If you are interested in rearing up a generation of hippies and super-hippies, there are a few simple directions to follow.
First of all, abolish all teaching about God, the Bible, and God’s moral law from the schools. The child will then grow up believing that these things are really not important and that religion is really a private matter and a question of taste.
Second, emphasize the individual and his rights, not the claims of God and His law. Make sure that the child has a strong and intense passion for his rights, and no concern about his moral responsibilities. Then you can be sure that he will be irresponsible and yet very demanding.
Third, make sure that the child feels entitled to the best of everything and feels cheated if he is denied instant paradise. Then the child will be sure to demand everything and riot if denied it.
Fourth, convince the child that man’s real problem is not his sin but a bad environment. Teach him that his problems are due to the evils of big business, warmongers, big labor, profiteering farmers, politicians, and the like. Never let him suspect that all men are sinners, including, and, maybe, especially himself, and that their real need is for regeneration in Jesus Christ. Then the child will grow up with a revolutionary rage at everybody instead of looking to God for regeneration.
Add all this up, and what do you have? Our public schools are an amazingly efficient and economical machine for producing hippies. Then too our indulgent homes are wonderful breeding places for hippies, and our churches are clearly in favor of the whole business.
The world today must love hippies: it does such a good job of producing them. We are getting what we asked and paid for; if you want to complain to the management, look in the mirror. If you want better management, look to God, before it is too late. Meanwhile, remember, we are getting what we paid for, and if we want something else, we are going to have to pay for it, in work, sweat, and sacrifice.
Taken from A Word In Season: Daily Messages on the Faith for All of Life, Volume 1, pp. 85-86