What sins does our culture condemn?
Sometimes “cancelled” celebrities deserve it, having committed violent assaults—they are predators and pedophiles: R. Kelly, Matt Lauer, Harvey Weinstein, Michael Jackson. But others facing “cancellation” did things so trivial that to receive the same punishment as a sexual predator is ridiculous. But that’s exactly what happens to celebrities who speak the wrong WORDS about race, sex, gender, sexual preference, nation of origin, or anything else our culture reveres as “IDENTITY.”
(Who you are is NOT your race, sex, or any of those things—your identity is that you are MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD. Race, sex, and the rest are trivial features.)
But our world elevates trivial traits, exaggerating the harm when those traits are insulted, while ignoring more damaging vices—just like the Pharisees of old.[1] The Pharisees exaggerated the trivial, including the ritual washing of hands before eating. They asked Jesus why His disciples did not wash.
“It’s not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth.” Jesus condemned the Pharisees: “They are blind guides. And IF THE BLIND GUIDE THE BLIND, BOTH WILL FALL INTO THE PIT…. For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, blasphemies. These are the things that defile a man; eating with unwashed hands does not defile a man” Matthew 15:11,14,19-20.
The people of the world are BLIND GUIDES. Why do we listen to them? The creative work of the lost remains the blind leading the blind, and the same is true of their activism. Some of their views are correct, but some of their views are ignorant and deceptive.
We are called to step out: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” Romans 12:2.
God, we want to follow YOU, not the blind.
ΑΩ
[1] And what virtues does our mixed-up culture honor? What actions make you a good person? Well, first of all, actions don’t matter (unless you’re a pedophile). What matters in our culture are PROPER BELIEFS. You can be a rich celebrity with a fleet of cars and a carbon footprint the size of a small town, but if you BELIEVE in the right things—global warming, recycling, electric cars, legal abortions, not smoking (unless it’s pot), then you are a good person.
Household Words: 