On Moral and Religious Upbringing

Is it any wonder that there can be no peace in a world where everything is done to guarantee that the youth of every nation grow up absolutely without moral and religious discipline, and without the shadow of an interior life, or of that spirituality and charity and faith which alone can safeguard the treasures and agreements made by governments?

And Catholics, thousands of Catholics everywhere, have the consummate audacity to weep and complain because God does not hear their prayers for peace, when they have neglected not only His will, but the ordinary dictates of natural reason and prudence, and let their children grow up according to the standards of a civilization of hyenas.

-Thomas Merton, "The Seven Story Mountain"

Though it seems harsh on Catholics, this is the only background from which Merton could speak with personal authority. It is safe to say that this statement can be far more broadly applied.