The numbers are in and the results are disheartening: violent crime is on the rise. Should we be surprised?

Those in the political arena certainly aren't: the FBI is howling at the White House, and presidential hopefuls are loaded with new ammunition against the Bush Administration. I should've known it would be the President's fault. But politics aside, should we be surprised at the rate of crime in America?

Violent crime is a sad reality, but it's existance shouldn't be surprising. It's the promised result of a deteriorating moral structure in a materialistic world. As I was mulling over likely causes of the rising crime rates, I couldn't help but think about the brilliant words of Alexis de Tocqueville in Democracy in America (one of my all-time favorite books, BTW).

De Tocqueville warned that a lack of religious beliefs in our democratic nation would eventually turn Americans into materialistic monsters.