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It’s again come up, the question of why I write what I write, the tone that I write it in, and a continued question as to why I continue to lecture women in the post about whether a woman could become President of the United States. I started writing the following as a comment, but figured that everyone would benefit from understanding my passion for God’s Word:
My form of helping people is to show them the high calling of Christ, to show them what they can be when they throw off what culture and society tell them is right and look to the Lord. That’s the whole point of this blog. The culture and society are constantly pressuring each individual to be and to do things their way. They tell you what to wear, how much to wear, when to have sex, whom to have sex with, when to eat, what to eat, where to work, etc. The culture is a slave driver, asking you to blindly follow it wherever it wills and belittling those who would dare to stop and ask the question “Why should I?”
The most powerful word that we have is “No.” No, I won’t have sex before I’m married. No, I won’t wear a shirt baring my midriff. No, I won’t cheat on my wife. No, I won’t skip church on Sunday because the football game is on.
So, yes, I challenge you to think (not you literally, but you as in all readers). I’d like to think that I don’t shy away from hard topics, but ask the question “Why?” What’s the answer the question– if the answer is “because this is how we’ve always done this” the answer isn’t good enough. We are living in an age where that’s the main answer.
For all of my younger life I did a lot of things because that’s what I was trained. It wasn’t until I was older that I actually stopped to try to think “Why do I believe what I believe?” How do I backup a philosophy with the Word?
Why choose the Bible? Because the Author of the Universe has something to say, and I can pretty much be sure that He has a greater understanding of the weakness of my frame and how I will react in day to day lives than anyone else. By knowing not only what He expects from me, but why and how I know it, I can rest assured that He will take care of the rest. But when I decide I know better, I know that I’m in for correction.
Does that make any sense?
Very interesting thoughts. I can see where you are coming from even though I strongly disagree with jsut about everything you write.
“The culture is a slave driver, asking you to blindly follow it wherever it wills and belittling those who would dare to stop and ask the question “Why should I?””
I can also rewrite that sentence this way:
Religion, particularly Christianity, is a slave driver, asking you to blindly follow it wherever it wills and belittling those who would dare to stop and ask the question “Why should I?”
How are you any different than culture? I see you as the polar opposite, and in the end, not much better than culture in your request for people to blindly follow your path. I think the goal of most people is to find the happy medium between extreme materialism and extreme religious thinking.
I, for one, am glad that you do challenge us. I need a good kick in the behind every now and again. 🙂
Fair question. I think it comes down to what the effect of each is on a given person. (If, for the moment, you take a purely secular view of things.) The question becomes, does Christianity or the culture enslave people more?
On the one hand, Christianity has at its core a Holy God that expects us to model ourselves after Him. Included in this is a Book that details what God thinks is right and good and what He thinks is bad or sin. One is expected to follow after the good and reject the sin. This means that there are principles or commands for every thing in life, and that it is the Christian’s job to try to follow after the good and shun the evil.
On the other hand, culture has a tendency to view all things the same. It has no moral compass or guide, other than “whatever everyone else is doing.” Culture responds to no-one but itself. One thing that could be good today might be bad tomorrow. There are no absolutes, for everything is subject to what the whole is doing. Culture may vary from place to place.
One could therefore say Christianity is a slave master, since it dictates a set course of action. However, just like counter-culture people who are truly in the culture, if you look at Christianity’s commands and contrast them with the commands of the culture (at a given time) we see that Christianity is a much better master. For, in reality, we are all slaves to (or being lead by) something or someone, it’s just who we choose to follow.
Christianity calls people to live outside themselves– to prefer another over oneself. It calls for charity, chastity and the high virtues. It allows for a person to say “no” to things that are harmful, and helps people strive to be better– a constant goal to a definite end. It has a Deity that is not only just, but is also loving– involved in helping the person reach perfection as well as forgiving them the wrong that they have done. It has at its core a Creator that loved man so much that He died to redeem us when we decided to reject him.
Culture, on the other hand, focuses totally on oneself. It seeks to glorify self, pleasure, and does not care who it tears apart in the way. It indulges and glorifies practices that are dangerous physically and emotionally, it causes people to deny inner feelings, and pressures people into doing what “everyone else is doing.”
And, if we look through history, those countries that end up allowing culture to rule are eventually overthrown or destroyed.