In their book, Good Faith: Being a Christian When Society Thinks You’re Irrelevant and Extreme, David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons trace the path America has taken toward a new moral code: “the morality of self-fulfillment.” The new moral code comes with six guiding principles:
- To find yourself, look within yourself.
- People should not criticize someone else’s life choices.
- To be fulfilled in life, pursue the things you desire most.
- Enjoying yourself is the highest goal of life.
- People can believe whatever they want as long as those beliefs don’t affect society.
- Any kind of sexual expression between two consenting adults is fine.
Today’s decree, later changed to a directive (because decrees are usually handed down by God and someone must have clued in the overreaching Department of Justice that they might be using a word with religious overtones…which of course isn’t tolerated today) that all public schools must give equal access to bathrooms to transgender people is the government enacting these six guiding principles.
Russell Moore stated in his blog today:
The state here wishes to use its coercive power not simply to stop mistreatment of people but to rescript the most basic human intuitions about humanity as male and female. How, after all, does one win a culture war against one of the most basic facts of science and life: that there are two sexes? One does so by withholding the funds and recognition necessary to operate in public space, unless institutions get in line. Children, then, become pawns of the state for the state to teach what is ultimately a theological lesson, not a scientific one.
According to the state (and Hollywood, ESPN, Zuckerberg from Facebook and a host of other media elites), one’s gender is determined by looking within, not by the biological standards of male and female anatomy. Anyone who disagrees is considered an intolerant bigot. Since people should do what they desire most and enjoying life is the highest goal, individual assessment of one’s own gender takes precedence over safety of others, scientific evidence and basic discretion.
Pastor Kevin DeYoung, in a letter to the Michigan State Board of Education stated:
The current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) includes gender dysphoria, labeled as gender identity disorder until 2013, as a recognized condition when accompanied by distress over one’s biological sex. While some parents may encourage their children to embrace their chosen gender identity, whether it matches their biological sex or not, many other parents will see gender confusion as a natural part of passing through puberty and will encourage their children to embrace their biological sex. It is not the place of the schools to undermine what is taught in the home.
We are experiencing a tsunami of cultural change. Underneath the tsunami lies the earthquake that created it: the morality of self-fulfillment. Moore states well, “We must bear witness to the goodness of what it means to live as creatures, not as self-defining gods and goddesses.”
The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever–not to glorify self and enjoy self forever.
Enough for Today 
Accurately insightful and so very true of where we are as a nation. Pastor Jerry zeroed in the the root cause of most sin; the deification of self. I have to fight it every day. It ultimately goes back to the Garden, doesn’t it?
All one needs is to examine the Greek and Roman Empires. They did not fall due to errant political decisions, nor because of military conquests. They failed and disintegrated because of gross immorality. Read Edward Gibbon’s classic “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.”
As Jerry points out, America is in the throes of a horrendous “tsunami……..the morality of self-fulfillment.”
While great revivals are possible, and America can experience repentance through the grace of a loving and holy God, it becomes less likely to happen as time goes by and we slip deeper into gross immorality.
All we can do is “stand our ground,” no matter the cost. Representing Christ in a loving and graceful way is daunting, but that is how we must approach our obligation to Him. I shudder at that responsibility when I consider my own failures and human disposition. God give us the strength to persevere!
LikeLike