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My God and My Neighbor is a “Bible talk show” that looks at religious issues, Christian living and world events in light of the Word of God to give hope. This podcast is a ministry of Tennessee Bible College. TBC offers a bachelor's in Bible studies, a master of theology, and a doctorate of theology in apologetics and Christian evidences. TBC also provides Christian books, audio recordings on the Bible, and free Bible courses in English and Spanish. Tune in to My God and My Neighbor to experience the educational content that TBC has been delivering for nearly five decades!
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Kerry Duke: Hi, I'm Kerry Duke, host of My God and My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee Bible College, where we see the Bible as not just another book, but the Book. Join us in a study of the inspired Word to strengthen your faith and to share what you've learned with others.
In Ecclesiastes chapter 1 verse 9, the Bible says, “The thing that has been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done, and there is no new thing under the sun.”
How true that is of the 1980s! This was a time of challenge. It was a period of great change. It was also a time of trouble. As with any other decade or any year as far as that's concerned, the Bible says in Job chapter 14, verse one “man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble” and the decade of the 1980s had its own memorable, probably not unique, but memorable troubles and problems.
For instance, in 1981, there was an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan. We also remember the 1980s because of the Beirut bombing in 1983. As a result of that attack, 241 U. S. Marines lost their lives. So this was, in a real sense, the beginning of Muslim suicide attacks on American citizens. The movement or group called the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for this attack.
We also remember the 1980s because of a man-made disaster called Chernobyl in 1986, a nuclear plant explosion in Soviet Russia. Then in the 1980s, toward the end in 1989, the Berlin Wall finally fell. So the symbol of the decline of communism centered on that event.
There were other positive changes in the 1980s, especially in the area of technology. This was the beginning of the computer era. Not that the computer was invented in the 1980s. Not that every household, or the majority of households, had a computer in the 1980s. But it became more and more common. So that, in 1983, instead of Time Magazine having a man of the year, it had a machine of the year, the computer.
So in 1981, you had the IBM PC. In 1984, Apple Macintosh. And in 1985, Microsoft Windows. In the 1980s, we found ourselves using gadgets that we had never seen before. In that decade, something called cable TV became popular. Now, prior to that time, we put an antenna on the roof and we watched TV, usually three channels.
As long as the weather was clear, that is. And we watched television free. Cable TV changed all that. It gave us more channels, more air time. Another new device that spread quickly was the VCR or Video Cassette Recorder. Home movies became the fad. Before, you had to go to a theater to see the latest movies.
With a VCR, you could rent a videocassette and watch it at home. These digital inventions reached out to kids also. The 1980s was a decade of Pac Man, and toward the end of that decade, Nintendo Game Boy. Kids started looking at small screens for hours. This trend is quite old, isn't it? Mobile phones were not invented in the 1980s, but they began to be seen more.
So, in technology, things changed. Things improved. But in terms of human nature, there was nothing different. People went right on with the same old ways that were there before. The difference is that while technology improved, morals became worse and immorality used the new technology to spread.
In the 1960s, there was rebellion like we'd never seen before. This new generation had a different set of values. They were anti-authority. They didn't want anybody telling them what to do—their parents, policemen, preachers, teachers or anyone else. As a result, the moral foundation of the country began to crumble. Every man became a law to himself. And this set the stage for the theme of the 1970s for wild young people: sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
Well, young people pitched a fit in the sixties and they had their way in the seventies. The boomers declared war on the culture in the 60s and celebrated in the 70s. And the word that we've looked at that describes that generation is hedonism, the pursuit of pleasure. That's what people wanted: alcohol, drugs, sex, laziness, indecency, and obscenity.
Morals declined. Movies became filled with worse and worse bad language and sex scenes. Clothes became more and more indecent. Men and women skipped marriage and just moved in together and divorce rates rose and the family suffered. The 1980s came on the heels of all this rebellion. By the mid 1980s, the first baby boomers are about 40.
Some had settled down and married and had children. Their children, Generation X, were even more disconnected with defining experiences like the Great Depression, World War II, and the Korean War. Many of them had never been taught the Bible. They are often called the latchkey generation because their parents were so busy with their careers the kids didn't see much of them.
Now, with all this happening, with all these changes taking place, it's no surprise that divorce rates reached an all-time high in 1980. People stopped taking their marriage vow seriously. The effect of soap operas, explicit movies, and digital pornography had taken a heavy toll on the home. And so it was the same old story.
It was history repeating itself again. And that is God gives man something for his good. He gives him something good for his good and man turns around and eventually destroys it for his harm. The Lord gave marriage. He created it. He regulates it. He decides the rules for marriage because it is his creation.
And look at what man has done with it. Genesis 2, 24 says, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined to his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.” Jesus upheld marriage in Matthew 19, verses 3 through 6. God designed marriage to prevent sex outside of marriage—1 Corinthians 7, verse 2: “Nevertheless, to prevent,” that is, to avoid “fornication, let every man have his own wife and let every woman have her own husband.” So it is a sad reflection on mankind that people take something that God created pure and they turn it into something so selfish and eventually so painful for everybody involved.
Now we've talked before about one of Satan's major weapons, one of the ways that he uses to destroy marriages and homes. And that is the problem of pornography. And we need to say more about that problem here. Before the 1980s with its cable TV and VCRs, people who viewed that kind of material in film had to go to a theater to see this kind of garbage.
But the technology of the 1980s brought that material into the home. Men could look at this material at home on a TV without going to a public place where somebody might see them. So before, there was at least an element of accountability to others when these films were only in public theaters. Now there was obviously little shame in people who did this, but what little sense of embarrassment that may have been left disappeared with the home theater.
So, pornography spread like wildfire in the 1980s through this improved technology, and it hurt the home in many ways. It destroyed many marriages. It hurt the children. Even if men tried to keep this dirty material to themselves, their children were often exposed to it eventually, either intentionally or unintentionally.
Sometimes we hear about a disease being called an epidemic or a pandemic. Pornography has always been a plague, but technology made it far more accessible, and so it became a huge business in the 1980s, much bigger than the business of the magazines of the 50s and the 60s, eventually becoming a multi-billion dollar enterprise.
This is the cancer that has been eating away at the morals of our country for decades. It was in 1986 that the problem was recognized as being so serious that President Ronald Reagan authorized Attorney General Edwin Meese to lead a study called the Commission on the Study of Pornography and its Impact on Children.
In America, the results were shocking. This moral epidemic was far more widely spread and much more deeply rooted in America than many God-fearing people could have ever imagined, and America has never been the same since. Technology opened the door to Satan and he walked right in and took full advantage, and perhaps even sadder is the fact that this was only the beginning.
But the rate of divorce was not the only thing that peaked in the 1980s. The number of abortions in America reached an all-time high in this decade. The abortion rate increased sharply after the Roe versus Wade decision in 1973. So in the late 1980s and into the early 1990s, that rate soared to over one and a half million abortions per year.
Satan's attack on the home was becoming more and more complete. He'd been successful in destroying marriages. He had turned young people against their parents and any kind of authority. Now, he had convinced women to kill their own children. Now, once again, we're reminded of the picture of moral decline in Romans chapter 1.
It begins when people turn away from God [Romans 1:20 and 21]. Then their conception of nature itself changes. They turn to nature instead of God. They turn to the creation instead of the Creator. As a result, they no longer recognized the role of male and female as God created them. The Bible says furthermore that God gave them over to a reprobate mind, verse 28, a worthless mind, a conscience void of feeling about right and wrong. From that point, the people were capable of anything, morally speaking. They became, as Romans 1 says, “Haters of God” who were “without natural affection.” The expression without natural affection means that they were void of love for their own flesh and blood. What better way is there of describing people who abort babies? They have no natural affection.
As far as health issues were concerned, the top story of the 1980s was definitely AIDS, which was and is AIDS, the common name for the medical label, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. It quickly became known as a deadly disease.
We'd never heard of it before, so naturally there was fear in the general public. What is this new disease? What happens when a person gets it? And most importantly we asked, how is it spread? So it took some time before anybody could say. And eventually researchers discovered that a high percentage of those who had acquired this disease were homosexual men.
Another group was the drug addicts who shared needles to inject themselves. And also after time they found out that those who had to have blood transfusions were at risk. So this led to more and more research and a lot of speculation about the disease, and the media in those days didn't help. In fact, they made the fear worse.
The headlines in the 1980s sound a lot like the panic over COVID 19 in 2020. Now, the difference is that then we didn't shut the world down because of this new deadly disease. We didn't close schools and churches. We didn't close businesses and put people out of work. We were cautious, maybe even apprehensive, but we didn't panic.
But still, the media fanned the flames of fear, and some of the experts contributed to the stress. One expert wrote in an article of the Journal of the American Medical Association that it was perhaps possible that HIV the virus that leads to AIDS might be spread through casual contact with family members.
His name, by the way, was Dr. Anthony Fauci. Yes, the same Dr. Fauci who headed up the Coronavirus Task Force. Years later, in 2020, now to his credit, he did state emphatically the following year that this disease could not be transmitted through such casual contact, but he couldn't undo what he had said before, and the media didn't care.
As always, they kept the American public on the edge of their seats as long as they could. And there was, at the same time, a legitimate degree of ignorance because it was new and, to some extent, we just didn't know. But this was not just a medical issue. Since it affected the homosexual community so much, it also became a moral issue.
One of the questions raised by religious people in the 80s was, Is AIDS a punishment from God? Some were quick to say that it was. Others were angry that anyone would even suggest this. Now, those who said that AIDS was not sent by God to punish homosexuals, pointed out that homosexuals were not the only ones who caught the disease.
Intravenous drug users, babies of infected women, hemophiliacs and even some heterosexuals had been infected, so was God punishing these people too? Now, as we look back at this question, let's go to the Bible and see what we can learn.
In the first place, we can't say for sure that AIDS was directly sent from God to punish homosexuals. But, at the same time, we can't say that it was not. It is possible that it was. In Romans 1:27, the Bible says that the homosexuals of the time received “in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.” Now this was some kind of punishment they suffered in this lifetime. It may have been something else, but it could have been a disease.
Sometimes innocent people are affected when God punishes sinners. In the Bible, innocent children died in the flood. They perished through no fault of their own in many ways in the Old Testament. So it is not only possible that this deadly disease was the natural, physical result of sin, but that it was also sent from God to punish sinners.
At any rate, AIDS and homosexuality came to be mentioned together in the 1980s. And once again, the media took advantage of the situation so that they could push their liberal agenda. How? Because they, the media, encouraged sympathy for the homosexual lifestyle. They presented pictures and stories of homosexual men who died from the disease.
Hollywood joined in by casting homosexuals as an oppressed, persecuted minority. So the issue that began as a medical problem was turned into a political and moral weapon against Bible believing people in America. But the Bible remained the same. Nature remained the same. Remember that the fact of male and female is built into the creation.
Genesis chapter 1 verse 27 says, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” The Bible says that homosexuality is against nature. [Romans 1:26 and 27]. The Bible did not change, and it has not changed on that issue. It still teaches the same in 1 Corinthians 6, verse 9, 1 Timothy 1, verse 10, and Jude, verse 7.
But although American culture, in general, in the 1980s, did not accept homosexuality like they do today, the conviction that it was a sin weakened in this decade. Even people who didn't accept it became much more quiet and tolerant about it. So it was beginning to be politically incorrect to say anything against this lifestyle.
And yes, there were groups, conservative groups, like the Moral Majority and Focus on the Family, that exerted a powerful force in the 1980s against this kind of thinking, both in politics and in society. and in the culture in general. But there was a definite change in how people looked at it. The sexual revolution of the 1970s was beginning to come full swing in the 1980s.
The only thing missing in the 1980s was government laws giving special recognition to this sin. But as we well know, that was certainly in the making. The truth is, the rebellious element of society was not satisfied with freedom. They had more liberty to do what they wanted to do than any previous generation.
They already had individual freedom. What some of them wanted was control. It's ironic that people who claim to desire liberty and freedom to do as they choose actually end up exerting control over other people that disagree with them. Now, this element of society wanted to get rid of the old system of government and the culture.
Why? Because it was based on something that they despised, the concept of the Creator. Now, that Creator God didn't just make material things and give us the laws of nature. He also gave us moral law. The Founding Fathers of America recognize this fact. The Declaration of Independence opens by confessing the laws of nature and nature's God and that all men are endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights. Our system of government presupposes the Supreme Being. It also presupposes absolutes in basic moral laws, like God's law against stealing or murder or lying or sex outside of marriage, especially the latter. This new generation, called the Baby Boomers, had declared war on the morals of America in the 60s.
They celebrated in the 70s and in the 80s. They set out to create a systemic change and overthrow in the culture that reached into every level and every aspect of society, whether young people, married people, in schools, in churches, and especially in the government. And those involved with this revolt incited and leveraged the media, the educational system, Hollywood, and as much as possible, politicians and the courts.
Consider the relationship between the government and the home and the government and the church. Prior to the 1960s, parents were, for the most part, not afraid to discipline their children. And when I say discipline, I mean corporal punishment, spanking. Proverbs 22, verse 15 says that “foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.”
Now, to some extent, this continued in the 1960s, throughout the 1970s, and in a declining way into the 80s and beyond. And a good number of parents still do this today. But the anti-authority, permissive revolt led to a decline in parental supervision and especially a decline in corporal punishment. Now, prior to this time, it had been common for rebellious boys, for instance, to get a spanking at school and oftentimes at home for their infraction.
But that began to change in the 1980s. These rebels weren't punished at home or at school because psychologists and educators and legislators began to push for laws against using corporal punishment. at schools. So by the late 80s and the early 90s, they had to a large extent succeeded because public schools became less and less influenced by the parents in the community and more and more controlled by the government.
Instead of being primarily public schools, they became government schools. So the spirit of godless rebellion had gotten into the government and the government had become more and more intrusive in schools, homes, and even churches.
Consider a case of church discipline in the 1980s that drew national attention. That story began in 1980 in a Church of Christ in Collinsville, Oklahoma. A single woman who was a member of that church was having an affair with a married man in town. So the elders attempted to get her to repent, but she refused. And as a result, they followed the Bible and withdrew fellowship from her.
This is what the Bible clearly teaches in Matthew 18:15 through 17, II Thessalonians 3 verse 6, verses 14 and 15, and also the entire chapter of 1 Corinthians chapter 5. Now in response, this woman eventually sued the church. She claimed that the church, number one, had invaded her privacy, and number two, had caused her severe emotional distress, especially from the standpoint that they had announced her name to the congregation.
A lower court agreed with her and awarded her $390,000 in damages to be paid by the church. Now this went through an appeals process. And in 1989, almost a decade later, the Oklahoma Supreme Court overturned the lower court’s decision, but a settlement was finally reached outside of court.
And interestingly, though not surprisingly, the media sided with the woman, just as it had with the homosexual community during the AIDS crisis. And a good example was the popular daytime talk show at that time called Donahue. Phil Donahue invited this woman to appear on the show. Now, it was obvious from the start that he was leading the audience to feel sorry for this woman.
And on the other side of the issue was a gospel preacher who had been invited. He represented the teaching of the church that led to her discipline. Now, he was not the preacher there or even a member there, but he was asked to defend their actions. When asked about what the church had done. The preacher quoted verses of Scripture, such as 2 Thessalonians 3, verse 6, “Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walks disorderly, and not after the tradition which he has received of us.”
Verse 14 says, “Now if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be a shame. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.” And the real revelation came when the audience responded to his citing of the Bible. When he quoted the Bible, they moaned and sighed.
They sympathized with a woman guilty of adultery, a woman who had never repented. And yet they mocked and sneered at a man who spoke the Word of God. Now that's how much our society had changed by that point. The legal system had begun to step more and more into church and home life. And though this case didn't end in total favor of the woman, it hastened the trend for the government to overstep its bounds into the business of churches. Another precedent had been set, and this kind of intrusion was bound to get worse, and it has. The liberty to do right gave way.
Now, the Bible is very clear on the subject of church discipline. First Corinthians chapter 5, verses 1 13 is an actual case of the sin of fornication. A member of the church at Corinth was guilty of this sin. Paul's instructions are clear. He said to deliver this one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh [verse five]. What does that mean? Well, he explains, he says in verse 11, “I have written to you not to keep company with any one named a brother who is sexually immoral” [that is, a fornicator] or “covetous or an idolater or a reviler or drunkard or an extortioner,” not even to eat with such a person.
So first Corinthians chapter five is a Bible example of the very situation that these elders were facing in that church in the 1980s. Now, we also find in Matthew chapter 18, verses 15 through 17, that Jesus gave authority for the steps involved in church discipline. Notice Jesus said in Matthew chapter 18 verse 15, “Moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.”
That's step number one. If he hears you, that is, if he repents and makes this matter right, then he says you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more--that's step number two—that “by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.” Now if that doesn't work, he says in verse 17, “And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church.”
One of the charges that this woman made against the congregation was that they had made known what she did to the church in general. Well, they were following what the Bible says in Matthew 18, verse 17. Jesus said, “Tell it to the church.” And then, “But if he refuses to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector,” because Jews had nothing to do with those people.
Now, this was not gossip. It was not done hastily. It was a last step. But when it was done, it was done to help the person spiritually. We also need to observe that the man in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 couldn't have just said, “Well, I quit. I'm not a member of the church at Corinth anymore. I resign, so you can't discipline me.”
That's basically what the woman in Oklahoma did. You see, the whole idea of church discipline is to touch the sinner's conscience so that he or she will return to God. Whether that person still physically attends services or not does not offset that duty.
Now, here are some scriptures that I want to close with to summarize some of the things that we have seen and learned from this decade. First Corinthians chapter 5 verse 6 is relevant: “Your glorying,” Paul said, “is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?” One person, one lawsuit, one crossing of the line can set a precedent that lasts for years and years.
Second Timothy chapter three, verse 13 shows this kind of progression because it says that “evil men and deceivers shall become worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived”. And then I Corinthians chapter six, beginning in verse nine, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.”
Thank you for listening to My God and My Neighbor. Stay connected with our podcast on our website and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever find podcasts are distributed. Tennessee Bible College, providing Christian education since 1975 in Cookeville, Tennessee, offers undergraduate and graduate programs.
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