Skip to main content

The Mouth Of The Wicked


The righteous person is rescued from trouble, and it falls on the wicked instead. With their mouths the godless destroy their neighbors, but through knowledge the righteous escape. When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices; when the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy. Through the blessing of the upright a city is exalted, but by the mouth of the wicked it is destroyed. (Proverbs 11:8-11)
          What are the nine most dangerous cities to live in in the United States as of 2018? According to one source (least to worst), they were Little Rock, AR; Stockton, CA; Oakland, CA; Kansas City, MO; Milwaukee, WI; St. Louis, MO; Baltimore, MD; Detroit, MI, and Memphis, TN[1]. According to another, the ten most dangerous list should be: Kansas City, MO; Oakland, CA; Little Rock, AR; Baltimore, MD; Rockford, IL; Milwaukee, WI; Memphis, TN; Birmingham, AL, Detroit, MI; and St. Louis, MO.[2]  According to a third source, the most distressed cities in America are Detroit, MI (94%); Memphis, TN (68%); Milwaukee, WI (55%); Atlanta, GA (52%); Baltimore, MD (48%); Fresno, CA (48); Las Vegas (46); Chicago, IL (42%); Tucson, AZ (39%) and Houston, TX (38%).[3]  Yet another source includes Chicago, IL; Kansas City, MO; St. Louis, MO; Las Vegas, NV; Milwaukee, WI; and Detroit, MI in its top twenty least religious affiliated cities.[4] Rockford, IL is one of the ten least educated cities in America.[5] All the cities listed in italics appear on more than one of these lists.
          Now, if a city is destroyed by the mouth of the wicked, it seems to me that these cities, and especially; the ones who are both dangerous and distressed (the cities in italics in the list) seem to me to be in the process of being destroyed. So, what is the mouth of the wicked at work in them? What do these cities have in common besides their high rankings in these worst categories? I’m going to suggest that they have wicked and godless mouths in common. These cities historically embrace a common philosophy. Granted, all cities have their share of wicked mouths. I’m not saying there’s a one-to-one correlation, but I do suggest there is a trend. If the worst of the worst have a common philosophy, if the cities that are self-destructing the most all have a common philosophy, perhaps it’s time we paid attention to what that philosophy is, and reject it. Do the research. Make your own decision.


[1] https://www.trendrr.net/22497/most-dangerous-cities-of-united-states-most-murders-worst/
[2] http://www.bbcnewshub.com/top-10-most-dangerous-cities-in-america-2018/
[3][3] https://www.businessinsider.com/the-10-most-distressed-cities-in-america-2015-7
[4] https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/most-religiously-unaffiliated-us-cities_us_55c52ac3e4b0f1cbf1e526b0?slideshow=true#gallery/55bfdf5ee4b0b23e3ce3c30e/0
[5] https://www.forbes.com/sites/kathryndill/2014/09/16/the-most-and-least-educated-cities-in-america/#51c9c4a86d75

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more

Listen To Him

              The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him . (Deuteronomy 18:15)           Today, we switch from Jesus’ claims of “I am” to prophecies made about Him. My Bible platform is starting in Deuteronomy. I’d start in Genesis, where we would learn that the one who would save us would be a descendant of Eve (Genesis 3:15), of Noah (by default), Abram and Sara(Genesis 12:1-3). Isaac (Genesis 17:19), Jacob (Genesis 25:23), Judah (Genesis 29:8), and David (II Samuel 7:12-16). There were also references to a new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:22-32). In addition, there were prophecies about when and where the prophet/Messiah would be born and what would happen to him.           Of course, naysayers will claim that Jesus’ life was retrofitted or reverse enginee...
Post a Comment
Read more