The country is reeling from skyrocketing crime and there seems to be no hope in sight. Every urban area is setting crime records, and rural areas are being overrun with imported and home brewed drugs. Every category of crime is soaring, but it’s the brutal, raw, senseless violence that stuns Americans. Carjackings and robberies have become routinely bloody, and innocent people just walking down the street are randomly beaten for no apparent reason. To compound the misery, radical leftist prosecutors in blue cities are declining to charge many crimes and literally letting violent offenders go, with absurd no-bail policies.

There are ample statistics to demonstrate that crime is at historic levels, and public frustration is beyond palpable to pulsing anger and fear. The news is filled with countless battered victims, horrific crimes, and unbelievable examples of criminals being arrested multiple times in JUST ONE DAY. And to add insult to injury, various fools in the Democrat Media Complex actually try to excuse the carnage as only perception and just right-wing conspiracy theories to malign Democrats. In rich irony, two “defund the police” Democrat Congresswomen were carjacked a couple months ago, but that did not abate the insane Democrat drumbeat to disparage law enforcement.

While Democrats cling to defunding the police by trying to disguise it as police reform, Americans are calling for stepped-up policing. Despite being relentlessly smeared the past couple years, law enforcement is working overtime and stretched to its limits. Not to mention, the police are finding much of their effort to enforce the law is pointless because progressive prosecutors and liberal judges are simply refusing to uphold the law and just putting the bad guys back on the streets no matter how many times they are arrested, or deported.

Citizens are afraid and aggravated, law enforcement is exhausted, the judicial system is strained to breaking, and politicians are exasperated. This untenable debacle is not by accident; and the ensuing inevitable finger-pointing unfortunately not unexpected. Leftists and totalitarians have been seeking to destabilize American society by pushing immorality for decades. Tyrants and those who lust for power know that an independent moral people will not be subjugated, but a dependent immoral people will readily be enslaved.

Leftists know if they can undermine the moral foundations of a nation, the people will be too lazy to provide for themselves and too corrupt to govern themselves, so they will by necessity turn to a despot to care for them and maintain order. However, therein lies the answer.

While the blame game runs rampant with plenty of blame to go around, the solution resides with the people. Our government and institutions reflect the will of the people; we elected them and tolerate their apathy, corruption, or incompetence by repeatedly reelecting them. A free, peaceful, and prosperous country only survives because a righteous people demand freedom and can govern and regulate themselves, and will accept nothing less.

Out-of-control crime is a symptom of eroding culture and decaying society. We can waste time pondering the causes of crime, but we have always had education deficiencies, employment challenges, and poverty. Or we can waste more time trying to assign blame. However, when the nation was younger, less educated, and much poorer, crime ebbed and flowed, but it was never so cruel, heinous, or ruthless.

The difference? Morality. Religion. An abiding common fear of God. America was founded to establish religious freedom; pilgrims came and settled the wilderness continent solely for the right to worship God as they chose. That overarching purpose is the essence of America and has colored our culture and fulfilled our history.

This is not to say cruelty has not existed, but it has never been so prevalent. The average American was kinder and more moral and even many of the criminals had some modicum of decency to not indiscriminately harm their victims or bystanders. Particularly the past half century, pop culture has glorified drugs, sex, and violence, and as the entertainment industry told us it was okay to indulge our vices, too many of us drifted away from God. We turned God out of our schools and public places, so now too many turn away from God without a thought.

We can debate crime and the countless ills of modern society, but the problem is our waning morality. America does not need more laws, more programs, or police reform, America needs revival! These epidemic problems can only be solved when the people turn back to God. We The People must restore the golden rule and embrace God – God is love. Love heals all. We need the Lord to help us renew our culture and heal our society.

“Owe no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law” (Romans 13:8).

Pete Riehm is the host of Common Sense Radio heard 8 pm every Thursday on FMTalk106.5 or streaming at fmtalk1065.com. Email him at peteriehm@bellsouth.net or on MEWE @PeteRiehm or read all his columns at http://www.renewamerica.com/.