Pride

Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18

There was a grand Pride parade in London, and other cities across the UK recently, and all those who took part were proud of who they are and what they represent. It has been 50 years since homosexuality began to be legally recognised in the UK as ‘normal’ and walls began to fall year after year, until now when we have a hijacked rainbow and a lot of over-proud pride demonstrators. What started as a small movement has grown into a very large, hostile group of people who are still not satisfied. It’s not enough that the LGBTQ community can get married in law, and in many, if not most churches. It’s not enough that primary school children as young as 7 can be taught that it is fully normal to be ‘gay’, or even ‘non-binary’. Yes, that applies to the masses of children who don’t know if they are a boy or a girl, and our NHS is starting to consider providing surgery for teens who don’t like their body, and want to be the opposite gender. You couldn’t make this up.

We certainly have come a long way in 50 years, and for my part it makes me nervous for the generations to come. There is clear evidence within the group that they want to extend the LGBTQ to include ‘P’ for Polyamory which as the name suggests is the acceptance of several sexual partners and ‘N’ for ‘N’on Binary Gender for those who do not know what they are. Right now I am left with the question: Where will it end? LGBTQPN etc etc..

We go through a week of celebration of all things homosexual, gay, and all other deviant sexual acts. The LGBTQ community have never had it so good with free advertising, and even the ad-free BBC have got in on the act. Ordinary folks are only known by one letter, and that is ‘N’ for Normal. There is no acceptable deviation from the ‘Straight’ line, and the natural relationship between one man and one woman for life.

This movement has even set about dividing the church into those who accept and believe the Bible as The Word of God, and those who see it as a book of recommendations with no accountability. This attitude goes right to the top of many denominations, and why? Why would a God fearing, Bible believing community of believers bow to the celebration of any act that is unBiblical, unnatural, and abnormal? Good question, and one I have grappled with recently. Have you seen the TV images of gay pride marches? Do the people taking part look normal to you? No matter what you or I think, they are taking centre stage while ‘N’ormal people stand by, and are making the most of their freedom to be sexually deviant. In a strange way, speaking your mind against this is seen as opinionated, intolerant, unChristian, and downright uneducated. And they say we have freedom of speech? Maybe we should celebrate that freedom, and use it more!

Quoting Bible verses and passages do not help because they can be used and twisted against the obvious truth no matter which version you use. Having said that, one thing is clear from Scripture and that is I must love the one who engages in these sexual acts, and perhaps especially those who celebrate them, and each other. But not ever the sin. Never!

Scandals

In my many years on this planet, I have never experienced the media storms coming one after the other, of sex scandals. You can’t have missed them because they are everywhere. The Roman Catholic priests seem to top the list of serial offenders, followed by the nuns. Yes, even the nuns. You might think that a woman who is softer in emotion would be more protective, but it seems that many were in cahoots with some priests. I hasten to add that not all priests and nuns are a threat to children, but we are talking about life in the 1960s through to the 1990s when matters like these were not seen as severe or as serious as they are today. National leaders and Presidents have not avoided this scandal either.

I find the dilemma of life some 50 years ago, compared to now quite remarkable in this important sense. Society recoils in revulsion when we are faced with the abuses of adults and children many years ago, but we are hypocrites. Why do you think that, I hear you ask.

I suggest we have become immune to these wrongs, which is why we react against them when we see the news reports and read the latest newspapers. Hold that thought and feeling, and let your mind swing round to the sex content which is considered as ‘normal’ on TV, together with the quantity of movies which draw box office crowds because of the gratuitous violence and sex scenes portrayed in them. Added to that we have the rising threat of same sex relationships.

So, I see a dichotomy unfolding. On the one hand we are horrified by the reports of sex abuses some 50 years ago, and on the other hand society flocks to see the very movies which show these same scenes as drama. Our consciences are being seared to accept the movie industry, while our courts are rounding up the sex offenders, and rightly so. What a confusing and hypocritical message we are leaving our children and grandchildren? It is no mistake that we are left with this important warning which should be known and understood by church leaders. Especially church leaders!

It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honourable. 1 Thessalonians 4:3,4 NIV

Abuse

In recent weeks there has been a lot of coverage in the news media of many counts of child sex abuses under the framework of the UK football associations and coaching staff. It transpires that many have hidden these abuses for years partly because they felt they would not be believed, or were too embarrassed to tell their story to the police. I have some thoughts on the matter which you may or may not feel are connected. These are my opinions only.

These abuses did not happen overnight, or even in the recent past. We have been getting news of similar abuses drip fed involving youth groups, and even major churches. Every time I hear the problem being discussed by so called experts, they always skate round their own responsibilities. This is especially true of our politicians. It tells me that we are seeing the tip of the iceberg and there is a lot more to come.

If you are old enough to remember the lifestyle and morality of 40 years ago or even more, you will have witnessed a massive change in our attitude to sex in all its forms. Think about the way that sexual freedom has been advocated and manipulated. Magazines, newspapers, film and TV have all sold us the lie that love is sex, and is a commodity. We have lost the meaning of marriage, and the pure love of a couple in the form of a man and his wife. Our nation has turned its back on morality at the hands of the liberal agenda of free love which was pushed in the 1960s and has only become worse as time passed. There is an old saying, “when you open the floodgates, you can’t tell the water where to go”, or as the Bible says, “We have sown the wind and are reaping the whirlwind.”

Who is responsible for this decline? Is it down to one person or group? No, the issue lies at the door of the generation who turned a blind eye as attitudes changed, and no one wanted to be called a prude, or unenlightened. We swallowed the lie of the devil that everything would be ok. After all, the experts were in control. Now, 40 or 50 years later, we act surprised when one abuse is reported after the other and each one seems worse than the last. Let me ask a personal question. What do you see or think when you watch the TV dramas and soaps, or go to the movies, or read the salacious celebrity newspaper gossip? Have we become so used to the blatant sex scenes that we no longer bother that they are there? Have our consciences been seared with a hot iron so that all sensitivity is gone? Would we think of making a complaint?

Can you honestly say there is no connection between our loss of national morality, and the increase of sexual abuses of all kinds? When morals started to drop on the UK TV, a lady called Mary Whitehouse stood up and warned us of the consequences of this increase of sex scenes on TV, and what did society do? They laughed and said she was a crank. The truth is she was right. Can you honestly say she was wrong? The Christian way of life is sneered at, ridiculed, and dismissed as irrelevant, but God’s Word tells us clearly that sexual abuse is wrong.

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practise homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 6:9,10

The Spirit clearly says that in the last times some will turn away from what we believe. They will obey spirits that tell lies. And they will follow the teachings of demons. Those teachings come through people who tell lies and trick others. These evil people cannot see what is right and what is wrong. It is like their conscience has been destroyed with a hot iron.

1 Timothy 4:1,2

Adult

‘Adult Content’. I don’t like that phrase. In fact I detest it. Cards on the table and hands open, I hate it. I suppose it is the hypocrisy that gets to me. You know, it’s as if an 18 movie or game is ok as long as you are over 18. have you ever thought about why the rating is there in the first place?

An 18 video will certainly have more than a smattering of sex and violence. Lots of body, lots of blood, and gratuitous violence. All for it’s own sake, or to be more accurate, because the rating can help sell the movie. Now for the hypocrisy part. Why do most Christians have no trouble with an 18? After all the label says they are ok. Take it a bit further, and I wonder why we sometimes make a distinction between the sex and the violence as if that made a difference? We sometimes make a decision that sex is not ok to watch, but we will sit through a lot of inhuman violence and blood, because we convince ourselves that it is ‘essential for the storyline’. How many times have you heard that phrase in defence of vile, debased movie content? As they say in Scotland, ‘mince’!

Where is our conscience in all of this? Have we watched so many now that we no longer get shocked or angry? Perhaps we feel we are a part of that ‘arty’ group who can see the artistic portrayal instead of the sinful movie that lesser mortals see? Maybe we don’t want to be out of step with our pals when they talk about the latest blockbuster? Or maybe, just maybe, we actually like these movies? I wonder what that says to the watching world? After all, they do watch and we know it! Just saying.

The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. 1 Timothy 4:1,2 NIV