Cheating in a culture without God

There is an article out today on Yahoo about how rampant cheating hurts China's research ambitions. I am drawn to this because this problem will get worse in America as we drift further away from the God of Christianity. China has actively worked to suppress religion throughout its modern history. This has resulted in a culture that has no authority to answer to outside of the state. All men even men in China know that there is a God (Romans 1:19). The problem is that they have suppressed the truth of God and believed a lie in order to alleviate their consciences. What this has produced is a society that for the most part will cheat, plagiarize and resort to ghostwriting to get by. The article sites that in research papers bought and sold in 2007 fully 70 percent were plagiarized. This points to a moral decay in the society that can only be helped by one thing. Bringing the Lord Jesus to the people of China will reform their hearts. This happens in an effective manner when people really come to know Jesus. The Holy Spirit living within them convicts of sin and the need for righteousness (John 16:7-11). But the bigger issue I see is the increasing moral decay in the United States. As a society we are drifting away from God. This is happening for a variety of reasons but the single biggest issue lies at the feet of pastors and their churches. What has happened is we have taken the presentation of a message oriented around the unchanging and awesome God who has rescued us from eternal damnation, and replaced it with a message that is oriented around the people and their world. The God in this second message is the means to an end and the end is us. He serves us. This is a far cry from the message of Jesus to deny ourselves take up our cross and follow Jesus (Matthew 16:24). What has happened is most people who attend church are comfortable with allowing that and perhaps devotions in their home to be the biggest expression of public Christianity that they make. We have become a society of Christians consumers living in our Christian ghetto content to let the world go. The majority of people manning the oars in the boat of our society are pagan. They have no moral base outside of the tattered remains that have been passed down from our forefathers. The direction they are rowing us is away from the light of the gospel. How can this change. Politics will not do it. The only answer that can rescue a society adrift is for Christians to live like Christians. We must bear the glory of Jesus to the people that we meet. If we do not share the marvelous message of Jesus redemption with them they will not hear and if they do not hear they cannot believe (Romans 10:17). The only hope for a changed society begins with you and me being willing to live God focused lives to the glory of Jesus Christ.