America: From Virtue to Vice

Roderick Mann

December 17, 2020

Virtue is moral excellence. A virtue is a trait or quality that is deemed to be morally good and thus is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being. Personal virtues are characteristics valued as promoting collective and individual greatness. In other words, it is a behavior that shows high moral standards. When a culture is dominated by, and places a high value in virtue, the nation thrives. Freedom flourishes in the nation that cherishes virtue.

 What are examples of virtue?

1. Honesty

2. Character

3. Integrity

4. Kindness

5. Empathy

6. Compassion

7. Humility, piety, meekness

8. Charity, benevolence

9. Delayed gratification, forbearance

10. Education

11. Hard work, reliability

12. Faithfulness, reverence and loyalty

13. Respect

14. Philanthropy

15. Service

16. Fairness

17. Justice, mercy

18. Sincerity

19. Transparency, openness

20. Commitment

21. Modesty

22. Trust

23. Sobriety, moderation

24. Righteousness

25. Peace, patience and orderly

Vice is immoral or wicked behavior. It runs the gamut, from bad habits to depravity. A vice is a trait or quality that is deemed to be immoral or bad behavior, and thus is taught as traits to resist and attitudes and actions that lead to trouble or even personal or collective harm. Vice as a dominant theme in culture will weaken and ultimately destroy any nation. The nation that tolerates, or worse, accepts vice, will then find people using their personal freedom as a means to live wicked and wretched lives.

What are examples of vice?

 1. Greed

2. Narcissism, vanity

3. Anger and rage

4. Selfishness

5. Callousness

6. Overindulgence and excessive behaviors

7. Lying

8. Fraud

9. Disrespect of authority

10. Conspicuous consumption

11. Hatred

12. Laziness, sloth

13. Get rich quick schemes, gambling

14. Disloyalty, faithlessness, disloyalty

15. Impatience

16. Injustice

17. Boasting

18. Cheating

19. Drunkenness, drug addiction, recklessness

20. Violent

21. Disobedient

22. Stealing

23. Falsely accusing

24. Idolatry

25. Bad habits, smoking

America was rooted in virtuous principles, a strong faith in God was pervasive, and the nation consisted of families and communities that encouraged, taught and trained future generations in the value of inculcating these virtues.

Alexis de Tocqueville thought that “America is great because Americans are good,” He concluded that “the secret to American freedom is American virtue.” Montesquieu points up the connection between virtue and successful democracy. When trying to please the majority, Montesquieu says man must be acting with virtue while dealing with the execution of laws, or there will be negative ambition-driven results.

 He mentions virtue is required for a successful state. Ethics is not merely a theoretical study for Aristotle. Unlike any intellectual capacity, virtues of character are dispositions to act in certain ways in response to similar situations, the habits of behaving in a certain way. Thus, good conduct arises from habits that in turn can only be acquired by repeated action and correction, making ethics an intensely practical discipline.

 Instead of cataloguing the history of the United States and its slow descension from a culture dominated by virtue to a culture dominated by vice, we will take modern examples of vice across every sector and aspect of American culture today: government, business, education, religion and individuals. We will seek to argue that so much unethical, corrupt and criminal behavior is present in society today that the standards of virtue and their value have been largely abandoned. The final state of any nation that follows such a course is the destruction of that nation, either from within or from without.

 Religion

 For months, Trinity Foundation has investigated televangelists receiving Paycheck Protection Program forgivable loans. Our findings:

At least $78.6 million in loans were given to religious TV networks, independent religious TV stations, TV preachers, and churches/media ministries with national TV programs.  The total would exceed $82 million if we include churches with 24/7 streaming channels in the same class as television.

 Trinity Broadcasting of Texas received a loan of $3.3 million even though its parent organization may have close to $500 million invested in securities.

Word of God Fellowship, better known as Daystar Television Network, purchased a Gulfstream G-V jet days after being approved for a loan, but claim they used money from an old investment to purchase the jet. In October, Daystar sold its older Gulfstream G-IV. Daystar president Marcus Lamb has used the new ministry jet for personal travel such as family vacations while conducting religious events and attending political functions.

Living Word Christian Center in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, received a loan after acquiring two jets in six months.

America’s largest megachurch, Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston, received a loan over $4.4 million.

Employee numbers for some televangelists are being publicly disclosed for the first time. Benny Hinn Ministries once employed hundreds of employees. It reportedly retained 25 jobs.

Background

To reduce the massive number of American job losses following Covid-19 lockdowns, the Small Business Administration (SBA) guaranteed forgivable loans to businesses and non-profit organizations through its Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The government loan programs have proved controversial as the public learned that politically connected firms and universities with billion-dollar endowments received forgivable loans.

Churches, synagogues, mosques, televangelists, and Planned Parenthood abortion clinics also received PPP loans. The secular Freedom From Religion Foundation received less than $500,000 while criticizing churches that received PPP loans. Even the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability accepted at least a $350,000 PPP loan. This begs the question; can a self-regulatory organization offer a real alternative to government oversight while receiving government funds?

 On December 1st, the SBA finally disclosed the names of all PPP loan recipients and the actual amount of each loan. Previously, the SBA only disclosed a dollar range for each loan as well as the names of businesses and non-profit organizations receiving loans between $150,000 and $10 million; however, Freedom of Information requests were filed and a federal judge required the Treasury Department and the SBA to release the data.

 Trinity Foundation compiled a spreadsheet of televangelists, churches, religious broadcasters and parachurch organizations receiving PPP loans, along with notes about various organizations’ spending practices, jet ownership and scandals.

Massive Financial Reserve

Should a federal government $27 trillion in debt, forgive multi-million dollar loans to cash-rich non-profit organizations?

When Harvard University, a school with a $40 billion endowment, received $8.6 million from the CARES Act, critics immediately demanded the university return the funds and they did. Shouldn’t religious organizations with large cash reserves or investments do the same?

Trinity Broadcasting of Texas (TBT) received a PPP loan for $3,308,005. In 2017, Trinity Broadcasting Network and its affiliate organizations received $634 million from auctions conducted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) selling the broadcast frequencies from seven of its TV stations to the FCC, which re-licensed the frequencies to wireless cellphone carriers. At the end of 2018, Trinity Broadcasting Network had more than $1 billion in assets, including $488 million invested in securities.

 Elevation Church, operated by televangelist Steven Furtick, received a PPP loan of $3,656,700.  Ministry Watch reported that Furtick’s Elevation Church took in $91 million last year and ended 2019 with a surplus of $26 million.

Jay Sekulow, CEO, and Pat Robertson, President, run the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) which received a $1,232,300 PPP loan.  Sekulow’s related organization Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism, which also uses the tradename American Center for Law and Justice, reported $58 million in total assets of which $31 million are invested in publicly traded securities on its 2019 form 990.

Loans for Jets?

During the Covid-19 pandemic, religious organizations have been acquiring used jets at an alarming rate. Trinity Foundation has identified 10 jets certified for televangelists and religious organizations in 2020. Two of the jet owners received PPP loans. A list of the newly acquired jets is here.

Daystar acquired a Gulfstream G-V jet in April, days after being approved for a PPP loan of $3,913,200. On July 18th, the Lamb family traveled on the new ministry jet to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida for a summer vacation. On August 19th, the jet flew to Colorado Springs for the Messenger Cup, a golf fundraiser for Lisa and John Bevere’s Messenger International.

In response to Inside Edition investigating Daystar’s new jet, the TV network paid back its $3,913,200 loan with interest and claims that particular chunk of money was not used at all for the purchase of the jet.

Pastor James “Mac” Hammond’s Living Word Christian Center, not to be confused with televangelist Bill Winston’s church of the same name, acquired a Cessna 650 in October 2019 and a second jet–a Dassault Falcon 50–in March from televangelist Jesse Duplantis, only weeks before receiving a PPP loan of $2,782,600.

At the time of purchase, Hammond owned two jets, another Cessna 650 which has since been sold, and an Aero L-39 Albatross jet trainer.

The Prosperity Gospel

Some of the largest loan recipients are proponents of the prosperity gospel. If these televangelists are forced to rely on the federal government subsidizing them, then perhaps they should rethink their support of the prosperity gospel, because it is clearly not working for them.

It should be noted that most of the televangelists we investigate are known to receive what most would consider excessive compensation packages. Perhaps they wouldn’t “need” a loan if they practiced responsible financial stewardship.

Colleges and Universities

The largest college-admissions scandal in history.

It goes like this: A man named William Singer, who is the founder of a college-prep business called The Key, accepted millions of dollars from individuals to get their children into elite colleges such as Yale and the University of Southern California.

How did he do it, you might ask? Singer had an intricate network of accomplices and utilized strategies that ranged from paying standardized-test administrators to fake students' test scores to falsely positioning students as competitive athletes. According to U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Andrew Lelling, most clients paid between $250,000 and $450,000 USD per student, but some paid as much as $6.5 million.

So far, Singer has been charged with obstruction of justice, racketeering conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, and other charges. But he’s not the only one being held accountable for this complex, decades-long scheme.

At the time of writing, federal authorities have charged 50 people for participating in this racket, and some of them might be people you know. Below is the full list:

The Ringleaders:

 William Rick Singer: owner of Edge College & Career Network and CEO of the Key Worldwide Foundation

 Steven Masera: accountant and financial officer for the Edge College & Career Network and the Key Worldwide Foundation

Mikaela Sanford: employee of the Edge College & Career Network and the Key Worldwide Foundation

The Administrators:

 Igor Dvorskiy: director of a private elementary and high school and a test administrator for the College Board and ACT

Martin Fox: president of a private tennis academy in Houston

 Donna Heinel: senior associate athletic director at the University of Southern California

Mark Riddell: director of college entrance-exam preparation at IMG Academy

Niki Williams: assistant teacher at Houston, TX, high school

The Coaches:

Michael Center: head coach of men’s tennis at the University of Texas at Austin

Gordon Ernst: former head coach of men's and women’s tennis at Georgetown University

William Ferguson: former women’s volleyball coach at Wake Forest University

 Laura Janke: former assistant coach of women’s soccer at the University of Southern California

Ali Khosroshahin: former USC women’s soccer coach

Rudolph Meredith: former head women’s soccer coach at Yale University

Jorge Salcedo: former head coach of men’s soccer at the University of California at Los Angeles

John Vandemoer: head sailing coach at Stanford University

Jovan Vavic: former water polo coach at University of Southern California

The Clients:

Marcia and Gregory Abbott: Gregory is founder and chairman of food and beverage packing company International Dispensing Corp.

Gamal Abdelaziz: former Las Vegas gaming executive at Wynn Macau and MGM Resorts International

 Diane Blake: executive at a retail merchandising firm, formerly director of retail marketing at Levi Strauss

Todd Blake: entrepreneur and investor, former trustee at the K-8 Ross School District in Marin County

Jane Buckingham: founder and president of consumer-insights marketing firm Trendera and author of The Modern Girl's Guide to Life

Gordon Caplan: co-chairman of an international law firm based in New York City

I-Hsin “Joey” Chen: operates warehousing and related services for the shipping industry

Amy and Gregory Colburn: Gregory is a radiation oncologist in California

Robert Flaxman: CEO and founder of Crown Realty & Development, a real estate firm

 Mossimo Giannulli: fashion designer at Mossimo, sold at Target

 Elizabeth and Manuel Henriquez: Manuel is founder, chairman, and CEO of a publicly traded specialty finance company

 Douglas Hodge: former CEO of investment management company

 Felicity Huffman: actress best known for her roles on Trans America, Christmas with the Kranks, and Desperate Housewives

 Agustin Huneeus Jr.: owner of wine vineyards in Napa, California

 Davina and Bruce Isackson: Bruce is president of real estate development firm WP Investments

 Michelle Janavs: former executive of Hot Pockets

 Lori Loughlin: actress best known for her roles on Full House, Fuller House, and 90210

Elisabeth Kimmel: owner and president of a Las Vegas media company and former owner of KFMB Stations

 Marjorie Klapper: co-owner of M&M Bling jewelry business

 Toby MacFarlane: former senior executive at a title insurance company

 William McGlashan: founder and managing partner at private equity company TPG Growth

 Marci Palatella: CEO of Preservation Distillery in Kentucky and wife of former 49ers player Lou Palatella

 Peter Jan Sartorio: founder and president of Nate's and PJ's Foods

 Stephen Semprevivo: chief strategy and growth officer, Cydcor, LLC

 David Sidoo: Vancouver businessman and former Canadian Football League player

 Devin Sloane: founder and CEO of Aquatecture, LLC

 John Wilson: president and CEO of Hyannis Port Capital

 Homayoun Zadeh: an associate professor of dentistry at University of Southern California

 Robert Zangrillo: founder, chairman, and CEO of Dragon Global, a private investment firm with a focus on venture capital and real estate

 Government:

 In a newly unsealed court filing, Amazon blames an “extraordinary environment of corruption, interference, and retribution” by President Donald Trump for improperly influencing the U.S. Department of Defense to reaffirm its decision to award a $10 billion cloud computing project to its rival Microsoft.

Amazon says President Trump influenced a Pentagon cloud computing contract in “one of many dangerous examples of the elevation of the President’s personal interests above the national interest.”

“DoD strained at every step to ensure that Microsoft was given the benefit of the doubt, andscoured the record to invent wholly new and even more specious reasons to support maintaining the award to Microsoft where the proposals and evaluation criteria did not,” Amazon Web Services says in the filing.

Officials “held AWS and Microsoft to different standards,” allowing Microsoft to retain the contract “despite its inferior technical capability and higher price,” Amazon alleges. It calls the errors so egregious that they “can only be explained by the impact of the President’s anti-Amazon bias on DoD decisionmakers.”

 Microsoft responded quickly, effectively calling Amazon a sore loser, twice over.

 In reaffirming the decision, “the career procurement officials at the DoD decided that given the superior technical advantages and overall value, we continued to offer the best solution. We also know what it takes to serve the DoD having worked with them for more than forty years,” said Frank Shaw, a Microsoft corporate vice president, in a statement provided by the company.

 “Amazon seems to be saying the only way they can ever lose is if the procurement isn’t fair,” Shaw said. “But every month, the market tells them that’s not true. Large and sophisticated customers regularly choose Microsoft over AWS. They do this because of the strength of our technology, our understanding of complex projects, and our overall value.”

He said it’s “time we moved on and got this technology in the hands of those who urgently need it: the women and men who protect our nation.”

The statements by the Seattle-area tech giants further escalated a year-long war of words over the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) deal, a massive project to migrate the Pentagon’s computing infrastructure and data to the cloud. That migration is on hold pending Amazon’s appeal.

It’s not yet clear how the situation might change, if at all, under the administration of President-elect Joe Biden.

 Amazon is asking the U.S. Court of Federal Claims to declare the contract award to Microsoft improper, direct the Pentagon to solicit and re-evaluate new proposals, and replace the Pentagon team responsible for the selection.

The JEDI deal is significant not only for its financial value but for the message it sends to the broader market. Amazon is the longtime leader in cloud technology and market share. Microsoft has leveraged its relationships with business customers, and its strength in enterprise technology, to compete aggressively in the booming field.

Amazon was seen as a frontrunner for the contract prior to Microsoft winning the deal in October 2019. Amazon protested that decision, alleging that Trump’s personal animus toward the company improperly influenced the outcome. The Department of Defense reviewed the decision after a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction in February. Following the review, the DoD reaffirmed the decision in September.

 Amazon has vowed to keep fighting. Its 175-page amended complaint, originally filed under seal Oct. 23, was made public with redactions on Tuesday afternoon. The complaint alleges new flaws in the re-evaluation, calling it “riddled with errors even more egregious than those that plagued the initial award” of the contract to Microsoft last year.

For example, Amazon Web Services says a change in the Pentagon’s requirements, designed to correct a prior government error, allowed AWS to drop the price of its own proposal — taking away a price advantage that Microsoft had achieved based on what AWS calls the Redmond company’s “noncompliant technical approach.”

“AWS’s emergence as the lowest priced offeror complicated DoD’s efforts to steer the contract to Microsoft,” Amazon’s complaint says. “Faced with the untenable combination of Microsoft’s technical inferiority and now-higher price, DoD manipulated its evaluations to a degree that belies any façade of rationality.”

Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy with a chart showing the Amazon cloud division’s revenue growth at the recent AWS re: Invent keynote.

Microsoft’s Shaw responded in a statement, “As the losing bidder, Amazon was informed of our pricing and they realized they’d originally bid too high. They then amended aspects of their bid to achieve a lower price.”

In its September decision reaffirming the contract award, the Pentagon said it “determined that Microsoft’s proposal continues to represent the best value to the Government.”

In its own statement Tuesday, Amazon said the price change made its bid lower by tens of millions of dollars.

 “The fact that correcting just one error can move the needle that substantially demonstrates why it’s important that the DoD fix all of the evaluation errors that remain unaddressed, and ensure they are getting access to the best technology at the best price,” the AWS statement says, in part. “We had made clear that unless the DoD addressed all of the defects in its initial decision, we would continue to pursue a fair and objective review, and that’s exactly where we find ourselves today.”

 Amazon’s complaint calls President Trump’s influence on the procurement process “one of many dangerous examples of the elevation of the President’s personal interests above the national interest.” In this “environment of corrupt pressure,” Amazon says procurement officials faced retribution including possible loss of their jobs if they awarded the contract to Amazon.

“That environment has intensified in the months since the initial award, in lockstep with DoD’s increasingly irrational errors in its effort to satisfy the Commander in Chief and re-award JEDI to Microsoft,” the filing says.

 However, Microsoft points to a report by the Defense Department’s inspector general in April that found, in part, that DoD officials “were not pressured regarding their decision on the award of the contract by any DoD leaders more senior to them, who may have communicated with the White House.”

The inspector general’s report also found that Pentagon officials violated federal regulations after the contract was awarded to Microsoft, by disclosing confidential aspects of its bid to Amazon.

Amazon suggests that the full extent of Trump’s influence isn’t clear, pointing out that the White House exercised presidential privilege and instructed several Defense Department witnesses not to answer questions from investigators. The company points to evidence including reports that Trump told then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis to “screw Amazon” out of the contract, which Mattis reportedly told Trump he wouldn’t do.

 Bezos owns the Washington Post, one of Trump’s frequent targets. Trump has also battled publicly with Amazon over its U.S. Postal Service contract.

 Microsoft and Amazon compete aggressively in the cloud market and routinely trade barbs. During his recent keynote at the company’s re:Invent conference, Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy showed stats that put AWS’s share of the cloud infrastructure market at 45%, more than double Microsoft Azure. Jassy called Microsoft’s database licensing restrictions “punitive” for customers, and criticized Microsoft’s overall approach to cloud technology.

“If you look in the enterprise technology space, there are some providers who are competitor-focused,” Jassy said. “They look at what their competitors are doing, and they try to fast-follow one of them. We have a competitor like that across the lake from us here in Washington.”

The same week, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella similarly criticized Amazon, without naming the company, citing what has become a common criticism of Amazon given the breadth of its business. “No customer wants to be dependent on a provider that sells them technology on one end, and competes with them on the other,” Nadella said. “It’s never been more important to get this equation right.”

Unions:

The main American auto union announced Monday it had reached an agreement with US authorities to bring to an end a far-reaching corruption scandal that has ensnared two union presidents.

 United Autoworkers (UAW), which represents workers at the "Big Three" carmakers, has been working for a year to clean up following the theft and bribery scandal that led to convictions for 15 union or Fiat Chrysler executives.

 "This civil resolution brings to a close the government's investigation and is testament to the hard work that has been done to make the necessary structural and cultural changes," UAW President Rory Gamble said in a statement.

"Under our current leadership, the UAW has proactively weeded out individuals who put their personal benefit over our members' interests and who abused their positions of trust to defraud our union and our membership," he said.

Under the terms of the proposed settlement to the corruption and fraud charges, a federal court would appoint an independent monitor with powers to investigate possible misconduct and discipline UAW officials.

The oversight would last for six years but could be ended earlier, according to the statement.

The scandal that shook up the once all-powerful union involved two UAW presidents and their underlings who siphoned of $1.5 million from the membership.

In addition, a UAW vice president and other executives received $2 million in kickbacks involving contracts with worker-training centers.

 The union said it already paid back over $15 million to the training centers.

 The UAW also agreed to resolve a tax investigation by making a payment of $1.5 million to the Internal Revenue Service.

 The scandal -- which took down former UAW presidents Gary Jones and Denis Williams -- involved several years of bribes and kickbacks as well as revelations that some union officials and auto executives effectively stole money meant for worker training and spent it on golfing outings, pricey cigars and fancy meals.

 Alphons Iacobelli, former Fiat Chrysler US labor relations chief, was also convicted in the case, for among other things buying jewelry, designer clothes, furniture, electronics and other luxuries for FCA UAW members, and paying off the mortgage of former UAW vice president General Holiefield, who died in 2015.

 Under the settlement, the union will hold a referendum on changing the UAW's election method to a direct model, where the entire membership can vote for the president and executive board members.

 US Attorney Matthew Schneider praised Gamble for his efforts to reform the union.

 "The men and women of the UAW deserve honest and faithful leaders dedicated to serving the best interests of the membership," he said in the statement.

 Business:

 Hertz Global Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HTZ) received the go-ahead to sell potentially worthless new shares from a bankruptcy court on Friday.

 What Happened

 The planned offering could rake in up to $1 billion and is designed to take advantage of a rally in its shares.

 The proceeds from the sale of shares will help the car rental firm clear its massive debts, reported Bloomberg Law.

 Hertz attorney, Tom Lauria, said the company intends “to move very swiftly.”

 Why It Matters

 According to Bloomberg Law, Lauria, along with other lawyers, agreed that the sale of stock, led by Jefferies LLC, was unprecedented.

 Hertz would warn investors that "the common stock could ultimately be worthless,” Lauriainformed the court.

 A committee of Hertz’s unsecured creditors supported the sale of shares as it could bring in $500 million, removing the need to resort to expensive bankruptcy loans.

 Hertz bonds soared after the ruling with 5.5% notes due 2024 rising approximately 13 cents on the dollar to 48.5 cents, the best performance in two months.

 Purchase of stock in bankrupt companies is risky for investors, as bondholders, suppliers and other creditors must be repaid in full before shareholders can be compensated, and this rarely happens.

 The New York Stock Exchange began the process of delisting Hertz in May, but the company is now appealing it.

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 As America has abandoned its cherished virtues and no longer values these as we once did, the nation is weakening and suffering, just as every nation that has gone before it and followed the same path. Freedom with virtue strengthens any nation. Leaders must be men and women of impeccable character and integrity, or they will not make good leaders.

 Similarly, a nation that embraces freedom while vice is present and dominant, provides the freedom to be wretched. Today we have national problems that resist efforts aimed at finding durable solutions. Just a few examples will suffice:

 1. Public education no longer prepares students for colleges and universities they cannot afford anyway. Standardized test scores place America firmly in the bottom among developed nations when it comes to science and math. Students in other countries today know more about American history than do American children.

2. Colleges and universities have become absurdly expensive as easily-obtained student debt enables the higher education industry to never be concerned about reining in costs. Yet companies, particularly tech companies, are increasingly complaining that they are not getting college graduates with the skills needed to be successful.

3. National infrastructure, from the power grid to bridges and roads are crumbling and collapsing. In California windy days now require electricity be shut off.

4. Technology is passing us by. From 5G to bullet trains, we are not well-equipped to fully utilize all of what the latest technologies have to offer.

5. Conspiracy theories and social media have fed a culture that no longer respects and reveres subject matter experts. From the pandemic to climate change, a suspicious and skeptical populace dig in and fight against the brightest and most competent advice available.

6. Violence has so overtaken the nation that other countries are advising their citizens to avoid travel to the United States. Among all developed countries, in terms of mass murders, rapes and other crimes America is the worst.

7. Debt has become catastrophically high across all sectors in America. From national debt to corporate debt, student debt, vehicle loans and leases, and credit cards have created so much debt today that mathematically it simply cannot be repaid.

8. Monetary and fiscal intrusions into the financial sector have socialized finance and so perverted asset values and income streams that the stock market has become a gambling casino, interest rates are zero or negative, and zombie corporations continue to remain in business on nothing more than access to free debt.

9. The wealth gap has widened so greatly that well over half of Americans don’t have even $1,000 in savings while new billionaires with mega-mansions, yachts and jets are becoming more common.

 Each of the great civilizations in the world passed through a series of stages from their birth to their decline to their death. Historians have listed these in ten stages.

 The first stage moves from bondage to spiritual faith. The second from spiritual faith to great courage. The third stage moves from great courage to liberty. The fourth stage moves from liberty to abundance. The fifth stage moves from abundance to selfishness. The sixth stage moves from selfishness to complacency. The seventh stage moves from complacency to apathy. The eighth stage moves from apathy to moral decay. The ninth stage moves from moral decay to dependence. And the tenth and last stage moves from dependence to bondage.

 This progression happened to Greece, to Persia, to Babylon, and to Rome. And if it happened to these nations, then it can happen today. Unless we find the need for reformation and reform - decline and destruction are inevitable.