A Hammer With Which to Smash It

"When your judgements are in the earth, the inhabitatants of the world learn righteousness." Isaiah 26:9.

One of the virtues of each visit to the Diner is that it provides a kind of reality check on America's continuing moral decline.

I don’t eat much when I'm here, but enough to notice dining habits and trends, and maybe overhear the talk about hot new TV shows or a movie. This fall, as far as I can tell, we’ll be treated to a series that glorifies the life of “cool crime.” Another series—the continuing story of a group of classmates-turned-near-adults—features a woman who can spell “denial” and has a penchant for falling in love with homosexual men. And, of course, we are promised new and more outrageous “reality programs” that have nothing whatsoever to do with the reality anyone ever lives, but everything to do with such skills as getting the best of someone else at anybody and everybody’s expense, all for the sake of fifteen minutes of fame and a big chunk of money.

Television serves as a mirror of society, in a strange kind of way. It reflects what many people think and feel, but typically keep to themselves. By displaying for public scrutiny what we’re secretly thinking and feeling—but wouldn’t dream of acting on—TV encourages us to go on and let it all hang out. Which, as we do, has the effect of moving the moral boundaries back a little more toward decadence. But before we blame television at the cantina of corruption for our moral slide, we need to consider what, in particular, is responsible for creating this favorable climate for increasing numbers of selections from the dessert menu at your local Diner.

It’s not TV. Rather, it is the Church’s indifference toward, even scorn for, the Law of God as the primary source, that fuels America’s continuing moral slippage. This "Christian nation", if it ever truly was one, has lost its anchor and is drifting. It seems it no longer matters if we're eating at the Cultural Diner, or in the Fellowship Hall.

Active or passive rejection of God’s Law is nothing new, not even among believers in God. Throughout most of her history, Israel in the Old Testament ignored, fudged, and blatantly disobeyed the Law of God. It was for their persistence on this course that God ultimately brought them to judgment. The books of all the prophets are filled with warnings, threats, and denunciations against the rulers and people of Israel for their rebellion against the Law of God.

There are two types of abuse of God's Law. The first, that of the Judaizers, tried to make obedience to the Law a prerequisite of salvation. According to them, one is saved by believing in Jesus and submitting to ritual requirements of Jewish law. Paul rightly identified this teaching as “another gospel.”

The second error, the other extreme of the pendulum swing, wants to do away with the Law altogether. Paul addressed this incipient problem in the book of Romans. The moral corruption, seen so often in Church cafeterias today, takes the latter form. The Food Pyramid is posted, the talk is of Food Groups and healthy eating; but the patrons say they are not bound by the RDA, as though they had to make any effort to follow them. We live in a time of grace, not law. The Spirit is our guide in ethical matters, pouring forth the love of God from within us, so that we do not need to exert ourselves, laboring to understand or keep the Law of God.

While we loudly protest the removal of the Ten Commandments from the public square, we are shamefully silent about their absence from the pulpit, Sunday School classrooms, and church discipline. Instead, in all these places the Beatles' ethic is all that remains: “All you need is love.” You know, just love one another, as Jesus loved us. Don’t try to put anybody under the Law—except, of course, those pagans and secularists who insist on removing the Commandments from court houses and schools.

The result is that, as a community, the ethic we demonstrate is not much different from that of the increasingly decadent society in which we live. Except for our “church activities,” we as a community are not that much different from our neighbors. We are nearly as materialistic, spend as much time watching television and participating in other frivolous diversions, have about the same divorce rate, and in just about every other way demonstrate that we’re just “one of the guys” when it comes to everyday ethical behavior. We actually show favor to unGodliness—greed and lust, anger and gossip, Sabbath-breaking and blasphemy, stealing and murder, lies and hypocrisy, adultery and incivility.

Drifting on the sea of love, untethered by the Law of God, the church is under the shadow of perilous icebergs. Having refused to decisively proclaim the goodnes of the Law, the church has opened the door and welcomed in every form of unrighteousness. The church has encouraged corrupt and decadent dining, and made it increasingly difficult for the world to make healthy choices.

Nutrition-related illnesses are progressive, debilitating, and often go undetected for years. How long has it been since your last check-up?

Cultural Nurse-in-Training,

~Bill