Have you ever noticed that we as a
people just can't seem to avoid extremes? Have you seen how we swing
from one side to the other and nearly never find the happy medium? We
spend a few years on one side of the tracks until someone notices a
few problems and then we invariably throw the whole thing out and
jump to the other side. Take for example the defense of the bullied
and the 'oppressed.' The current culture and the internet culture
especially seems all too ready to charge into battle and defend
anyone we see as being put down or hurt or maligned. To a certain
extent this is a good thing as humans have a natural tendency to
attack the different and the unknown rather than learn about them.
Even Christians have a hard time taking things for what they are and
evaluating them in a more level-headed way. So often have we simply
attacked sin and destroyed the sinner that the church has rather bad
reputation now and many people would never dream of seeking help from
the one place they should expect to find it!
The culture as a whole seems obsessed
now with defending the rights of others-or is it? Everywhere you go
you'll find posters or .gifs or pithy comments or cute little comics
about how we should all just be humans and not label or marginalize
others. Although I agree that we should work to respect those around
us, I suspect that one of the driving factors behind this movement is
not some new found love for others but really a backseat effort to
defend ourselves. Race and gender and nationality are all beyond
debate but 'lifestyles' are all about the choice we make. We make a
case that such and such group should be respected and then this other
group and then this other group and pretty soon we have a hard time
“judging” anyone and an easy time defending any lifestyle we
want! I don't need to defend my sin if I can make a million people on
the internet do it for me.
More importantly I feel that we as a
society have made a tragic error in our defense of the victims. We
made the right choice at first; those who need help should not be
ridiculed. We should foster an environment of love where we seek to
help those who are in need of it and no one should have to face a
life where they are daily bullied and beaten and accursed. That being
said, we got so focused on the defense of these people that we up and
forgot to keep in mind that sin is still sin and wrong is still
wrong! Laziness, cowardice, homosexuality, “transgender-ism”,
teen and unwed pregnancy, and so much more are problems, not
lifestyles. God created reality as He intended and our sin has
fouled up the works; that does not mean that we now get to define our
reality, it means we have to work to keep our reality in line with
the truth! We should do everything we can to help people who have
made mistakes or who are trapped in sin or who have a condition that
screws up their minds and emotions to the point they don't know who
they are, but we have to remember that we are treating aberrant
conditions and seeking to bring people back from them. If your doctor
decided not to tell you about your cancer because he feared it would
upset you, he would be considered a bad doctor who is failing in his
duty. No one would remark on how caring he is or how much concern he
has for the mental well being of his patients!
In this post-modern world we like to
think that everything is relative, even reality. The truth however,
is that truth is a solid and unchanging thing not defined by anyone
but God. It does not matter how you feel or how you were born because
we know that this world is fallen and we cannot expect it to follow
the line God has laid out. We must love those around us but to
sacrifice truth for the sake of peace is not loving. We will love
those in need most when we try to help their needs. The old adage may
sound trite but I believe it still stands: hate the sin not the
sinner.
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