Accustomed to Darkness

"We don't hate sin enough to get upset at the wickedness and godlessness around us. Bombarded as we are by so much media evil and violence, we've gotten accustomed to the darkness" – C S Lewis

If you were at our church last Sunday, you will have heard Pastor deliver a thought provoking message. As part of his material, he used the quote above by C S Lewis. (You can hear this message by clicking on the link on the Welcome Page until the end of this week!) C S Lewis was at his height of writing in the 1950's, and if he was worried about our concept of sin then, it stands to reason as Christians, we have more cause to worry now.

Our world is bombarded by sin, and sinful lifestyles. We only have to cast our minds back a few years to note the difference in things which affect us most. Things like, movie content, explicit song lyrics, TV shows and yes even before the so called watershed time of 9pm, Newspapers with page 3 as their main selling point, pornographic magazines on open display in newsagents, the pop video which is now almost wholly based on sex, the rampant rise of HIV/STDs/morning after pill. I'm sure you can add to this list. The age group most likely to be influenced and affected in all of these areas are, yes you've guessed it, the young! Next question is, who has been responsible for putting young minds in harms way? Answer, the older generation who have sleep walked into their slow acceptance of sin and sinful lifestyle as being ok, and doing no harm!

I think we face a crossroads in our churches and in our nation, in that order. The responsibility of morality, and the law of right and wrong, lies with our churches. If we cannot trust them to preach and teach the gospel of Christ, something is far wrong. We should lead by example, and if that light is hidden, we have no right or ability to show sin for what it is. There is no doubt that some of our mainstream churches are having to face up to real challenges of morality. Some will fail. The chickens have come home to roost. We have let the rot go deep. I think we either lie down to the idea of sin being a serious problem to deal with and do nothing, or we each take some kind of responsibility to make a difference in our own lives, and those we influence. We all influence some others, be it among a large number of friends, or to a small family group. I wonder what others see us as? I wonder what they think of our tolerance of sin? Lastly, I wonder if we care enough?