Good Tidings! (for...many...)

Yeah Yeah make jokes. It's my bloggy and I'll post when I want to.

In any case I've always frown upon pessimism especially from my Christians and Adventist co-religionists.

I often think the criticism of evangelical Christianity is overblown but one criticism hits home quite nicely.

A apocalyptic viewpoint in the world can sap one's passion for civic engagement.

Some call this being so heavenly minded that one is no earthly good.

Well, booyah! (That's the safety word, ifn' you hear it again, send help)

Both violent crime and property crime have declined dramatically since 1973. New York City will probably notch up less than 500 murders this year, the lowest since the early 1960s (the figure for 1990 was 2,262). Teenagers are cleaning up their act. Teenage drug use has fallen by 23% overall since the 1990s, and by 50% for LSD and ecstasy. Teens are drinking less, smoking less, having sex less and dropping out of school less. The birth rate for 15-19-year-olds has fallen by 35% since 1991. At 10%, the high-school drop-out rate is at a 30-year low.

Welfare reform is working. The welfare caseload has dropped by 60% since 1994. A series of social evils—overall poverty, child poverty, child hunger—have all decreased. Employment figures for single mothers have surged. The number of abortions fell from over 1.6m in 1990 to fewer than 1.3m this year. The divorce rate is at its lowest level since 1970. Education scores are up.

Things are not all hunky-dory. The violent crime rate has ticked upward in the past couple of years. Illegitimacy is at an all-time high. But this is a very different world from the 1970s, when America's leading cultural indicators all started to point towards Gomorrah. American civil society, aided by sensible social policies, is gradually repairing the damage of the past few decades.

Link

From an Economist article.

That is to say people can make a difference and on a large scale no less.

So...

...what's our excuse now?