THOUGHTS ON THE LORD’S DAY
”No longer able to blush.”
“Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No. They were not ashamed. They did not even know how to blush. Therefore, they shall fall among those who fall; at the time I punish them, they shall be overthrown, says the Lord” Jeremiah 6:15.
For many including too many Christians, moral values have become a matter of personal opinion or private judgement rather than something grounded in objective truth. To quote the prophet Jeremiah, we no longer know how to blush, or even think we need to.
The selfish pursuit for autonomous individualism argues that every person is independent in terms of accountability and personal destiny. Jean Paul Sartre said, “Man is the being whose project is to be God.”
This passion for knowledge without any accountability is the secular humanistic ideology that is now filling the classrooms in America’s universities and making its way to the nursery schools at the speed of light.
One of the great themes of the 21st Century culture is “emancipation,” the desire for independence from all authority. Our English word, technology, is a combination of two Greek words. Techne, meaning art, skill or trade, and logos, meaning divine reason or organizing principle.
Joining the two words together intimates that mere humans can shape the very order of the world. Sounds to me like the “Tower of Babel” rewritten for the 21st Century. Will fallen man never learn?
This worldview of the “I, me and mine” mentality that places personal pleasure and fulfillment at the forefront of all concerns, is the root of all fractured relationships and the pain and suffering that it brings. This applies to marriage, family, church and any organization.
This is the cause for war and all human strife. The current cultural priority is the desire for personal therapy rather than a personal relationship with the Creator of the universe.
The quest for personal well-being, health and success in this life has replaced the passion for personal salvation, the purpose of being a blessing to others. This runs deeper than mere self-gratification.
Narcissism has become a guiding worldview and way of life. Not just for unbelievers, but much of the church world. Some of the most selfish, self-centered and emotionally immature people you will ever find say they believe in the most unselfish person that ever walked this earth. Mark 10:45.
Therapeutic culture and theology makes personal well-being everything. It’s a fatal combination. Those who worship at its altar soon find out that feasting on yourself is a very sparse meal. I pray the Church learns to blush again–the only hope for America to regain its moral footing.