Personal Responsibility

Recently i had a visitor from another country ask me what i thought about the US. My reply echoed feelings expressed by Paul the apostle in the beginning of Romans 9. "I am speaking the truth in Christ- I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit- that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh." ( Romans 9:1-3 ESV) While my feelings are not as strong as Paul's they are growing as I see the results of a society which has turned so decisively away from God. The longer that a person lives, the greater potential for having perspective. The US has changed radically since the 1950's. To another similar question i responded that the US is like two countries because we are so deeply divided. One way to understand this is the realm of personal responsibility. A growing majority of Americans believe that they are not responsible for their actions, that it is someone else's fault or responsibility, or that they are justified in irresponsible behavior. Those willing to take personal responsibility seem to be a shrinking minority. One evidence for this is the growing number of people who are financially dependent on the government. I clearly remember when then President Lyndon Johnson declared the War on Poverty. For the first time the federal government was going to get involved on a massive scale. This was fifty years ago. What are the results? Seventeen trillion dollars of wealth distribution, the efforts of countless government workers in innumerable agencies, and the ever growing expansion of services have only incentivized "poverty." Generation after generation is born into, grows up in and produces another generation of dependency. There used to be a sense of shame in receiving money coerced from others via taxation. Most people accepted it as a temporary last resort rather than a deserved entitlement. Now I find Christians of younger generations who have no qualms about it at all. So where does a sense of personal responsibility come from? Knowledge, belief and obedience to the Scriptures produced personal responsibility in generations now passed from the scene. Consider the following verses: "So then each of us will give an account of himself to God." ( Romans 14:12 ESV) "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil." ( 2 Corinthians 5:10 ESV) "Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done." (Revelation 20:11-12. Am I saying that those who are on welfare go to hell? No. I am saying that the Bible teaches that we are personally responsible for what we do, and that we cannot blame others for our actions.