Cap the Gap!

Barry Pennington
Yoakum, Texas

Larry Ray Haffley

There is so much talk going on today about a generation gap that it is no wonder that so many young people are confused about the relationship they should keep with their parents. The trend today is to rebel against, resist, and even reject all parental advice ... this is commonly known as the generation gap.

Parents cannot understand their own offspring and offspring cannot understand their own parents. It seems to be a never-ending spiral of separation. This "inevitable" separation is so much talked about by the infiltrators that it is becoming a reality. Parents are giving up on trying correcting little Tommy and Susie. Consequently, Tommy and Susie develop into little devils and get involved in all kinds of trouble. They experiment with sex, dope, alcohol, tobacco. They want to do their own thing, and they do not want any parental guidance.

The older generation is accused of being a hypocritical people. All they are interested in is materialism; it is claimed by the young jet set. They are a pleasure-seeking generation because they grew up in a prosperous nation (U.S.A.) when motor boats were popularized, along with stereos, color televisions, and shag carpets. So, little Tommy and Susie say, "My old man and my old lady are just big hypocrites, just like the rest of the establishment; they cant understand this younger generation."

People are usually either in the attic or in the cellar. The "hippie" movement would do away with this hypocritical materialism of the present establishment. They would call for absolute freedom, for each to do what he pleases when he pleases. They would even rid this country of such an enormous threat to their freedom (which means nothing more than free love, free dope, free sin, free wickedness, etc ) as to remove all law and order ... get rid of the pigs!

Talk about hypocrites! If this present system were abolished there would be no vans or love bugs to ride around in because the economy would be gone. If the hippie movement wishes to overthrow the Establishment (our economy, our democracy, our freedom as guaranteed by the constitution, our understanding between parents and children and between children and parents, etc...) let them consider the following:

1. No more vans or cars because the economy would not allow gasoline for them.

2. Probably a communistic government will be the next to step in. Now, lets see you look for freedom!

3. When the Establishment is overthrown, do not try to take refuge in mommy and daddy. After all, they are just "big hypocrites."

You know, I am so thankful that in Christ all are made one. In Christ the gap between the older and younger generations can be capped off! Read the first part of Ephesians 6. That is what God wants and it is all possible in Christ. If you are a Christian, then may you never lose sight of your relationship to your parents or to your children. Sometimes parents are hypocritical because they are pleasure-prone, but this does not mean that the children should go to the cellar and dig up such junk as free love, drugs, tobacco, and alcohol. If they do, then they are just as much of a hypocrite as mother and daddy. May Christians always have the proper understanding for one another. If we try, we can cap that so-called inevitable and evil gap.

TRUTH MAGAZINE, XVI: 49, p. 12
October 19, 1972