America is a “Culture of the Moral Negative.”
I am not talking about “negativity,” the bogie-man of the
new age. Actually, I am convinced
negativity can be honorable. Of God’s
ten laws, eight of them are stated in the negative. “Thou shalt not.” That is an 80% negativity rate. Flawed human beings need limits to inhibit
our sinful behavior. Negativity is not all bad.
I am talking about the kind of negative you develop a
picture from (back in the old days before these new-fangled digital cameras
took over). On the photographic
negative, dark colors appear as light and light looks dark. The image is reversed. A moral negative exists when right and wrong,
good and bad, moral light and dark are reversed. There have always been people with morally
negative consciences. The culture of the
moral negative develops when this kind of conscience becomes prominent in a
society.
In
Isaiah 5:20, God spoke through the prophet and said,
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.
Woe to the culture of the moral
negative.
Is America
such a culture? Need I even argue the
point? Our Supreme Court regularly issues decrees that turn biblical morality
on its head. The evil today is not to do evil, but to call evil evil! We’ve
watched in horror as one video after another has been released displaying for
all to see the unspeakable wickedness of Planned Parenthood, and people defend
it as “Women’s health.” We’ve seen the release of stolen data from Ashley
Madison evil site, where married people went to have affairs. The shame is just
beginning to descend. Evangelism is called hate speech, tolerance of evil is
seen as a virtue, and our government leaders have begun to restrict many of our
most precious freedoms. Dark is light and light is dark. We have become a
nation of the moral negative.
A
couple came into my office asking if I would do their wedding at our church. We
talked for a while and I figured out that they were not living their lives in
accordance with the Scriptures – not even close. I said that I didn’t think I
could perform their marriage unless they were willing to submit themselves to
Christ and to the word of God. There was not a hint of shame or sorrow for sin
in them. Not a bit. There was a lot of anger. How dare I call their lifestyle
and choices into question? “We are good people,” she declared. Think about it.
They came into a church to ask a favor and were angry that the church would not
compromise its beliefs and convictions for their benefit. They were not willing
to bow to Christ, but wanted the church to bow to them. A moral negative.
America
has always had its issues. We’d like to see it as a Christian utopia in days
gone by, and there is much that has been admirable about our land, but our
history with race and the treatment of minorities (blacks, the native peoples)
makes the claim of Christian utopia impossible. We’ve always been sinners, in
one form or another.
But
in recent years, moral depravity has taken us to the brink. Who is to blame?
Shall we decry the liberals, the pornographers, the traffickers, the
abortionists? Of course, their deeds are evil! But God’s word lays the blame
elsewhere. Never blame the darkness for the darkness. We are the light of the
world, responsible to reflect the light of Christ into the dark world. We are
the salt of the earth. We ought to look within and ask if we are shining the
light of Christ and letting the salt of Christ inhibit decay.
Are
things hopeless? Not at all. Israel, at the end of the period of the
Judges, had embraced debauchery in a way that might have made Hugh Hefner
blush. They were a culture of the moral
negative. But, Israel ’s greatest days were only
about 50 years in the future.
How
did things change? One man, a prophet
named Samuel, gave himself to God and his ways.
He led Israel
and proclaimed truth for many years. He
anointed a king who was “a man after God’s own heart.” David led Israel to its greatest days of
glory.
Nothing
is hopeless in this world. When the
Colonies had turned to Unitarianism, skepticism, and spiritual apathy, God
visited us with a Great Awakening. He
did it again after the Revolutionary War.
The amazing Welsh revival swam the Atlantic
and revived our land at the beginning of the Twentieth Century.
Will
God do it again? I don’t know. But we will get nowhere by cursing the
negative. We must recommit ourselves to
being the salt and light we were called to be; to proclaim the
life-transforming gospel of Jesus Christ.
Oh, Father, develop my life into a print of your glory. May your light shine through me and may the salt of Christ never lose its saltiness through me.
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