96, p. 31) John DiIulio asserts that "each generation of crime-prone boys has been about three times as dangerous as the one before it." And, he argues the downhill slide into utter moral bankruptcy is about to speed up because each generation of youth criminals is growing up in more extreme conditions of "moral poverty" than the one before it. Mr. DiIulio defines moral poverty as "growing up surrounded by deviant, delinquent, and criminal adults in abusive, violence-ridden, fatherless, Godless, and jobless settings." The "super-predator", as told to a Washington press gathering by DiIulio, is a breed of criminal so dangerous that even the older inmates working their way through life sentences complain that their youthful counterparts are out of control. He cites a growing body of scientific evidence from a variety of academic disciplines that indicates that churches ameliorate or cure many severe socio-economic ills. "Let [the liberal elite] argue church-state issues...all the way to the next funeral of an innocent kid caught in the crossfire," he says. "Our guiding principle should be, `Build churches, not jails'--or we will reap the whirlwind of our own moral bankruptcy." (Paul, 1996, p. 27) DiIulio's "super predators" are born of abject "moral poverty," which he defines as: The poverty of being without loving, capable, responsible adults who teach you right from wrong. It is the poverty of being without parents, guardians, relatives, friends, teachers, coaches, clergy and others who habituate you to feel joy at others' joy, pain at others' pain, happiness when you do right, remorse when you do wrong. It is the poverty of growing up in the virtual absence of people who teach these lessons by their own everyday example, and who insist that you follow suit and behave accordingly. In the extreme, it is the poverty of growing up surrounded by deviant, delinquent, and criminal adults in chaotic, dysfunctional, fatherless, Godless, and job...
