Moving Forward in a Debauched Society

      It's easy to blame today's moral regression as the product of 5 unelected government officials shoving their opinions down our throat at the expense of national spiritual well-being. The fact is that this is the result of a long-running and very deep moral rot that the Church has had trouble addressing for several decades. It's a fundamental problem of ministry, or any kind of attempt to convert somebody to your way of thinking: how do convince somebody who doesn't even accept your basic assumptions?

      Let me give you an example of this idea. Say a Mormon came up to me and said "You must do X, Y, and Z because the Book of Mormon says so." I probably would not follow his advice. Why? Because I don't accept the Book of Mormon as valid teaching. I don't even accept the possibility that it could be valid teaching. That guy could toss quotes from the Pearl of Great Price at me all day and it wouldn't change my thinking because I don't give a rip about his doctrine in the first place. Thus, even though the Bible has the advantage over the Book of Mormon in that it's Truth, this is still a flawed strategy for dealing with the world. Biblical verses are essential for correcting somebody in Christianity or at least considering Christianity, but when dealing with somebody who rejects Scripture out of hand, it can be like talking to a brick wall.

      It doesn't take a theological genius to discern that our culture's moral mantra is "if it works for you and doesn't harm anyone else, it's good doctrine". This can be maddening because anyone who holds to this view  can cop-out of a theological argument at any time without being perceived as having lost, no matter how 'on the ropes' they were, simply by stating that "your doctrine doesn't work for me". It's like guerrilla warfare, you don't have to win, just drive your opponent crazy by avoiding a full-scale battle (that you'd certainly lose) until he quits. You can't reach somebody intellectually if they refuse to be reached that way.

      The good news is that the Church has a history of dealing with through love issues that have refused to be dealt with intellectually. Take for example the racism that permeated this country 70 years ago. You could have used all the scientific facts and Biblical verses in the world to demonstrate that there is no fundamental difference between a black man and a white man, but that wouldn't have convinced more than a handful of people at best. It took loving and selfless actions, often in the face of brutal, hateful, demonic opposition to fix the problem and move our society to the racially accepting one it is today. 

     

      A specific example is Jackie Robinson. Although he is easy to immortalize and turn into a Superman-esque historical figure, let's remember that he caught literal (and I know the meaning of literal) HELL during his years on the playing field and he never publicly lashed out verbally or physically. And let's be clear here, he was not a pushover man who suffered racists lightly. When he was in the US Army during WWII he was court marshaled for refusing to change seats on an officially desegregated military bus (he was acquitted, but the process was still hard). There were plenty of times he would have reveled in the chance to deck somebody who was throwing crap at him, but he did not follow through. Why? Because he knew that to break Christ's commandment to love your enemies would be not be simply unwise, but a supremely selfish  act. If he had made a scene the media would have had a field day, the segregation crowd would have smugly announced their point proven, and America's racial progress would have been set back for years at the cost of great suffering to millions. One man's immediate pleasure simply didn't compare to that on any moral scale. 

      Fight for God's honor, but don't confuse it with your own ego. I know full well the temptation to shoot off a scathing remark that knocks your opponent off his feet. I know the visceral thrill of having your opponent's argument backed against the wall and unable to do anything but take the intellectual pounding you dish out. And I know how fun it is to post a Facebook status that 'plays to your base' and picks up plenty of likes from like-minded fellows- even if it isn't the most helpful thing you could do. It is critical to remember that we did not deserve the truth, it was given to us. 

      To illustrate this fact, I once had to visit a Hindu temple as part of a World Religions class. They were holding a puja - an offering service to one of their deities - so in many ways I was in an utterly foreign place. But while there I saw a number of little kids acting like little kids at every Baptist church I've been a part of. Some were sprawled on the pews, some were squabbling with their siblings. One was asking his dad when they could go home. That's when I realized "Holy cow, these kids are me. I've been there. I've done that." In that moment I realized that all that really separated me from them was who I was born to, and nobody can control that. If that doesn't kill your ego (and I have no shortage of ego), nothing will. Even as we speak and act the Truth (and it MUST be the Truth, no matter what kind of unpleasantness or pain it causes or how politically incorrect it is, for bad doctrine helps no one) we must do it in humility and love.

      This is not a call to disregard all worldly affairs and simply hope that if we pray hard enough things will change. Jackie Robinson showed love to his enemies, but he did it while doing everything he could to tear their entire way of life apart. The Church cannot separate itself from the world, to attempt such a thing is impractical and sinful. It is impractical because the world is simply going to affect the Church in one way or another. You think China's policy of religious repression or Iran's Islamic theocracy haven't hurt the Church in those countries or kept people from the faith? It is sinful because it disregards the Great Commission and leaves the rest of world irreparably lost. 

      A sinful society is going to harm the Church and everyone else, and the Church is the only means of fixing it. God doesn't override people's minds, He uses His servants to reach them. And lost people are going create a lost society because lost people act lost because THEY'RE LOST. Don't blame them for everything, they're just doing all they know to do. If things are going to change, the Church needs to repent of its sins and wade into the morass to guide others out (2 Chronicles 7:14 - a good verse for staving off self-righteousness). So yes, get involved in politics and influence the government for the better, get involved in the arts and create beautiful things that point toward God, get involved in every realm of culture and turn it into something holy and beneficial. God is not a god of Sundays, He wants and is going to have it all. Just remember that people aren't going to truly change because we fixed something external, that can only be happen internally.

      The way to truly progress from today's debacle isn't going to be an election, a political maneuver, or new law. Any law is going to have its 'hypocritical' followers who go along not through true desire, but simply out of a wish to avoid social penalties. It's human nature no matter the law or dominant religion. Aristotle once said "I have gained this by philosophy: I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law." This problem is universal. No law, no matter how strict, will improve a people if they do not wish to be improved (think Prohibition, we just invented new ways to cheat). But the flip side is that no law, no matter how permissive, will hold a people back if they choose to hold themselves to higher standards.