Living in a Sex-Saturated Society

Sex sells, but what does it cost?

In the world of dystopian literature, there are two books that stand out as significant works representing warnings of society’s downfall from two distinctly different sources.  The first, 1984 by George Orwell, presents the “Big Brother” concept in which the totalitarian government oppresses its people with total control over every sector of life.  The second, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, presents the concept of a society which is so obsessed with pleasure that they sedate themselves with sex and drugs to the point that nothing else matters but the next dose of pleasure.  Which is scarier: a pit that we’re trapped in or a pit that we choose to trap ourselves in?

I’ll admit that I think in a sense we are headed in the directions of both novels.  There has certainly been an increase in government control and oppression in our modern society, but there has been an even steeper decline into the world that Huxley feared we would create for ourselves: a driving obsession with pleasure that will ultimately destroy us.

I say all of that to get to this: we as a society, not only in America but in the world at large, are obsessed with pleasure.  That applies in a lot of ways, but I’m just going to talk about the biggest one: sex. 

Pornography is a multi-billion dollar industry.  Alfred Kinsey is heralded as a hero of science and Sigmund Freud is honored as the father of modern psychology.  Homosexuality and more recently pedophilia are no longer viewed as perversions but “alternative lifestyles.”  While these things have been around for as far back as history goes, they are becoming rampant at a rate that is nearly unprecedented. 

Here’s the thing: society goes through degradation.  That is a simple fact.  How can we as Christians live in a sex-saturated society while not being of it?  We’ve all heard the ultimatums: don’t have sex before marriage, bounce your eyes, and don’t lust after something that isn’t yours.  That’s pretty simple (if you aren’t too sure about the statements I just made, read Matthew 5:27-28, 1 Corinthians 6:9, and Hebrews 13:4).  However, there are some things that are being left out in the chanted mantras among high school Bible classes and youth lectureships. 

I once heard someone say that Satan isn’t very original, he just perverts something God gave as a blessing and makes it into something evil and twisted.  I don’t think that’s ever been more true than with sex.  Hebrews 13:4 says “Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled, but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.” (MKJV).   This passage is often used to talk about fornicators and adulterers, but let’s think about those that are married for a minute.  Does this say that sex is dirty?  Does this say that sex is evil?  No, much the opposite.  Within the marriage context, sex is part of God’s plan.  The bed is undefiled.  The same was true in the original marriage in Genesis 2:25: “And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” (MKJV). 

What is missing is a respect for sex in its proper abode.  We preach not to have premarital sex and to avert our eyes, which is good and right, but neglect to show where sex is meant to be.  Again, we should be preaching against premarital sex and against lust, but if that’s all we do, we are treating the symptoms and not the disease.  A respect for sex in its proper place will lead us to the point where won’t want the perversion.

Let’s say you marry your high school sweetheart, your first love.  The only person you have ever felt anything for.  You are happily married for years with a healthy, loving relationship.  Then one day you come home and find him or her with someone else.  How are you going to feel?  Betrayed.  Because one of the most sacred parts of your relationship has been violated: the exclusive sexual union.

This is especially important for single people to understand.  When we look with desire upon someone who is not our spouse, we are doing the same thing that the third individual in the previous paragraph was doing.  We have violated them and their spouse (regardless of consent), and robbed ourselves of the loving relationship in which the bed is undefiled.  That should disgust us.  It should repulse us. 

When we get that through our minds, we will no longer see how close we can get without crossing the line. 

We will push sexual perversion away like a piece of green meat. 

We will finally see it the way God sees it.

May that day come quickly

Dressing Up for Church

I admit that I don’t have a real good grasp on who all is reading this blog.  I know that some of you are Christians like I am.  I’m betting that some of you grew up going to church and so you were raised with certain ideas about church.  If that’s the case, I’m about to challenge one of them, and I hope you can take a minute to clear your head and be open-minded about it, because it is not one that people tend to be very understanding of.

My parents are Christians, so I grew up going to church.  Most of the time I dressed up a little bit.  I didn’t always wear a tie, but I didn’t ever wear jeans on Sunday morning.  My father believes that you ought to dress up for church and my mother believed that it wasn’t as important and should be an individual choice, and since I was fortunate enough to grow up in a home where we discussed these kinds of issues, I got to hear both sides of the argument.

Traditionally, it has been expected that when you attend worship service, you dress up.  That starting to change in our culture.  The belief that you ought to dress up for worship services is now being associated only with older Christians, and not the with the younger generation.  This shift is one worth looking into, because my generation has got a lot of things wrong.  There are many people in my generation would rather be entertained than worship God and would rather be comfortable than hear a challenging lesson.  Unfortunately, that has motivated many churches to make their services and their activities more about entertainment because they are afraid of losing the younger generation.  That pushes them farther and farther until many churches now are so unrecognizable, I have little doubt that Jesus would do a few cleansings of churches were He still on the earth.  I don’t want to contribute to the problem.  So I ask the question: should we dress up for church?

Given the fact that so many people older and wiser than me think that you ought to dress up for church, I would think that there is some scriptural basis for it.  Here’s the honest truth: there isn’t.  The only passages I can find on dress one way or the other is like what Paul says in 1 Timothy 2:9: “likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire.” 

The point of 1 Timothy 2:9 in context is that women ought not to dress up in order to draw attention to themselves.  When you read 1 Timothy, you get the impression that the Ephesians (Timothy was at Ephesus) had a big problem with pride, and 1 Timothy 2:9 addresses that.  It gives us an interesting concept, though.  If the Bible says anything about how we ought to dress, it tells us not to dress up! 

The argument that I often hear is that it is a matter of respect.  That you dress up for a funeral, so you ought to dress up for God.  This is a fool’s smokescreen.  We all know that our lives as Christians are to be lived 24/7, not just during services.  So if it really is about respect, why don’t we walk around in suits all of the time?  If we really believe that it is a matter of respect, then doesn’t that mean we are living a double standard?  One measure of respect outside of the building and a greater one inside of the building (where everyone can see us)? 

It is not about respect.  It is about cultural acceptance.  It is not culturally acceptable (generally speaking) to come to a funeral in jeans and a hoodie.  It didn’t used to be culturally acceptable to come to church in jeans and a hoodie either.  Where we have erred is in going to the scripture seeking a way to make a cultural thing that we practice binding on other people.  Is this really any different than the Pharisees, who condemned Jesus’s disciples for breaking the traditions of the elders in Matthew 15?  It is no different.

I am not condemning people who dress up.  If you want to, that’s great.  You should do as your conscience dictates.  I will, however, say this: people often equate dressing casually for church with taking it lightly, as though it is just another part of their life.  I see another interpretation.  After all, if we truly can treat worship service as another part of our lives in that we are serving God so much that worshipping God on Sunday is normal for us since we are serving Him all of the time, is that really such a bad thing?

There's a Storm Brewing

I’ve read through the book of Acts many times in my 20 short years.  I’ve been in a lot of Bible studies on the book of Acts.  One thing that often gets a lot of attention is the persecution that the Christians had to endure.  In Acts we read of floggings, stonings, murders, all kinds of things.  Historically we know of other things also, such as Christians being fed to lions, and Christians being lit on fire to light the streets of Rome at night.  The thing it often comes back to as that we are glad that those days are behind us.

Except they’re not.  We often forget about our brethren in other parts of the world, in which physical persecution is just as much a reality for them as it was for the Christians in the first century.  A few years ago, I heard about a brother in China named San Fernando from a mutual friend.  San Fernando was a brave man.  He was imprisoned for being a Christian.  The soldiers beat him and whipped him repeatedly.  He became blind in one eye as a result of those beatings.  They would pour water out on the ground in front of him, saying he could be free if would renounce Christ.  He never did.  Thankfully he was released after several years of imprisonment.  Some aren’t.  Those days are not behind us, my friends.

Here’s a few countries that are hostile to Christians: China, North Korea, Egypt, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Ethiopia, and India.  That’s not by any means in exhaustive list.  I commonly hear that over 40 nations in the world are hostile to Christianity.  That is a lot of Christians facing physical persecution, perhaps even death for their faith.  We forget about them a lot.  Next time you read about persecution, don’t think about how glad you are that those days are behind us.  Think about and pray for the Christians for whom this is very much a present reality.

I have a second point, though.  Physical persecution is not the only persecution there is.  In Matthew 5:11-12, Jesus says “"Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”  Here the focus is not so much on physical persecution, it is more on verbal persecution.  Are Christians persecuted verbally in America?  You better believe it.  I’ve been called retarded for my faith and I’m sure you have too. 

It doesn’t stop at verbal slander though.  The storm is brewing stronger.  We are seeing a growth of government control in suppressing religious expression that is growing with time.  It started with the misuse of the Establishment Clause.  Now it’s growing.  The Family Research Council and Liberty Institute released a report last year on Christian persecution in America.  Here’s some of the incidences they found: A federal judge threatened a high school valedictorian with incarceration if she didn’t remove references to Jesus from her graduation speech.  The state of Texas has sought to regulate what religious seminaries can teach.  The U.S. Department of Veterans banned the mention of God from veteran’s funerals, overriding wishes of the family.  A federal judge said that prayers made before a House of Representatives could be made to Allah, but not to Jesus.

You get the idea.  Stuff like this is becoming more and more prevalent.  Here’s the point I want to make: we may not be facing the kind of persecution that Christians in China are facing, but that doesn’t mean that we won’t eventually.  If we can’t handle the verbal taunts that we’re facing now and still remain faithful, we won’t be faithful when the real trials come.  Let’s take the advantage of this easier time to prepare ourselves.  As for myself, I know what I will do.  I will take strength in Yahweh.  If Satan ever brings the hosts of Hell down on the United States of America, I’ll be ready.  Will you?

The Man Behind the Curtain

Last night, I went to an open lecture on the Purdue University campus that was entitled “Debunking Darwinism.”  It was given by Dr. Gunnar Dieckmann, a Christian chemist who has studied Darwinism and its effects in both historical and scientific contexts.  I went for two reasons.  I work for the student newspaper and I was assigned to cover the event, and I had seen the flyer and was interested in attending anyway.  Interestingly enough, the information that I found most fascinating was not scientific, it was historical.

I should probably mention here that I do not believe in evolution.  If you’ve read very much of my writing, you probably knew that already.  Even so, I had always been under the impression that Darwin’s ideas were very successful even from the start.  I also was under the impression that he was an atheist, since there are very few evolutionists who are not atheists.  Here’s where it gets interesting: neither one of those two facts are true. 

In his book the Non-Darwinian Revolution, Peter Bowler says that Charles Darwin’s ideas were not readily accepted but were even combated by his fellow scientists, and it wasn’t until the 1920s and 1930s, about 80 years afterwards, that his ideas gained the immense popularity that grew to what it is today.  Charles Darwin himself admits that there is controversy over his ideas in On the Origin of Species itself: “For I am aware that scarcely a single point is discussed in this volume on which facts cannot be adduced often apparently leading to conclusions directly opposite those at which I have arrived.” 

Here’s the unfortunate truth: we eat what we’re fed, often with no questions asked.  I myself until recently believed that most Americans accept evolution as a fact.  You would think that were the case, given that it is taught in all of the public schools and state universities, and is treated as an accepted fact by most news media outlets.  However, that also is not true.  The Huffington Post in an article last summer gave the results of an interesting survey.  Participants were asked this question: Which of the following statements comes closest to your views on the origin and development of human beings?
1) Human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided this process,
2) Human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God had no part in this process,
3) God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so.

The results are surprising.  Only 15% answered in favor of atheistic evolution.  32% answered in favor of supernatural (God-guided) evolution, and an incredible 46% gave the answer that God created human beings in their present state. 

My friends, we have been lied to.  We have been led to believe that evolution is a scientific fact and, as Richard Dawkins put it, “Anyone who doesn't believe in evolution is stupid, insane or hasn't read Jerry Coyne.”  So would Richard Dawkins be willing to say that nearly half of all Americans are stupid? 

Here’s what happening, folks: the evolutionists are the ones in control.  They are the ones in control of the scientific journals as well as much of the media, so they control the illusion that evolution is an undisputed scientific fact and that Charles Darwin was a hero who was embraced by his contemporaries.  That isn’t the truth.  Don’t eat what you’re fed without asking questions, because the poison will eventually kill you.  

When the Lions Become Vegetarians

Christian blogger Tom Gilson said in a post last week that he often hears people say that in future years, Christians will be ashamed about how the church opposed same-sex marriage.  That statement caught my eye, not because it is speaking out in favor of homosexuality, but because it shows that there are God-believing people who believe that homosexuality cannot be condemned, and can even be favorable, in the sight of God. 

Unfortunately, this doesn’t even begin to describe the gravity of the problem.  There was a billboard that was circulating for a while that said “Jesus affirmed a gay couple.” The minister that was originally going to pray at President Obama’s second inauguration, Louie Giglio, backed out due to some criticism he received for “anti-gay” comments he had made in some sermons about 15 years ago.  Perhaps the most upsetting part of this was the president’s inaugural committee’s statement: “[We] were not aware of Pastor Giglio’s past comments at the time of his selection.”  There was a time when it would go without saying that a minister of God’s word would be against homosexuality.  That is no longer the case.  As a matter of fact, last year the Presbyterian Church decided to allow openly gay men and lesbian women to be ministers.    In 2009, the Episcopalian Church appointed its second gay minister.  The same year, the Lutheran Church voted to allow gay clergy, so long as they are “monogamous.” 

Clearly, this is an issue.  To those who may be reading this and aren’t familiarized with homosexuality as it pertains to scripture, allow me to clear it up for you. 

Romans 1:26-28: “For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.” 

1 Corinthians 6:9: “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality.” 

1 Timothy 1:9-10: “understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine.”

Also, the billboard that I mentioned earlier had a scripture reference: Matthew 8:5-13.  In Matthew 8:5-13, Jesus healed a centurion.  It has absolutely nothing to do with homosexuality.

Are you a little confused?  You should be.  After all, why would all of those people who claim to follow God be openly endorsing something that is blatantly contrary to His word?  The answer is simple.  They aren’t truly loyal to God.  There is unfortunately a heart disease that is quite prevalent, and it really is not a new disease, although the symptoms have changed somewhat.  I like to call it peculiaphobia.  It presents itself in God-believing people who know that God exists and that they should be pleasing Him, but they don’t want to be those weird religious radicals who condemn everybody.  So they find creative ways to justify joining the sinful progression of the culture.  Christians have always been called to make difficult choices; to stand out when it’s difficult.  It’s time to make a choice: will we follow the sinful culture’s sexual liberation movement?  Or will we stand with our Lord and Savior?  I’ve made my choice, it’s time for you to make yours.

Even the Blind Man Sees the Beast

A knowledgeable friend told me last summer that the Pornography makes more money in any given year that the professional sports industry.  It is a powerful and ravenous monster that devours more victims each year.  Think I’m exaggerating?  Here’s another statistic: the average age of introduction of pornography is 10 to 11 years old.  That debunks two misconceptions: first that pornography users are dirty old men, and second, that pornography is only used by those perverted enough to go looking for it.  I’ve been told that scientific research shows that viewing sexual material releases chemicals in the brain that are similar to those released when a drug user is high.  What that translates to is that it creates a similar addiction as to drugs.  When you put two and two together, that means that innocent ten and eleven year olds are quickly finding themselves addicted to internet pornography.  Contrary to popular belief, this is far from a victimless crime.  It is even drawing children into the pummeling airline cruiser, headed for disaster, reducing men and women alike to nothing more than objects to be used for pleasure and animals responding to mindless impulse.

So how did we get here?  This is quite an ugly situation, and as we learned in history class as kids, years ago it was considered shameful for a woman to show her ankles.  Radical transitions like this don’t happen overnight.  The explanation is actually far less complicated than you might think at first glance.

In 1859, Charles Darwin released his infamous book The Origin of Species.  I doubt we will ever fully grasp how radically Mr. Darwin changed the world, especially American culture.  I do not mean this as a compliment.  Regardless of the science of his theory, the gravity of its implications are severe, for it declares boldly that mankind is no more than another mammal in the animal kingdom.  We respond to impulse just like every other creature in existence.  We are animals.  Inevitably, when we accepted macroevolution, we began to act like animals. 

In the early 1900s, along came Sigmund Freud.  Even if we forget about his abundant use of cocaine (both for himself and his patients), Freud’s ideas, when looked at sincerely and honestly, necessitate the itching of the scalp.  He forgets about the innocence of children altogether, and was the father of “psychosexual development,” which basically means that people in each stage of their life (even infancy) have a fixation on some object of pleasure, which as a whole is unapologetically sexual in nature.  As if that wasn’t enough, Freud further said that the only reason we control our sexual desires is for social acceptance.  So not only are we as mankind animals, but the only reason we control ourselves is so that we won’t be ostracized. 

The third piece of the puzzle is the most disturbing.  In the mid 1900s, Alfred Kinsey came onto the scene.  Most of his “legacy” I won’t even mention simply because it would be more graphic that what is necessary to make my point.  Here’s an overview: Kinsey was a “scientist” who studied human sexuality and relied heavily upon Freud. The difference, however, is this: while Freud said that we restrain ourselves for social acceptance, Kinsey wanted to eliminate that factor.  In his perfect world, unrestrained sexuality would not have negative social connotations.  To give you just a brief idea of how extreme his immorality was, he was a married man who filmed and participated in the recording of pornography, as did his wife.  The horrifying truth is not only was he regarded as a legitimate scientist, but he founded a research institute for sex at Indiana University, which is now called the Kinsey Research Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction.  That leads us to today, when not only are humans seen as animals who only restrain their sexual impulses because of social consequences, but the Kensians are working to eradicate those social consequences altogether. 

As I said earlier, pornography is a ravenous and merciless monster, but it is also only one facet to the problem.  As the sexual liberation movement moves forward and gains more ground every day, morality, integrity, and human dignity shrinks at an alarming rate.  I hope I have your attention; because unless become vocal about morality and integrity, things will only get worse.  Freedom of speech is the most underutilized freedom that we have in this country.  Many believe that we are outnumbered by those calling for sexual liberation.  I’m not so convinced.  It might be that we have the numbers, but they’ve got the loudest voice.  Either way, it’s time we found out.  Speak up.  For our sakes and for our children's.

Throw Out the Blood Cakes

Any one of my friends will tell you that I’m an entertainment junkie.  I have huge stacks of movies in my room, a big bin of CDs that I haven’t found a place for yet, and an often frequented Netflix account.  However, there is a trend within the entertainment industry that worries me. 

Recently the AMC hit show “The Walking Dead” was finally moved to a TV-MA rating due to the extreme violence and gore, which is its primary attraction.  I personally have only seen the show a few times, but the things I have seen on the show include a man being stabbed in the eye with a piece of glass, a severed zombie torso resiliently crawling, and a man pulling a bone out of a zombie’s limb to use as a weapon.  What worries me even more is that nobody seems to be bothered by this.  On the contrary, people celebrate it.  On each occasion that the show strives to outdo itself, you don’t hear statements like “That was awful!” or “That’s disgusting!”  Instead, what you hear are statements like “That was awesome!” or “That’s got to be my favorite kill this season.” 

“So our culture is violent.  What’s the big deal?”  I’ll tell what the big deal is.    Fifty years ago, this kind of media was virtually if not completely nonexistent.  Let’s think about violence in reality.  Virginia Tech, Columbine, Aurora, and Sandy Hook have all happened within the last fifteen years.  Coincidence?  I don’t think so.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not blaming those incidents on the entertainment.  The violence of the entertainment industry is one of the many symptoms, it is not the disease.  Here’s what I’m getting at: what did we think was gonna happen when we started embracing violence?  Violence is now embraced and glamourized.  The dream of being cool is no longer typified only by athletes and artists.  After all, Rambo, Jason Bourne, and Django are so much better.  Who wouldn’t want to be able to kill dozens of people in such a short time?  I believe that one reviewer got it right when he said this while reviewing the recent film “The Hunger Games”: “This is what happens when a culture embraces violence.”  Specifically in relation to the film, it means violent games that involve teenagers slaughtering each other mercilessly while being cheered on by the masses.  A little dramatic?  Maybe.  But the point is valid. 

Ultimately, the result is this: the value of human life is dropping at a shocking rate.  The glamorization of violence, the acceptance of abortion, and the fantasizing of bloodshed are making us as people next to worthless.  By this point, I hope you are seeing the gravity of this issue.  The result is two-fold: first, we need to trash some of our media.  As you’re reading this, you’re probably realizing there are some changes you need to make.  When I realized how big of a deal this was, I stopped playing first-person shooter games.  I was more wary of the movies I saw.  I deleted some songs from my music library.  I did these things because I don’t want to be part of the society that embraces violence.  Secondly, we need to speak out about this sort of thing.  By that I don’t necessarily mean you need to take part in a protest or sign a petition, although I do believe those things can be helpful.  What I do believe we need to be doing is talking with those closest to us.  We need to be talking to our friends and our family about why this is such a big deal and why we have chosen to not take part in these things anymore.  I firmly believe that our culture is not beyond saving; but if it is to be saved, it will take a lot of effort and lot of courage.  Just know this: if we see the dangers and still refuse to speak up, the blood of future generations will be on our hands. 

Christian Warfare

Warfare is an interesting thing.  It turns kind fathers into snipers and farmers into machine gunners.  It turns kind small towns into burning piles of rubble and tears families apart with every death.  War has been glorified by movies, television, and video games; but one thing will always be true when it comes to reality: war is ugly.

Ephesians 6:12: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”  It’s time for us to wake up.  We’re in a war.  By that, I don’t mean that we’re behind a screen shooting zombies or sharing the heroics of Owen Wilson “Behind Enemy Lines,” but a real war with very real consequences.  Our comrades are dropping left and right, we have bullets piercing through us, we’re in danger of bleeding out on the battlefield, and still we insist that we aren’t doing that bad.  All the while, we seem to be afraid to use our weapons.  It’s time to wake up.

I’ve been reading a book lately called “The Game Plan” by Joe Dallas.  The book relates specifically to sexual purity, but there’s a concept in it that I think applies here.  He makes the point that when you are involved in sexual sin (or sin of any kind) you are not fulfilling your primary function.  My point is this: we haven’t been fulfilling our primary function.  Christians have gotten shy, and as we sit back in our comfort zones, passively wishing things were different, homosexuality continues to undermine Christian values, violence pervades our culture and entertainment, mindless shootings continue, and sexual sin destroys more families.  It’s time to get serious about the situation, stand up for the truth, and work for God.

I for one see the signs.  I can see the doom of our country and our world as clear as day.  Oh, the United States may continue for many more years, maybe even many more thousand years, I have no way of knowing that.  But spiritually our nation is dying fast.  Spiritually the world is dying fast.  It’s time to stop huddling in the fetal position.  It’s time to act.  I’ve decided to submit myself to God and to do what He wants me to.  So Satan, you better watch yourself.  Cause we’re on the offensive.  And we’re coming for your people.

"It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this." - C.S. Lewis

A Sleeping Giant

  I have a lot to say and I'm not really sure how to begin.  A lot has been going on in the last couple of weeks and my brain has been firing on all cylinders, thinking about a thousand things at once.  I guess you could say that I feel like I'm lost on Hoth, nothing but solid white in all directions and as I've been trying to follow a path, I've realized that I've been using the wrong map from the start.

  What kind of world do you want?  That's a tricky question, I know.  I like to envision worlds outside of our  own realities.  It's what motivates me to be a writer and what makes me a sci-fi and fantasy nerd.  But I've thought about this in a new light: what would I change about our world?  I can tell what I would want in our world: a world where God's special union of marriage is held in honor, unadulterated and unperverted; a world where people are more concerned with the effects of their influences than the enjoyment of them; a world where people don't ask what can do but instead what is best; a world where a person cannot make any observation without being met with a connection to God by a neighbor; a world where good is rewarded and encouraged and evil is punished and discouraged; a world where people are obsessed with the Bible instead of Justin Beiber, Twilight, or The Hunger Games; a world where myself and people like me can proclaim the truth and not be afraid; a world where we truly look at everything through Christianity's lens; that is the world that I want.

  I realize that many of you have very similar dreams for our world.  These are not things that are really unique or original, they are things that we want.  So why do we seem farther and farther away from this the longer that time goes on?  People offer a variety of reasons.  The most common is an answer of utter defeat. It sounds something like this: "this world is evil.  It always has been and it always will be.  Satan has a foothold in the world and so it will continue being evil, and it's too big for me or you or anyone else to do anything about it."  Let me be blunt.  That's about as good of an explanation as saying lightning happens because Thor is angry.  It's true that Satan has a foothold in the world.  It's true that there has been sin in the world since the fall and that there will be until Christ comes back.  But it doesn't explain why marriage was respected in the 1950's, why we used to say prayers in our schools, and why we used to have a God-centered society.  Something changed, and I'll tell you what it is: we shut up.  Somewhere along the line we either got burned or saw somebody else get burned while standing up for the truth and we decided that we were going to save ourselves the trouble.  We got pushed around and we buttoned our lips and have tried to keep our heads down ever since; and if you have been told that there is nothing that you can do that will make a difference in the world, you have been lied to.

  Last Spring, Kirk Cameron made some comments regarding homosexuality on the Piers Morgan show that made national news.  He was labeled as homophobic and was portrayed as someone hating gay people, all because he believed that homosexuality was damaging to society as a perversion of God's plan.  He was attacked for weeks.  Recently Mike Huckabee gave his comments on the shooting in CT and said that if we had not so entirely removed God from our society, perhaps we would have spared ourselves such horrible consequences.  The lash he has received has been drastic; some have said he should not be allowed to speak on the air ever again.  Both of these individuals remained firm in what they said and many have been encouraged as a result.  Let me issue a challenge: what would happen if we all decided to not keep quiet anymore and become passionate about our faith.  What if Mike Huckabee and Kirk Cameron weren't alone?  What would happen?  I daresay if we all stopped caring so much about the next cat video on Youtube and who's going to win the Superbowl and started caring more about serving God, I am brave enough to say He would give us all of the power and resources to change the world we live in.  I dare you to prove me wrong.

Embracing Violence

Yesterday in Newtown, Connecticut, a twenty-year old gunman, after killing his mother, went to a local elementary school where his mother worked, and killed 26 people, 20 of whom were children between the ages of 5 and 10.  He subsequently shot himself.  The shooting was instant national news and there has been an outpouring of sympathy towards the families and a lot of discussion has followed about what to do to prevent these things from happening in the future.  Most of the talk has to do with legislation: gun control laws in some cases and in other cases even giving teachers means to protect their students.  As a huge supporter of the freedom of speech, none of this discussion is bad.  However, I believe we are barking up the wrong tree.

I talk a lot about the influence that culture has on us as individuals.  I want to go back to that for a second.  Earlier this week I read an article about the AMC television show “The Walking Dead.”  If you don’t know about the show, it is AMC’s biggest hit and follows people trying to survive the zombie apocalypse.    The PTC criticized the “TV-14” rating of the show, citing its gory nature and use of profanity to say it should be rated “TV-MA.”  I myself have watched the show a few times.  Among the violent things the show depicts is a man getting stabbed in the eye with a piece of glass and a man breaking off a zombie’s arm and pulling a bone out of the arm.  Sounds quite grisly, doesn’t it?  In video games, the examples are even more direct.  Grand Theft Auto, one of the most popular video game franchises on the market, thrives on the player’s ability to kill and steal in every scenario imaginable.  In the song “Little Piece of Heaven” by Avenged Sevenfold, a somewhat popular hard rock band, the repetitive chorus says “Must have stabbed him fifty ******* times/I can’t believe it/Ripped his heart out right before his eyes.”  At the culmination of it all, we have the latest teen fad, The Hunger Games, which revolves around the story of throwing a bunch of teenagers into a “game” in which the goal is to slaughter everyone else in the game with you and emerge the victor.  And we wonder why tragic shootings happen in our country.

The answer to this situation is not gun control, security, or legislation.  When a culture removes God from among themselves, there is no moral standard left, which inevitably gives way to violence.  When a culture embraces violence as a means of entertainment, it is only a matter of time before that fantasy finds its way into reality.  We have made it clear we don’t want God among us.  This might have been God granting our wish.  Now is the time to stop and reflect: is this really what we want?

Lowering the Bar

Deep breaths.  Take several of them.  You’re on national television.  You can feel your palms getting sweaty as your heart starts to race, threatening to beat its way out of your chest.  Sweat trickles down the back of your neck as well as your forehead. You’ve prepared yourself for the Olympics ever since you knew how to walk.  You’re ready to do the pole vault.  You take one last deep breath and run towards the bar, press your pole down into the mat and launch yourself forward.  You realize that you made it as you plop on the mat on the other side.  It turns out that three feet is a manageable goal in pole vaulting.

Standards are constantly changing.  In America during the 1950s it was not acceptable for women to wear pants in public.  The 1939 film “Gone with the Wind” was controversial because of one curse word.  Now women wear pants all the time and modern movies spit out curse words like a baby spitting up puke.  Some changes are good.  Some are bad.

Here’s the question: since we know that not all changes in standards are good, how do we know which ones to accept and which ones to accept and which ones to reject?  My solution is this: do neither.

Allow me to explain: see the problem with both accepting the culture’s change in standards and rejecting the culture’s change in standards is that either way we are allowing culture to determine what our standards are.  Critical thinking dictates something better.  Instead of depending on society, culture, and the media to tell us not only what our standards should be but even what our options in standards are, we should examine things for ourselves to see what those standards should be. 

Now for today’s tangent: why do we think that a movie with ten curse words and one “mild” sexual scene is “not that bad?”  Who determined that?  Did we sit down and look at what we know to be objectionable content and decide that was an acceptable amount?  Or instead have we allowed society’s standards of what’s bad and “not that bad” to determine what we think is “not that bad?”  Even better, why do we think a movie with no sexual scenes and no curse words with a completely anti-Christian message is ok? 

Now here comes the kicker: this concept is very applicable to entertainment, but is even more applicable in our everyday lives.  What are your standards for your behavior?  Are you settling for the three-foot high bar?  You may hit it every time, but remember this: “if you aim for nothing, you will hit it every time.” – Zig Zigler.

Exception to Protecting Life?

What constitutes murder?  That used to be a pretty simple question with a pretty simple answer: if you kill somebody, it’s murder.  Somewhere along the line somebody started blurring the definition of who a “somebody” is.  Eventually we got to the point of Roe v. Wade in 1970 that the Supreme Court deemed abortion legal on a federal level.  It’s been an uphill battle ever since in the protection of life for the vulnerable and helpless unborn children.  Because of that, we tend to celebrate every small victory that we get.

If you’ve been reading what I’ve written recently, you’ll know that I have been following the Presidential race lately.  I watched the Vice Presidential debate last night.  While I had many issues with what Joe Biden said, I had very few issues with what Paul Ryan said.  I’m going to make an issue out of one of those things, though. 

The moderator asked Joe Bide and Paul Ryan what part their faith played in their views on abortion.  Ironically both are Catholic and they gave two completely different answers, but that’s not the point right now.  Paul Ryan identified himself as pro-life.  I was happy at that point.  He said himself and Mitt Romney will fight abortion.  I was very happy at that point.  Then he said they make exception for rape, incest, and cases that endanger the mother’s life.  What. 

I’ve heard this kind of thing said before by people who identify themselves a pro-life, but it never ceases to amaze me.  Allow me to take you through some logical conversation for a moment.  Defining life can be a very difficult task, especially when getting technical, but it’s not as difficult as it seems.  So you have this thing inside the mother’s uterus.  If left alone it is born a human being, which we accept as being life.  Is a toddler any less alive than a teenager?  No.  So it does not matter how far along they are in the process.  Does location make a difference in whether something is life or not?  No.  So why does it matter whether a child is inside or outside of the mother?  It doesn’t.  That is the logic behind being pro-life.  It’s a simple answer to a simple question: a baby is a somebody.  Therefore killing babies is killing someone, that is, murder.  It’s as simple as that.

Now, back to the issue: Paul Ryan says that life should be protected, except in cases of rape, incest, or situations in which the mother’s life is in danger.  In the above paragraph, when did the definition of life ever include how the life came to be?  It didn’t.  And it never will.  Normally I try to celebrate the small victories, and normally I am excited to see someone standing for pro-life values.  Not this time.  Because it is our duty to protect life no matter how the life came to be.  It is awful that incest happens.  It is horrible that women get raped.  But guess what?  That’s no excuse to murder a child.  Take an unapologetic stand for life.  Below is a video of Rick Santorum on Piers Morgan doing an excellent job of showing how we should respond to this.  

Our Post-Apocalyptic Present

  Imagine rubble all around you.  There is no sign of green terrain within your view.  You look around at what once was the city of Washington, D.C.  Not a single structure remains standing.  Not houses, not offices, not a single building.  Your own clothes are torn and ragged and your shoes have holes in them, evidence to the desperate nature of your current situation.  You step over the rubble and call out in the streets, hoping someone will hear you, but no one does.  Oh, they are in the city.  But they don't hear you.  They are all soundly asleep, comfortable in their current surroundings.

The situation I just described to you is bleak, alright.  In fact, we as a people are so afraid of such a situation that it has become the topic of countless books and movies, creating a sense of fear and seat-gripping thrills. Because we are afraid of being alone.  We were created with such a desire.  God Himself said it is not good for man to be alone.  But I fear that the same urge that unites us will be the very one that destroys us.

This is not simply a story, it is reality.  Too many Christians have lain down and gone to sleep, content to say that they are incapable of fighting the world.  In doing so, we have waved the white flag and surrendered to sinful modern culture to such an extent that some Christians are not content to lay down and give up the fight, but are joining the other side, and some even citing it as God's will!  Earlier this year there was an annual conference held in the United Kingdom by an organization called LGCM: Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement.  Read that again.  Read it again.  Something feels wrong about that sentence, right?  How did we get so far off?

Leonard Ravenhill, an evangelist and author, once said, "The world has lost the power to blush over its vice; the Church has lost her power to weep over it."  We no longer think that sin is something to be distressed about.  If I may go a step further than Mr. Ravenhill, the world has lost the power to blush over its vice; the Church has lost its power to resist chasing after it.

The reason for this post?  It's time for an awakening.  To those who are wandering the streets, looking for fellow comrades, its time to grab some megaphones and scream as loud as we can in the streets.  It's time the dedicated Christians stopped shutting up and give us and our children a fighting chance in the raging war that is being waged against Christianity.  Christians assemble.