Whom can we trust to tell us the truth? Advertisers want us to believe that their latest model automobile will make us powerful and popular, or that their "new and improved" grooming product will win us a whole new circle of friends. Political parties try to "sell" their candidates, and confused religious teachers offer a bewildering spectrum of contradictory promises and wild ideas.

These days, it seems it is "every man for himself." Every woman, too. Our society has fractured into innumerable special interest groups seeking advantage for their constituencies. As America's "ship of state" sinks under ever-worsening economic conditions, conservatives and liberals are clawing for space aboard the shrinking number of lifeboats, hoping to survive the storm-tossed waves of fiscal and social disaster. Selfish interest and party spirit will bring the United States—and the other Western democracies—to ruin, unless citizens can recapture the standards that once upheld their nations, and can begin looking to God rather than to politicians for the answers. "You shall not at all do as we are doing here today—every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes" (Deuteronomy 12:8).

The people of Ireland have voted "No" on the proposed Lisbon Treaty, which would have enforced a new degree of supranational unity on the European Union nations.

Recent news articles have speculated about the "end of Western civilization." Interestingly enough, as you read through those articles, the reasons put forth for the end of our way of life have stemmed from our lack of energy conservation awareness to our addiction to oil for our energy needs. Political issues, environmental issues, educational issues are all put forth as arenas for the salvation of mankind.

How many of us, bombarded by advertisements for the latest luxury goods and services we cannot afford, have a tendency to think of ourselves as poor?