Even when their pastor preaches against wearing indecent clothing such as skimpy shorts and halters and tight pants and blouses, they flaunt this type of clothing in public. A chief reason for the drop in moral standards in our churches is the deterioration of the spiritual condition of the homes. In too many cases we have brought the world into our homes via unwholesome television programming and unwholesome video recordings and violent, weird, and otherwise impure video games. In too many cases we have not worshipped the Lord vigorously in our homes through family Bible reading and prayer and discussion of Bible topics and singing of hymns and listening to sermons. Too many of our homes are carnal and worldly, and it is reflected in our churches.
Carnal families put pressure upon pastors to lower church standards.
It is the pastor s responsibility before God to resist this pressure, but the sad fact of human nature is that many will not do so. Another reason for the drop in moral standards in our churches is the deterioration in preaching. Twenty-four years ago, one would often hear powerful and direct preaching against immodest clothing and wicked movies and television and social dancing and rock music. The Neo-fundamentalist types often charge that preaching on standards in decades past was a hobby horse, that many men preached more on hair than on holiness. I do not believe this charge, and I was there.