LETTERS: THE CASE FOR MORAL VALUES

To the editor:

A few months ago I heard a celebrity make a statement regarding a modern lifestyle which he said was now acceptable and approved. He claimed that promiscuity was now the "in" thing and popular. I hear that he has since died of AIDS. He claimed that everyone had to die sooner or later anyway. I thought of the kind of role model he was playing for the children and youth as well as for many adults in our day and time.

There are always those who want to change the law to serve their own desires for good or evil. The restrictions of Eden and moral values may seem out of fashion for some, but those values and truths are just as valid today as they were before, regardless of how far east or west of Eden one may want to move.

The more one wants to escape what one may call civilized or civilization, the one more tends to become like the animals.

Even in areas of the world in which warfare seems to be constant, one almost gets to the point of saying that if that is their way of life after so many centuries, perhaps they should just fight it out until they wear each other out. In spite of all the efforts of psychologists and child experts to suggest directions in human behavior, it seems that human nature tends to remain basically the same.

The efforts of Promise Keepers to develop a more serious concern for preserving those moral values in our fundamentally monogamous society are good. The forces which would try to lead us in other directions are still as powerful as ever. The technological advance of scientific endeavor along cannot save us from ourselves. There are so many pressures which tend to lead us through the maze or paths of incivility.

The laws which have been hammered out on the anvil of human experience throughout history are still valid and worthwhile.

IVAN NOTHDURFT

Cape Girardeau