It takes a village.

I’ve been thinking tonight about the saying “it takes a village to raise a child”, and how that saying applies to the mess that has hit N. Raleigh this past week.

I’ve been thinking about how many people are blaming the driver for the accident, and how un-whole that truth is. Yes, he was the driver of the vehicle, but he alone is not at fault. She too, was at fault. Every student that was at that party and did not stop them was at fault. The owners of the house the party was at were at fault, for either being so oblivious as to what was going on, or for not caring. His parents and hers are at fault, for not knowing what their children were up to, or for not stopping them if they knew (yes, I know that they probably didn’t expect the outcome). I am at fault. You are at fault. WE ARE ALL AT FAULT.

You might be thinking to yourself now: “Matt, how am I at fault, I didn’t even know her”. This is what I have to say about that: If you are living, and I assume that you are if you are physically reading this, then you are a member of a society that is becoming increasingly ok with stuff like this happening. (and by increasingly ok, I mean there have been numerous alcohol related deaths in Wake County High School Teens in the last 5 years, and they continue to happen without any major repercussion or societal change). We as a society are becoming immune to the pain and suffering that happens crash after crash, death after death. Our village is not raising our children well.

I understand the argument that some people have while growing up, or while raising their children, that our teens need some freedom, that we should let them make mistakes, because that’s how they learn, and they need the freedom to make their own decisions, and the freedom to grow up. I agree with that statement partially: I agree that we as young people need to be able to make decisions on our own, because that is how we learn. But, I find one problem with the overall argument, and that is in our definition of freedom. The majority of our High School students are finding freedom in a bottle, in a pipe, in the plant inside a rolled up piece of paper, in a needle, in a pill, in a bedroom. THAT IS NOT FREEDOM. That is simply bondage to the destructive ways of the society that we live in. You want freedom? Make the choice to not follow the path of your peers, the path of the bottle, the path of the pill, the path of the joint, or of the bong, or of the bedroom. You want freedom? Ignore what CNN, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Lady GaGa, Michael Jackson, Yahoo, Polo Ralph Lauren, Little Wayne, Cover Girl, American Eagle, ESPN, People Magazine, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Obama, Louie Giglio, Francis Chan, Donald Miller, John Piper, Chris Tomlin, Passion 268 and society are saying to you. Wait, ignore what I’m saying too.

Open your Bible. Read the words given by God. Read the words written by a God who sent his son to die so that you, me, Garrett Prince, Liz Molloy, CNN, YouTube, Facebook Twitter, Lady GaGa, Michael Jackson, Yahoo, Polo Ralph Lauren, Little Wayne, Cover Girl, American Eagle, ESPN, People Magazine, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Obama, Louie Giglio, Francis Chan, Donald Miller, John Piper, Chris Tomlin, and Passion 268 would not be bound by the ways of the society that we live in.

Then, go into all the nations. and set the captives free.