With the recent verdict declaring George Zimmerman not guilty of murder in the killing of Trevon Martin, there’s been a lot of talk about racism in America. These are good discussions to have, but missing from much of rhetoric is another “ism”, classism. Let me give you a few examples of classism:
Suppose you were walking down a city street late at night, and a young black guy in a hoodie and jeans approaches you. Would you be apprehensive? Most likely you would.
Now, suppose you are on the same street late at night and a well-dressed young black man approaches you. Would you be apprehensive? Most likely you would not.
What’s the difference? The well-dressed young man is perceived to be of a better class and therefore less likely to rob you than the supposedly lower class guy. We trust better dressed clean-cut people of any race.
My guess is that if Trevon hadn’t been wearing a hoodie, he might not have been followed by Zimmerman. Wearing a hoodie that hides your face automatically makes you suspect in some people’s minds.
But dress isn’t everything. As we saw, we’d be apprehensive if a black guy in hoodie and jeans approached us late at night on a city street. Now suppose we noticed that he’s carrying a Bible. Would we be less apprehensive? I suspect we would.
While racism in various forms certainly does exist, so do other “isms” that are just as pernicious. Why do we have such persistent prejudices? It’s the fallen human condition. If you had a society in which the inhabitants were homogeneous except for the color of their eyes, do you think there would be no prejudice? My guess is that the brown-eyed people would hate the blue-eyed people, and vice-versa.
As long as we keep our eyes (no matter what color) on people and not on God, we’ll fall short. As long as we ignore God’s command (found in various forms in most religions) to “love your neighbor” and “do unto others” then we’ll have prejudice, persecution, tribalism, and war.
Let’s keep our eyes on God, who created heaven and earth (and it was good), and made human beings in his image.
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Thursday, July 18, 2013
The Zimmerman Verdict
A lot has been written recently about the verdict of “not guilty” for George Zimmerman. Nevertheless, I would like to add my two cents’ worth concerning the case.
First of all, I do believe Zimmerman was profiling Martin. The young man was wearing a hoodie, which automatically makes him suspect in some people’s eyes. Second, of course, he was black. As Martin’s father stated in an interview, if Martin hadn’t been black this whole thing would not have occurred.
Second, I believe that Zimmerman was the aggressor in that he followed Martin when he was told not to do so by the 911 operator. Who ended up on top of whom is almost immaterial, because Zimmerman continued to pursue the young man for no reason except, in Zimmerman’s eyes, Martin didn’t belong there.
So I believe that the verdict should have been manslaughter, but the jury saw it differently. Sadly, this will set back race relations in this country. Blacks will feel frustrated and will believe that there is no justice for African Americans. There are no winners in all this, just losers. Martin’s parents have lost a son, and Zimmerman’s life will never be the same.
So where do we go from here? Hopefully, this sad affair will get us thinking about our own prejudices, subtle though they may be. While we might not go out and shoot somebody, we do harbor biases that may, at least to some extent, influence our behavior and attitudes. By the way, I’m referring to biases on both sides, not just on the part of whites. Martin referring to Zimmerman as a “cracker” may not be the equivalent of the “N” word, but it does reveal some prejudice on his part as well.
First of all, I do believe Zimmerman was profiling Martin. The young man was wearing a hoodie, which automatically makes him suspect in some people’s eyes. Second, of course, he was black. As Martin’s father stated in an interview, if Martin hadn’t been black this whole thing would not have occurred.
Second, I believe that Zimmerman was the aggressor in that he followed Martin when he was told not to do so by the 911 operator. Who ended up on top of whom is almost immaterial, because Zimmerman continued to pursue the young man for no reason except, in Zimmerman’s eyes, Martin didn’t belong there.
So I believe that the verdict should have been manslaughter, but the jury saw it differently. Sadly, this will set back race relations in this country. Blacks will feel frustrated and will believe that there is no justice for African Americans. There are no winners in all this, just losers. Martin’s parents have lost a son, and Zimmerman’s life will never be the same.
So where do we go from here? Hopefully, this sad affair will get us thinking about our own prejudices, subtle though they may be. While we might not go out and shoot somebody, we do harbor biases that may, at least to some extent, influence our behavior and attitudes. By the way, I’m referring to biases on both sides, not just on the part of whites. Martin referring to Zimmerman as a “cracker” may not be the equivalent of the “N” word, but it does reveal some prejudice on his part as well.
I'm Back!
After a prolonged absence, I am back to blogging. I know I haven’t submitted a post for quite some time, but the last six months have been very busy. As of July 1, 2013, I retired from full-time parish ministry. Since I was no longer pastor of the church I had been serving for 11 years, my wife and I had to move out of the parsonage. Since we were downsizing, the move required a lot of decision-making as to what to keep and what to discard. So the whole preparation and packing operation took several months. By the time we moved into our new place and got settled, we were exhausted.
Now that I have more time on my hands, I would like to resume blogging, hopefully providing you with helpful insights about religion and other topics. I also have a number of projects that I want to accomplish in my retirement, and we hope to take some nice trips. So I think we will both be pretty busy for the foreseeable future. Moreover, I believe God will reveal to us what ministries he would like us to participate in. I doubt if we will be involved in any full-time ministry – after all, we are retired. But I also don’t believe God’s going to put us on the shelf. It will be interesting to see what God has in mind for the two of us. But I think now is the time to focus on getting settled in our new home as well as getting into our new routine.
Although we are not from Dutchess County originally, we like it here and decided to stay in the area. I’m looking forward to communicating with you through the blog, and hopefully providing you with some thought-provoking opinions. You may not always agree with me, and that’s fine, but I hope to provide you with some insights that you might not get anywhere else.
Now that I have more time on my hands, I would like to resume blogging, hopefully providing you with helpful insights about religion and other topics. I also have a number of projects that I want to accomplish in my retirement, and we hope to take some nice trips. So I think we will both be pretty busy for the foreseeable future. Moreover, I believe God will reveal to us what ministries he would like us to participate in. I doubt if we will be involved in any full-time ministry – after all, we are retired. But I also don’t believe God’s going to put us on the shelf. It will be interesting to see what God has in mind for the two of us. But I think now is the time to focus on getting settled in our new home as well as getting into our new routine.
Although we are not from Dutchess County originally, we like it here and decided to stay in the area. I’m looking forward to communicating with you through the blog, and hopefully providing you with some thought-provoking opinions. You may not always agree with me, and that’s fine, but I hope to provide you with some insights that you might not get anywhere else.
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Tragedy in Newtown – Part 2
This latest mass murder in Newtown, Connecticut, is the latest in a series of shootings that goes back many years. I addressed some of the issues surrounding these mass shootings in a previous post. In this post, I just want to give a few personal reflections on this particular tragedy.
As I look back over my 60 some years, I can think of many high profile tragedies that I lived through. Many of them involved guns. Probably the first one of any significance was the assassination of President John Kennedy on November 22, 1963. I remember it vividly. Probably the next series of tragedies that I recall happened in that terrible year of 1968, when both Bobby Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., were assassinated. And we had the Challenger explosion and more recently we experienced 9/11. The events of September 11, 2001, were personal to me for a number of reasons. First, I knew people who worked in the towers who were killed. Also, I witnessed it from my office window as well as on television.
The killings in Newtown were also personal to me. I don’t think I know anybody involved in this tragedy, but I can very much relate to it. We used to live in New Fairfield, Connecticut, a town not unlike Newtown. As a matter of fact, New Fairfield isn’t all that far from Newtown. We have driven through Newtown any number of times, so we know it well. In addition, our two grandchildren attend schools in Danbury, not all that far from Newtown. The Danbury schools were locked down during the crisis.
These killings and superstorm Sandy were events that took place very close to home. Usually it is “other people” in other parts of the country or the world who experience these terrible tragedies. I’m thinking of New Orleans; Joplin, Missouri; Aurora, Colorado; and other parts of the country. But this year, between Sandy and Newtown, we have had devastation and death much closer to home than we are used to.
With Sandy, I believe we are reaping the results of the seeds of destruction we have sown by polluting the atmosphere to the point where we have climate change. With Newtown, we are reaping the results of the seeds of destruction we have sown with respect to filling our children’s minds with violence and garbage. We can’t just keep going on the way we have been. 9/11 resulted in significant changes in our systems of airport and other kinds of security. Sandy will hopefully result in building codes or zoning laws that will prevent people from building in places where it is just too dangerous. Newtown will hopefully result in changes to the way we treat the mentally ill, improvements to gun laws, and perhaps some restraints on what we allow the media to portray.
Pray for this country, because we are confusing freedom with license. Pray that our leaders will do something to address the issues I’ve mentioned. Most importantly, we need God back in public discourse. How do we expect people to behave when we’ve eliminated the transcendent moral compass provided by religious faith?
As I look back over my 60 some years, I can think of many high profile tragedies that I lived through. Many of them involved guns. Probably the first one of any significance was the assassination of President John Kennedy on November 22, 1963. I remember it vividly. Probably the next series of tragedies that I recall happened in that terrible year of 1968, when both Bobby Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., were assassinated. And we had the Challenger explosion and more recently we experienced 9/11. The events of September 11, 2001, were personal to me for a number of reasons. First, I knew people who worked in the towers who were killed. Also, I witnessed it from my office window as well as on television.
The killings in Newtown were also personal to me. I don’t think I know anybody involved in this tragedy, but I can very much relate to it. We used to live in New Fairfield, Connecticut, a town not unlike Newtown. As a matter of fact, New Fairfield isn’t all that far from Newtown. We have driven through Newtown any number of times, so we know it well. In addition, our two grandchildren attend schools in Danbury, not all that far from Newtown. The Danbury schools were locked down during the crisis.
These killings and superstorm Sandy were events that took place very close to home. Usually it is “other people” in other parts of the country or the world who experience these terrible tragedies. I’m thinking of New Orleans; Joplin, Missouri; Aurora, Colorado; and other parts of the country. But this year, between Sandy and Newtown, we have had devastation and death much closer to home than we are used to.
With Sandy, I believe we are reaping the results of the seeds of destruction we have sown by polluting the atmosphere to the point where we have climate change. With Newtown, we are reaping the results of the seeds of destruction we have sown with respect to filling our children’s minds with violence and garbage. We can’t just keep going on the way we have been. 9/11 resulted in significant changes in our systems of airport and other kinds of security. Sandy will hopefully result in building codes or zoning laws that will prevent people from building in places where it is just too dangerous. Newtown will hopefully result in changes to the way we treat the mentally ill, improvements to gun laws, and perhaps some restraints on what we allow the media to portray.
Pray for this country, because we are confusing freedom with license. Pray that our leaders will do something to address the issues I’ve mentioned. Most importantly, we need God back in public discourse. How do we expect people to behave when we’ve eliminated the transcendent moral compass provided by religious faith?
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Tragedy in Newtown – Part 1
The governor of the State of Connecticut made a profound statement in one of his press conferences on Friday afternoon. He said, “Evil visited Newtown today.” Sadly, this is the latest in a series of senseless shootings that have happened in the United States over the past few years. They seem to be coming with increasing frequency. What made this shooting especially evil was not only the number of people killed, 26, but the fact that most of them were six or seven years of age. What kind of person kills little children?
Obviously the shooter is deranged, and I’m sure we’ll find out more about him over the next few days. As with each shooting, there is a lot of handwringing and talk of better gun control. However nothing ever comes of it. While tightening the requirements to own a gun, and limiting the type of weapons that people can purchase (such as assault rifles) at the federal level, would perhaps reduce the number of these shootings, they would not totally prevent them.
How can we stop the killing? I see three problems that need to be addressed in order to protect our citizens adequately. The first problem has to do with gun control. The problem with gun control is that you can never completely control anything by making it illegal. We tried to eliminate liquor and that was a colossal failure. We’ve tried to eliminate all kinds of narcotics, and that has been a failure. We’ve tried to limit guns with stricter gun control laws, and have not been successful. So we can never totally keep guns out of the hands of those that should not have them. But what we can do, is make it more difficult for certain people to acquire a gun, particularly a pistol. That can be done at the federal level by requiring background checks, waiting periods, and other ways to try to prevent the wrong people from acquiring weapons.
The second problem we have is the culture of violence that is prevalent in this country. We see violence in many television programs, movies, games, and books. When a child is immersed in such a culture, I believe they become hardened and do not see violence as particularly wrong. Games and the media have legitimized violence, so somebody who is mentally ill might see slaughtering innocent people as a reasonable thing to do. How else do you explain the senseless murder of 20 little children in their classrooms? I’m not sure what the answer is concerning this culture of violence, but I think there should be much less of it, particularly the gruesome kind of stuff you find in horror movies. From what I understand, games are terribly violent. What are we doing to our kids’ minds?
The third problem we have in this country, that really should be dealt with soon, is the fact that the mentally ill are not properly cared for. Years ago, we emptied out the psychiatric hospitals, turning these people loose with little or no supervision. Not only is that not fair to people who have mental issues, but it’s not fair to the general population, especially when some of these patients may be dangerous. Unfortunately, it’s usually difficult to determine who might be dangerous. You can’t put everyone who acts a little strangely away in an institution. However, there should be evaluations made for those who appear to be mentally ill, and based on what those tests reveal take the appropriate action.
For a so-called advanced, or progressive, country, we are not doing a very good job of protecting our citizens from random violence, caring for our mentally ill, and controlling what our young people see in the media. Unless we as a country address some of these issues, I believe we will have to have armed guards at every school and perhaps in every mall. While that might help provide employment for many people, it is a sad commentary on our society.
Obviously the shooter is deranged, and I’m sure we’ll find out more about him over the next few days. As with each shooting, there is a lot of handwringing and talk of better gun control. However nothing ever comes of it. While tightening the requirements to own a gun, and limiting the type of weapons that people can purchase (such as assault rifles) at the federal level, would perhaps reduce the number of these shootings, they would not totally prevent them.
How can we stop the killing? I see three problems that need to be addressed in order to protect our citizens adequately. The first problem has to do with gun control. The problem with gun control is that you can never completely control anything by making it illegal. We tried to eliminate liquor and that was a colossal failure. We’ve tried to eliminate all kinds of narcotics, and that has been a failure. We’ve tried to limit guns with stricter gun control laws, and have not been successful. So we can never totally keep guns out of the hands of those that should not have them. But what we can do, is make it more difficult for certain people to acquire a gun, particularly a pistol. That can be done at the federal level by requiring background checks, waiting periods, and other ways to try to prevent the wrong people from acquiring weapons.
The second problem we have is the culture of violence that is prevalent in this country. We see violence in many television programs, movies, games, and books. When a child is immersed in such a culture, I believe they become hardened and do not see violence as particularly wrong. Games and the media have legitimized violence, so somebody who is mentally ill might see slaughtering innocent people as a reasonable thing to do. How else do you explain the senseless murder of 20 little children in their classrooms? I’m not sure what the answer is concerning this culture of violence, but I think there should be much less of it, particularly the gruesome kind of stuff you find in horror movies. From what I understand, games are terribly violent. What are we doing to our kids’ minds?
The third problem we have in this country, that really should be dealt with soon, is the fact that the mentally ill are not properly cared for. Years ago, we emptied out the psychiatric hospitals, turning these people loose with little or no supervision. Not only is that not fair to people who have mental issues, but it’s not fair to the general population, especially when some of these patients may be dangerous. Unfortunately, it’s usually difficult to determine who might be dangerous. You can’t put everyone who acts a little strangely away in an institution. However, there should be evaluations made for those who appear to be mentally ill, and based on what those tests reveal take the appropriate action.
For a so-called advanced, or progressive, country, we are not doing a very good job of protecting our citizens from random violence, caring for our mentally ill, and controlling what our young people see in the media. Unless we as a country address some of these issues, I believe we will have to have armed guards at every school and perhaps in every mall. While that might help provide employment for many people, it is a sad commentary on our society.
Monday, November 5, 2012
Act of God?
In legal documents such as leases, there is often a section entitled “Acts of God.” This refers to natural disasters such as we just experienced on the East Coast. Should we blame God for all the misery that the superstorm Sandy caused? Where was God in all that?
As I’ve said before, we live in an imperfect world in which there is sin, evil, and natural disasters. We are subject to the laws of nature, which can sometimes work against us. There was once a place where supposedly no bad things happened, and it was called The Garden of Eden. Oh, one bad thing did happen there, something about eating forbidden fruit. As a result of Adam and Eve’s disobedience we now experience sin, evil, pain, suffering, death, and natural disasters.
Where was God in this terrible storm? God was present in the people who helped their neighbors in need. God was present in the relief workers and first responders who helped, often at risk to their own lives. God was present in those who evacuated when told to do so. God was present in those who did and will give money to organizations that will be helping rebuild people’s lives after the emotional and physical devastation.
As I’ve said before, it is people’s actions that often make natural disasters worse than they otherwise would have been. People build houses under the assumption there will never be a natural disaster to threaten their house. If you build a house on a sandbar just yards from the ocean, you are at serious risk. If you refuse to evacuate in the face of clear and present danger, you might just die. If tree branches near wires aren’t kept trimmed, branches are going to come down and you are going to lose electricity.
Sadly, the unthinkable happened and the destruction was massive. I’m hoping that any rebuilding that takes place will be done smartly. By smartly I mean build only on relatively safe pieces of land; build according to a strict building code; build on stilts if close to the shore; build higher sea walls; and take other precautions to protect what you’ve rebuilt. With higher sea levels and weather getting more ferocious, we have to plan for the worst.
I hope we all remember that this isn’t the Garden of Eden, and so we must prepare for natural disasters and other bad things to happen as best we can. Of course I don’t think you can easily predict that a tree will fall onto your house or car if the tree looks healthy. But with the accurate weather predicting we have today, we can prepare well in advance by stocking up on what we’ll need to survive for a week without electricity; filling up the gas tank well before the crowd; making sure you have enough full containers of gas for the generator; have plenty of bottled water; and maybe even buy some MREs to keep in case of emergency.
May God help those who have lost so much in the storm. I also pray that the rest of us learned something from all this and we will be even better prepared for the next disaster.
As I’ve said before, we live in an imperfect world in which there is sin, evil, and natural disasters. We are subject to the laws of nature, which can sometimes work against us. There was once a place where supposedly no bad things happened, and it was called The Garden of Eden. Oh, one bad thing did happen there, something about eating forbidden fruit. As a result of Adam and Eve’s disobedience we now experience sin, evil, pain, suffering, death, and natural disasters.
Where was God in this terrible storm? God was present in the people who helped their neighbors in need. God was present in the relief workers and first responders who helped, often at risk to their own lives. God was present in those who evacuated when told to do so. God was present in those who did and will give money to organizations that will be helping rebuild people’s lives after the emotional and physical devastation.
As I’ve said before, it is people’s actions that often make natural disasters worse than they otherwise would have been. People build houses under the assumption there will never be a natural disaster to threaten their house. If you build a house on a sandbar just yards from the ocean, you are at serious risk. If you refuse to evacuate in the face of clear and present danger, you might just die. If tree branches near wires aren’t kept trimmed, branches are going to come down and you are going to lose electricity.
Sadly, the unthinkable happened and the destruction was massive. I’m hoping that any rebuilding that takes place will be done smartly. By smartly I mean build only on relatively safe pieces of land; build according to a strict building code; build on stilts if close to the shore; build higher sea walls; and take other precautions to protect what you’ve rebuilt. With higher sea levels and weather getting more ferocious, we have to plan for the worst.
I hope we all remember that this isn’t the Garden of Eden, and so we must prepare for natural disasters and other bad things to happen as best we can. Of course I don’t think you can easily predict that a tree will fall onto your house or car if the tree looks healthy. But with the accurate weather predicting we have today, we can prepare well in advance by stocking up on what we’ll need to survive for a week without electricity; filling up the gas tank well before the crowd; making sure you have enough full containers of gas for the generator; have plenty of bottled water; and maybe even buy some MREs to keep in case of emergency.
May God help those who have lost so much in the storm. I also pray that the rest of us learned something from all this and we will be even better prepared for the next disaster.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
What’s Bothering You? (Part 5)
This post is a continuation of a discussion on an informal survey that was taken by a Christian magazine.
9. Obsession with Sex
The ninth and last area of concern for Christians is, and I quote: “Obsession with sex.” This one is obvious, because we see it every day in advertising, TV, movies, and just about everywhere you can think of. We see it even during the so-called family hour on TV (which has come to be a fiction).
My wife and I will see a new sitcom advertised and think it could be pretty good, so we’ll watch the first episode to check it out. Sure enough, it’s saturated with carnality (like that word?), and not the least bit entertaining. We’ll turn it off about halfway through.
This obsession affects our children, and gives them the wrong impression about what is right and what shouldn’t be done. To show how this is affecting our kids, now teenagers are sexting – sending lewd pictures of themselves via mobile devices, and thinking that is OK! In the movies and on TV, it’s often physical gratification with no love or commitment, and usually without consequences.
What can we do about this obsession? First of all, we should try to shield our children from the worst of it, realizing that we can’t completely protect them. We should monitor what they watch on TV, where they go on the Internet, and which movies they attend. When something inappropriate is depicted on a TV program, we might use it as a teaching moment:
-That’s not what a good boy or girl does.
-You aren’t supposed to do that until after you are married.
-That’s totally unrealistic – real life isn’t like that.
-That’s showing a lack of respect for the other person.
Besides educating and protecting our children, we also need to protect ourselves, and not allow us to be influenced when we see such stuff. As much as possible we should avoid watching TV shows and movies with such themes. Even as adults, we have to keep reminding ourselves that what we see in the media is not real world, isn’t moral or healthy, and there are usually consequences to our actions.
IV. Conclusion
While this discussion centered on concerns by Christians, many other people are equally bothered by what’s happening in the culture. We are seeing the results of this culture shift in the behavior of some people:
-Mass murders, such as at the movie theater in Aurora, Illinois.
-Escapism by drug and alcohol abuse.
-Cheating on exams and other forms of dishonesty.
-Crime, violence, and other forms of anti-social behavior.
-Not wanting to help the less-fortunate.
-Taking the attitude that “it’s all about me.”
All of these have been around since Adam and Eve, but they are probably more prevalent today – how many mass murders were there in the 1950s? I believe the best defense against a culture that is getting more and more decadent is education and vigilance.
There are some good things in the culture, such as art, music, and the like, and some philosophies have some aspects consistent with the Bible. However, since we as people of faith believe the Bible contains God’s truth and is our blueprint for living, that’s what we should focus on. Ignorance of the Bible or mixing biblical and non-biblical worldviews can result in us not living the kind of life God wants us to live. So let’s learn the Bible so we can separate the wheat from the chaff, and also so we can help our children and grandchildren to do the same. Let’s not conform to the world but be truly transformed by the power of God working in us.
Note: Survey is from World Magazine, “What Ails Us” by Joel Belz, (July 28, 2012, Vol 27, No 15, page 3)
9. Obsession with Sex
The ninth and last area of concern for Christians is, and I quote: “Obsession with sex.” This one is obvious, because we see it every day in advertising, TV, movies, and just about everywhere you can think of. We see it even during the so-called family hour on TV (which has come to be a fiction).
My wife and I will see a new sitcom advertised and think it could be pretty good, so we’ll watch the first episode to check it out. Sure enough, it’s saturated with carnality (like that word?), and not the least bit entertaining. We’ll turn it off about halfway through.
This obsession affects our children, and gives them the wrong impression about what is right and what shouldn’t be done. To show how this is affecting our kids, now teenagers are sexting – sending lewd pictures of themselves via mobile devices, and thinking that is OK! In the movies and on TV, it’s often physical gratification with no love or commitment, and usually without consequences.
What can we do about this obsession? First of all, we should try to shield our children from the worst of it, realizing that we can’t completely protect them. We should monitor what they watch on TV, where they go on the Internet, and which movies they attend. When something inappropriate is depicted on a TV program, we might use it as a teaching moment:
-That’s not what a good boy or girl does.
-You aren’t supposed to do that until after you are married.
-That’s totally unrealistic – real life isn’t like that.
-That’s showing a lack of respect for the other person.
Besides educating and protecting our children, we also need to protect ourselves, and not allow us to be influenced when we see such stuff. As much as possible we should avoid watching TV shows and movies with such themes. Even as adults, we have to keep reminding ourselves that what we see in the media is not real world, isn’t moral or healthy, and there are usually consequences to our actions.
IV. Conclusion
While this discussion centered on concerns by Christians, many other people are equally bothered by what’s happening in the culture. We are seeing the results of this culture shift in the behavior of some people:
-Mass murders, such as at the movie theater in Aurora, Illinois.
-Escapism by drug and alcohol abuse.
-Cheating on exams and other forms of dishonesty.
-Crime, violence, and other forms of anti-social behavior.
-Not wanting to help the less-fortunate.
-Taking the attitude that “it’s all about me.”
All of these have been around since Adam and Eve, but they are probably more prevalent today – how many mass murders were there in the 1950s? I believe the best defense against a culture that is getting more and more decadent is education and vigilance.
There are some good things in the culture, such as art, music, and the like, and some philosophies have some aspects consistent with the Bible. However, since we as people of faith believe the Bible contains God’s truth and is our blueprint for living, that’s what we should focus on. Ignorance of the Bible or mixing biblical and non-biblical worldviews can result in us not living the kind of life God wants us to live. So let’s learn the Bible so we can separate the wheat from the chaff, and also so we can help our children and grandchildren to do the same. Let’s not conform to the world but be truly transformed by the power of God working in us.
Note: Survey is from World Magazine, “What Ails Us” by Joel Belz, (July 28, 2012, Vol 27, No 15, page 3)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)