Transcript from OSBN Radio Ep.0006
Jeremy Sarber, host
Air date: 4/23/09

I have to admit, I’ve been a bit overwhelmed this week. Maybe even discouraged, though I don’t know if discouraged is the right word for it. It’s been one of those weeks where all of the troubles and all of the problems in the world have been on my mind. I’m not talking about my own troubles. I’m talking about the troubles of society as a whole. I’ve come to this conclusion: I miss Mayberry. Over the past few years, I have grown to love the Andy Griffith show more and more. For those who read my personal website or listen to me preach a regular basis know how often I reference the show. I have never lived in Mayberry. I have never lived during a time like Mayberry. Perhaps there never was a Mayberry, but even so, I miss it. Maybe I should say I long for it. Even if there never was a Mayberry, at least there was a time when the concept of Mayberry was appealing enough for prime time television. People wanted to see shows like that. One of the things I love about the Andy Griffith show is how I never feel a sense of guilt after watching it. There is so much filth and profanity and ungodly subjects on TV today that when I finally turn it off, I feel worse for having watched it. But that’s not the case for shows like Andy Griffith. I feel pretty good after watching it. I don’t have that feeling like I’ve really wasted my time. There used to be standards, if in no other place, at least on TV.

Mayberry is an ideal. It was a place where people cared about one another. Not just close friends or family members, but strangers and neighbors as well. They cared enough that they’d not only help each other when it was convenient, but even when they had to go out of their way. Even if it meant sacrificing something they wanted. I remember the episode where Andy cherished his fishing pole. It was more than just a material object to him. It had a sentimental value. Yet, when he saw the only way to get Aunt Bea what she wanted for her birthday was to give up that fishing pole, he gladly did it. Opie later realized the pole was gone and said, “You sold it?! But you said you’d never sell it.” Andy looked at Aunt Bea as she’s so excited by her gift she can hardly contain it and tells Opie, “No, not quite. I said I kept it because it gave me so much enjoyment and that I wouldn’t sell it for money. And I didn’t sell it for money. I swapped it for a different kind of enjoyment. So that fishing pole’s doing just what it did before. Even right now it’s giving me pleasure – real heart-warming pleasure.” Honestly, would we rather see people shooting each other than helping each other? Would we rather sit down and watch people having sex than a young couple sharing an innocent dance or a picnic? Would we rather follow stories of greed and lust than episodes of love and goodness?

I have to see that kind of filth everywhere. When I turn on the TV, it’s there. When I turn on the radio, it’s there. When I watch the news, it’s there. Even when I go to the grocery store, it’s there. I was at the store this week and as I went down one of the aisles, there was younger couple there shopping with their two or three old who was sitting in the cart. The kid is crying. Not screaming, but crying. As I walk by, the father yells, “Will you shut up?” The mother says, “This kid is driving me nuts.” I honestly wanted to grab the child and run. Not for the sake of kidnapping, but just to relieve that poor child from such monstrous parents. I don’t care if I just happened to catch them on a bad day, you do not talk to a two-year old child that way. You muster up some patience, comfort the child, and speak to him with the love you ought to have for him. Then, in the very next aisle of the store, there was a five-year old taking cereal boxes off the shelf and throwing them on the floor in a temper tantrum. What does the mother do? She looks over at the child and says in a polite voice, “Hey now. Please, don’t touch anything.” A few moments later, the kid is still throwing his tantrum, and the mother says, “If you quit I’ll get you some candy when we leave.” What?! Why would a parent bargain with their five-year old? Parents need to muster up some courage, it doesn’t take much, and tell their children and show them discipline. And not only for the really bad things. For everything. I’m not going to claim to be a parenting expert and I have no children of my own, but doesn’t the idea of a parent making deals with their very young children seem a bit ridiculous? You hear it all the time. The parent says no to their kids having ice cream, the kid throws a fit, and the parents says, “Well, you can’t have a full bowl of ice cream. Only a scoop.” That kid just learned a valuable lesson. If I throw a fit, I’ll get what I want.

In the same day, I saw two examples of parents who are missing the mark. One has no love and the other has no discipline. With our children being raised this way, what do we expect our future generations to look like? Where are children going to learn responsibility if not from their parents? Where will they learn how to respect and treat others? How will they ever learn to discipline themselves when they’re older if they’re not disciplined by their parents, who should be old enough and wise enough to know better? I’m certainly not going to blame parents for everything, but good, biblical parenting would be a great start. It makes me cringe to sit in the coffee shop sometimes and listen to what comes out of the mouths of a group of teenagers. It’s horrifying. I kid you not, I have sat in Main Street Coffee House in Nappanee, Indiana, which is not some big urban city, it’s an Amish farm town, and listened to white middle class kids talking about having sex, wanting to slit someone’s throat, doing hard drugs, and other disgusting things. I’ve even spoken up a time or two only to have one of those teenagers tell me to bleep off. Are you serious?! I might have used a few bad words in my day, but never in the vicinity of an adult. I certainly wouldn’t have said something like that to their face. But that’s where we’re at in America. We’re far from Mayberry. In fact, most people would consider the idea of Mayberry as being too “cheesy”.

I researched some statistics not long ago and found out the number of abortions among unwed teenage girls has actually decreased over the years. It is always, always a good thing to hear the number of abortions has decreased anywhere so I don’t want anyone to misunderstand what I’m about to say. But do you know why fewer teenage girls are getting abortions? It’s not because less teenage girls are getting pregnant. It’s because there’s no shame in having a baby out of wedlock even when you’re a teenager anymore. There’s no shame. It’s not an embarrassment to the girl or her family. In some places, it’s downright trendy. Remember those girls from a Massachusetts high school last summer that made a pact to get pregnant? Seventeen girls got pregnant…on purpose! School officials had discovered the pact after they noticed an above average number of girls requesting pregnancy tests at their health clinic. Their principle told TIME magazine, “Some girls seemed more upset when they weren’t pregnant than when they were.” One of the fathers was a 24-year old homeless man! We’re not talking about young couples who have been overcome by temptation late one night and the girl accidentally gets pregnant. No, sir. We’re far from Mayberry where the worst crime done is the occasional rock through a window or the town drunk getting liquored up every Saturday night. Even Otis had enough decency and respect for the community to walk, walk not drive, down to the local jail and hang out there until he sobered up. Yeah, I’d say we’re far from Mayberry.

I don’t mean to sound like I blame today’s youth for all of this either. The youth are learning it from us. We’re the ones teaching them how to behave, or not teaching them. I know the folks of Mayberry were not without flaws. They were not without sins. But they did have enough shame not to flaunt their sins. You might say that makes them hypocrites, but I say that makes them decent. Do you think when you step foot in a church full of self-professing Christians that there is no sin among them? John wrote, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.” That’s not the point. I’m not expecting to find a group of sinless people here on this earth. I’m looking for a place where people believe there is a firm difference between right and wrong and they try their very best to do what they know is right. I want a place where people care about each other, where people are willing to help one another, where, if nothing else, people are willing to be friendly to one another when they pass in the street. I want a place that moves at a slower pace, at least on Sundays. I want a place where political correctness is a foreign concept and common sense still reigns. I want to find a place where folks still go to church and they’re not ashamed by it. Where parents have the courage to say to their sons and daughters, “I’m sorry. You can’t be in that baseball league because it interferes with going to church.” How about a place where parents sit down every night with their children and talk about the Bible? How about a place where families still pray before meals? Wouldn’t it be great to live in a place where issues of life and death, such as abortion, never take a back seat to issues of our wallets? Or a place where trees and swamp rats are not more important than people? Or where being an elected public official still carries a level of honor? I’d love to find a place where people are still dealt with as individuals and not according to some bureaucratic rulebook. Is that an impossible dream? Is there no such thing as Mayberry?

I may have felt overwhelmed this week, but I have not lost hope. I know where Mayberry can still be found and the even gates of hell shall prevail against it. I go there every Sunday and every Wednesday night. Whether I’m in Indiana, Georgia, Illinois, North Carolina, or any other state I travel to, I can always find Mayberry. It’s at the local Primitive Baptist Church. I specifically say the Primitive Baptist church because, unfortunately, many churches today no longer resemble the sincere, simplistic church I read about in the New Testament. I don’t want a lot of the hype and worldliness and trendiness that has become so common in mega-churches today. I want a place where folks slow down, give their time and attention to the Lord, love one another, care for one another. A place where people believe in right and wrong and strive to do what is right. It’s a place where I can get a much-needed break every week from the filth and overwhelming moral decay that is in the world. The church is even better than Mayberry. For one, it’s real. I don’t have to watch it on TV. I can live it. Secondly, there’s no trigger-happy deputy trying to police everybody. Well, maybe sometimes. But they usually don’t carry a gun. But above all, the Lord is there.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I feel sorry for you. If you’re not able to see the peacefully sweet picture that Mayberry is, then perhaps I can’t help you there. But if you are like me and you long for a place like that, may I suggest you find a Primitive Baptist church near you and visit it this Sunday. That’s what the church directory on the Old School Baptist Network is for…unless you live in Texas. I promise, I’ll get to it. I’m going to take a break. When I come back, we’ll talk about the absolute triumph of Christ.

To hear the entire broadcast, visit OSBNRadio.com.