Matthew 7:13-14 — Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

I heard a news item today about the Japanese government’s intent to strengthen moral values. A while back the education ministry announced fully revised material for moral education in schools.They distributed it to all students in 2014. It cost about 9 million dollars to make some 10 million copies.
The object is that the content encourages students to think on their own about moral values and social norms, and act accordingly. The ministry hopes it will be used not only in classes but also at home and in communities.
This was a follow on from February 2013 when the government’s panel on improving Japan’s education system decided to make morals a regular subject in schools by 2018.
I was reminded of a survey I saw reported. Many of an admittedly small sample — 725 American teens — said they were confident in their ethical decision-making capabilities, but also believed that lying, cheating, plagiarizing, and behaving violently are necessary in some instances to succeed. The bottom line is that kids believe things can be “wrong,” but can also be okay in some situations.
Moral relativism is a philosophy that asserts there is no global, absolute moral law that applies to all people, for all time, and in all places. It’s the standard by which many young people are steering.
When I put these reports side by side in my mind the question that came into my mind was “how do we set the moral compass?” The Japanese government is seeking to do it by education. American teens seem to be absorbing theirs from peer groups and media influences. You know my answers, I hope. For me, parents should be setting the direction, and letting their children know that the map is the Bible. Our children need to know that getting off the path is dangerous — as Christian found in his progress:

Out of the way we went, and then we found
What ’twas to tread upon forbidden ground:
And let them that come after have a care,
Lest heedlessness makes them as we to fare;
Lest they, for trespassing, his prisoners are,
Whose castle’s Doubting, and whose name’s Despair. (Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan)