Steve Lyston, Contributor

With the worldwide crises now affecting the children, many are giving different opinions on what is to be done; some blame parenting skills. What we are realising is that a parent cannot impart what they themselves have never experienced. So we now have to rebuild the foundation and build it on and with truth.

There are many 'truths' in this world today, but there is only one right truth - Proverbs 16:25 and Proverbs 14:12. It is all our duty to win our youth over from philosophical views.

They must be made to understand that man's views, wisdom or reasoning is not superior to God's! (Colossians 2:8) We need to teach our youth how to deal with subtle reasoning - Colossians 2:4 - that would steer them away from the truth.

There are many 'lights' in this world, and the enemy seeks out brilliant, intellectual, powerful and popular people that he can influence and use, to reach others in order to influence their way of thinking.

The failure of the church leaders over the years is that they were diluting the truth to facilitate this generation because they did not know how to deal with them; neither did they have a new revelation of the Word itself. So they have abandoned the old gate (Nehemiah 3) and have allowed New-Age philosophies to infiltrate our youth.

We are bringing in these new philosophies and Hollywood syndrome to suit the desires of man. So, when popular or powerful people engage in less than wholesome activities or brazenly engage in sinful activities, these actions are glamourised and are used to pull on the emotions of the public; thus belittling or ignoring the truth of the situation - that it is wrong.

Boys in trouble

According to a Gleaner article titled 'Women Shouldn't Lower Standards For Men - Students' dated November 15, the Economic and Social Survey showed that most of those dropping out of school and being incarcerated today are boys. It stated "... the survey also shows that of the 1,937 persons who entered correctional institutions in Jamaica last year, males accounted for 1,748 or 90 per cent of that number."

Clearly, the boys are being neglected by the society in general. The men were created as the covering for the females; so as a result, they are open to more direct attacks to destroy them. If they go to prison or are slaughtered, then the society becomes unbalanced.

In the classrooms, there is a female-teacher majority, and they teach both boys and girls. Within a society it is the man, the father who ought to carry out the discipline within the family. So, herein lies the problem, there are very few men to help maintain and execute the disciplining and to deal with male-specific issues when they arise.

Today, more males are being raped and abused in the society - some even experience this from an early age. Then, instead of dealing with the issues on both sides and bring balance to the situation overall, there is greater focus on the issue of gender - women and girls - than there is on making the society safe for boys and girls to live, learn and grow.

There are often discussions on the issue of women and children, but as it concerns the issue of children, it usually focuses on girls and neglects the boys within the society.

But children includes boys too. If that neglect continues, then where are the girls going to get husbands - or is that the plan? Furthermore, we cannot exclude the fathers; good ones still exist.

Revamp media

If we are going to change the society, we will need to change what we are putting out in the environment - both local and global media will need revamping and added value to their public offerings. Many of the media houses are focusing on the dollar value and the negative things. For example, sex sells! Conflict grabs attention! Disrespect and dishonour are revered! But all these are negatively impacting on the economy, the social fabric of the nation and are destroying our children.

Some media houses and production companies are not even supporting or producing programmes that are family-oriented. Sadly, fabricated reality shows are taking over the networks.

Some don't even believe that God is necessary to the environment and in our daily affairs. The general view and perception of the Church and the Holy scriptures are that those in the Church are money-hungry simpletons who are oblivious to the issues at hand and think that the Bible is irrelevant.

The media has a mandate to bring positive changes globally. Negative words shape, change or bring down a society. (James 3:5-11; Isaiah 52:7; Philippians 4:8)

Steve Lyston is a Biblical economics consultant and author of several books, including 'End Time Finance' and 'The New Millionaire'.