“Men will be . . . disobedient to parents, unthankful, disloyal, having no natural affection.”​—2 Timothy 3:1-3.

‘Disobedience to Parents’

Children are the flesh and blood of their parents and are indebted to them for countless blessings. It is a frightening commentary when youths fail to show parents the honor, respect and care that they deserve. As one Bible scholar put it: “It is the sign of a supremely decadent civilization when youth loses all respect for age, and fails to recognize the unpayable debt and the basic duty it owes to those who gave it life.” Is such really the case in 20th-century families?

“I’m afraid of my own child,” lamented one mother in talking about one of the most sobering evidences of children rebelling against parents​—parent abuse. In one violent outburst, this woman’s 17-year-old son had dislocated her shoulder with a brutal kick. Just how common is such violence against parents? In reporting the results of research on family violence in the United States, the book Behind Closed Doors noted: “One out of three children between the ages of three and seventeen hit their parents each year.” Is it not normally a gross lack of respect when a child raises a hand against his parents?​—Compare Ephesians 6:1-3.

Children are rebelling against their parents in less violent ways too. In the 1960’s it was the hippie dress and long hair. But when adults copied those trends, young people were forced to come up with new ways to rebel. The book Childstress! explains: “Through all the creativity, tried and true means of defiance grow in intensity​—drugs, drinking, truancy and running away from home. As the generation of grandparents exclaims, ‘I’d hate to start raising kids in this day and age.’”

Young children are not the only ones who fail to show their parents the love and respect they deserve. There is another group​—adults who abuse the elderly. In what way? Psychology Today explains: “Elder abuse can be physical, exploitative (confiscating a parent’s savings, say), neglectful (failing to give food or medication) or psychological (name-calling). Abusers also often threaten to put their parents out on the street or to commit them to a mental institution or a nursing home if they complain about the abuse.”

It is especially sad that many grown children do not feel a responsibility toward aged parents. For example, F. Ivan Nye, in a research paper published in Journal of Marriage and the Family, noted: “A majority of the respondents [in this research study] do see a duty to keep in touch with relatives and to assist in financial emergencies, yet over 30 per cent disagree that such duty (financial) exists and less than 40 per cent of either sex express strong disapproval of others who fail to discharge such obligations.” This led Nye to conclude that “kinship” is “in the process of disappearing from the normative structure and may well become” an optional family function. Is this not “the sign of a supremely decadent civilization”?​—Compare 1 Timothy 5:3-8.

Not all children spurn parental authority. But accounts about youths rebelling against their parents are widespread enough to establish beyond question that what the apostle Paul foretold is coming true today: “Men will be . . . disobedient to parents, unthankful, disloyal.”

Future issues of The Watchtower will discuss in detail other aspects of Paul’s words at 2 Timothy 3:1-5. But one thing is certain: Reports about children rebelling against parental authority and a decline in natural affection, as Paul foretold, are widespread enough to constitute part of the clear evidence that we are living in “the last days” of this system of things.