The positive effects on society of following Christ have innumerable examples. Unfortunately some examples of the positive effects of the Gospel are most clearly seen in the loss of those benefits when Christ is rejected.

The history of my lifetime sadly allows such a comparison.

For many years the 10 commandments and the Lord's Prayer were accepted and promoted in various ways in public schools, During my childhood years in  in the USA both the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments were posted on the classroom wall and the Lord's Prayer was recited at the beginning of the day.

In 1963 the 10 commandments and Lord's prayer were banned from use in USA public schools. The graphs below show quick and marked changes in key social indices (click on chart for larger image): 

	Charts from: David Barton, America: to Pray or Not to Pray, Wall Builders Press, 1991. To download full size images right-click and "save-as" on: divorce rates or pre-marital sex or sexually transmitted diseases or violent crime or scholastic aptitude tests

The outcomes of 'freedom' from the most widely accepted moral code in western culture were swift and devastating. The charts above show only the numbers, not the pain.

Please do what you can to follow Christ personally and to encourage others to do the same in your generation and the next.