, “Why are you absent most days from this class?”  He said nothing and then took his seat toward the rear of the room.  He continued throughout the lesson talking and laughing with two or three of his friends.  This was standard behavior for small groups in all classes at that chaotic high school.

He continued being truant most days and failed the class.  His conscience as a Christian was dead to the fact that he was in defiance of his obligation to himself, his family, and society by this lack of cooperation.

About a year and a half later, I learned that he had had an argument with someone in front of his apartment house who he thought was trying to steal his bike.  The person he was arguing with killed him.  I remembered his hardworking mother crying at one parent-teacher meeting as she spoke with me, and saying through her tears, “I don’t want my son to end up spending years behind bars!”

As he was dying, he named the one who stabbed him and was praying constantly. 

We also see increasing numbers of cases in the news of innocent victims, like Iryna Zarutska in North Carolina.  She was on a commuter train going home from work when suddenly she was stabbed to death by a maniac.  He was a felon with dozens of convictions who had been set free because he was perceived by various courts, social workers, and citizens as one of the victims of our “system” and not merely as a “victimizer” or “criminal.”  He is one of many whose crimes are diminished by various psychological and sociological premises.  Because they were poor or neglected or a member of a displaced or rejected people group, their crimes are mitigated.

As individual responsibility for crimes and bad behaviors continues to be diluted and diminished in our society, we can expect a rise in antisocial behavior and crime.  My student prayed intensely as he was dying.  But prayers for mercy, forgiveness, and restoration should be intense before we ever get to the point of death.  We need to pray for a lively conscience, and that our sense of righteousness and responsibility will be reinvigorated and restored.  Otherwise, we as a society will continue to drown in our soporific, watered down values.