Stop Saying No to Sin

Christians have been trained to fight sin the same way teenagers were taught to fight drugs in the 1980’s. Both have been markedly ineffective.

Nancy Regan started her famous campaign against drugs with a simple slogan: “Just say no.” In response, a Los Angeles based movement called D.A.R.E (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) began producing education seminars in schools around the country. These high-energy, high-intensity, high-school programs usually resulted in kids signing a pledge to say no to drugs and gangs.

Part of the program consisted of showing students a variety of drugs and detailing their effects in the hopes of scaring kids off. However, a scientific study of D.A.R.E’s effectiveness in getting kids to stop using drugs proved the campaign was unsuccessful [1][1]Rosenbaum, Dennis P. and Gordon S. Hanson. “Assessing the Effects of School-Based Drug Education: A Six-Year Multilevel Analysis of Project D.A.R.E.”Journal of Research in Crime & Delinquency35.4 (1998): 381-412.

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Your Turn

Sin is too sexy, too tempting. We’re helpless to just say no. That foe is too strong and we will lose. But God is stronger! The Gospel rewires our hearts. Come join the conversation on our blog! We want to hear from you about quitting just saying no, but relying on the Holy Spirit instead. ~ Devotionals Daily