On Calling Evil Good

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. (Isa. 5:20)

*Before I begin to write this post, I would like to ask my readers for grace.  My heart in writing this post is to express my views on some controversial subject matter.  My intention is not to come across as condemning or judgemental, but rather to share my personal take on recent events in light of God’s Word.  You have the freedom to disagree with me.  We all have the right to our own opinion.*

Over the course of the last year, we have seen our nation move in the direction of becoming more and more progressive.  Yesterday, the Supreme Court moved to make gay marriage legal in all 50 states.  We are pushing for the legalization of marijuana.  Bruce Jenner has been acclaimed a hero for undergoing a sex change.  I am a conservative Christian, so it probably doesn’t come as a surprise to you that I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman, that making drug use legal is not a good idea and that you should keep whatever male or lady parts you were born with.  But this post isn’t about arguing or debating about any one particular issue.

I would, however, like to discuss one concept that weighs on my mind and eats at me from time to time:  How do we as a nation and individuals define our moral compass?  What I am most concerned with is not gay marriage, marijuana, or transgenders, but rather that the compass we use to make decisions in our country no longer seems to be based on the idea of absolute right and wrong.  As a nation, I believe that we have thrown the idea of absolute right and wrong out of the window.  Instead, we are a nation governed by feeling, what we feel to be right, what we feel to be true and more than anything else what we feel makes us happy.  Happiness here can be synonymous with brief momentary pleasures that lead to damaging and potentially life altering consequences.  I’ll admit that this scares me.  It scares me because feelings change, opinions change and one person’s opinion will always differ from another’s.  I fear that right vs. wrong is becoming an increasingly gray area and that we are reaching a day and age where the principles that our country was founded on will be whited out and replaced with these two words: “anything goes.”

Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about.  In the 1960s, our country experienced what was known as the “sexual revolution,” which google defines as “the liberalization of established social and moral attitudes toward sex, as the women’s liberation movement and developments in contraception instigated greater experimentation with sex, especially outside of marriage.”  I, as a single woman, in my mid-twenties, am directly affected by the consequences of the sexual revolution.  I live in a world that has normalized sex as a brief encounter between two individuals that are using each other to meet purely carnal “needs.”  We don’t bat our eyes anymore at one night stands or having multiple sexual partners.  In fact, according to our media, that’s the goal.  The more sex you can have with more people the better!  We have bought the lie that human beings have no more control than animals, with instinctual urges that must be fulfilled in whatever way possible.  In a culture that emulates the notion  that “men have needs” and “monogamy is unrealistic,” I am up against the battle to find a man someday that is willing to uphold the sacred tradition of marriage and devote himself to be faithful to me for the rest of my life.  Unfortunately, for many, marriage has taken a backseat to casual dating, cohabitating, and sexual experimentation.  As we, as a nation, pursue the indulgence of instant gratification, long standing values like marriage have lost their value and their meaning.

The idea I would like to challenge here is that just because something is accepted or embraced by society, doesn’t mean it’s right.  Just because society says that we can have sex with whomever, whenever does that make it right?  If society says we can get stoned, does that mean we should?  If society says that we should alter our bodies to be comfortable in our own skin, should we?  And dare I say, if society begins to redefine long-standing institutions, such as marriage, does that mean it’s really okay?  You may not agree with me on all these points, but I hope we can all agree that as a society we condone alot of things that at their core are unhealthy.

To conclude, we cannot be people that allow our views to be easily swayed by what is being popularized in our culture.  If we do not possess a moral compass that is grounded in absolute truth, than we as a people can be convinced  that anything is permissible. Absolute unchanging truth still exists and in that truth we find freedom.

And you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. (John 8:32)

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