In my early years I was sent to a Religion oriented boarding school for ten months a year primarily due to the fact my Dad's employer sent  him to the other side of the  Globe to work and I was the problem child In comparison with my siblings.  
  The school I was forced to attend taught me without a doubt, stealing is wrong, thieves will be punished on Earth and much worse in Hell.
   
  By the time I was in Junior High I no longer  believed in Hell outside of Earth, but most  of what I was taught in school about right and wrong was firmly engrained in my mind.  

that stupidity was the motivating factor in regards to the ucla players. I tend to give young people a pass when the do stupid shit. Hopefully they will learn a lesson from this.

Why did they wait to go to China to get the urge to shoplift from those stores?  Don't they have high end shops like Gucci and Louis Vuitton back home in LA?  Oh ... they probably do shoplift back in LA but, when caught, walk away with an apology (from the Security Guards) so they can get back to playing basketball and get their NBA contracts.  
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I'm rather hoping that Chinese law runs its normal course. If convicted (video tape evidence!) and they have to spend 3 years in a Chinese jail, maybe it will give them a chance to learn a foreign language and how to use chopsticks.  China might use them as "forced labor" to help to train the Chinese national basketball teams.  
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By keeping the American law breakers in jail, I can also see Trump negotiating a deal to trade three UCLA prisoners for Guo Wengui and a dissident-to-be-named-later.  Guo uses twitter to highlight and criticize corruption in China.

-- Modified on 11/11/2017 10:31:55 PM

...The words RELIGION & HONESTY have absolutely NO correlation what so ever & there are hundreds of examples out there that prove that, religious leaders have taken dishonest advantage of their followers from ancient times until the present. I have great respect for the belief systems of others as long as they don't try to use them to influence me with their beliefs. And it is totally WRONG to try to tie the foolish actions of a few American basketball players to this kind of religious discussion.

All of them acting the fools on foreign soil. And a religious upbringing doesn't really matter, even coming from a single family homes such as myself. I know guys that were forced at a young age to go to military school, and when they came home, they were wired weird. This is somehow embedded in your moral fiber. either you go left, or you go right.

I believe people of faith to be more friendly, kinder and generous.  And I believe them to raise children with those traits.  They have a better chance to not fall in some pitfalls of growing up.  And they are taught from a young age that life is precious for all and how to serve others.  They are taught to respect others and not be a bully.

Do you find him "to be more friendly, kinder and generous?"  Perhaps you should ask the teenage girls he abused.

of course there are always exceptions.  So generally, I would say most religious people are good people.  So generally, I would say most religious people aren't terrorists.  So generally, I would say most religious people are good people.

You mean like ISIS and the Taliban? They love Allah and the Qu'ran.

...Our friend Madison's wonderful generalizations may be true however I believe the cause for Americans miss-behavior is quite specific, much of our society has lost respect for other people & their property. Now some believe it's ok to break laws or rules as long as you don't get caught & I believe that attitude of disrespect has amplified within the last few years with the onset of the ME generation. As long as we continue to identify & evaluate people by the color of their skin, their gender, or their spiritual beliefs our society will continue to descend on this path, and that attitude MUST STOP where it starts, ...At the top !!!

"Do as I say, not what I do," destroys the foundation of parental influence on a child's moral development. Kids are adept at sniffing out hypocrisy, and once discovered, leaves the parents powerless to preach at them, and the kids free to dismiss their moral norms, while leaning on the moral norms of their peers.

is a direct correlation between your assessment that much of our society has lost respect for other people & their property and the increase number of folks that identify themselves as non-religious.

...isn't any correlation between lack of respect for others & religion, thanks H.C. for posting that very concise pew survey but that survey doe's nothing to support your point that lack of religious belief has anything to do with the seemingly growing lack of respect we witness in today's society. The most profound example being the person American voters were hoodwinked into entrusting with the presidency of our already great nation, Trump has done nothing but show his disrespect for so many others & cause a further divide in the American public.

When MAGA President Trump speaks World Leaders listen.
  THE USA has gained an enormous amount of  respect back from foreign leaders that we  lost big time under Obama's  Presidency.

This is the main reason I seldom respond to you. You, like Trump are blatant liars!

...Thanks matt for locating that that survey from  respected researchers like Pew, I guess our ole pal quad chooses to read statistics a bit differently, but then again from a Trumpist point of view in order to believe you are successful you have to look at the world backwards.

...Well quad how can you have so many good things to say about the thug behavior direct from yer pal Trump ? I can understand your quandary, after supporting Trump the way you have on this board ether you must admit to ether your total inability to accept the reality of Trump's thug behavior, or just lying about your observations in your posts, I hope you get your problem straitened out.

...that paying for sex is wrong? But, you do it, keep doing it, and keep preaching morals. That's the religious right.