Romans 1:28-32
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
I wanted to point you guys to this article by Monique E. Stuart, Program Officer for the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute. I am more interested in what Stuart is saying than in the political aspect of the Institute's work. I thought this passage particularly incisive:
"In their moral relativist world, no one has the right to judge others. In Columbia University’s sex column, Sexplorations, Miriam Datskosky explains why the all too common 'walk of shame' shouldn’t be shameful at all. She argues that men and women should be able to go out and have sex whenever and with whoever they like, and when walking home the next morning—wearing the same clothes from the night before, their make-up smeared, and their hair a mess—they shouldn’t be judged. 'It is not up to a random stranger to make you feel ashamed,' she declares. Moral relativism and the sexual revolution had a baby, and boy is it ugly!"
The "Walk of Shame," for those of you fortunate enough not to know, is a woman's trip back to her car/apartment/dorm room after, um, having relations with someone she didn't plan on copulating with the night before. Thus the references to smeared makeup and the previous night's mussed attire.
It's so pathetic and hits so close to home that I am almost without words. My heart breaks for all those deceived women, walking back to their dorms or cars and trying desperately to feel "proud" of what they've just done, like Cosmo and Glamour said they should and would. They hope he'll call tomorrow (he won't--and if he does, it's for one thing, and sweetie, it doesn't involve a ring or going home to his mom and dad). Instead, they uncover the gritty reality the glossy magazines conveniently left out of their "Are You Normal?" sex article: anger, guilt, sorrow, and for many women, disease.
God set me free from that kind of life, through the blood of a Messiah who actually cares about women who have not lived virtuously; when the world would have thrown me out like garbage (after lying to us and telling us this life would bring happiness), He made me worth something. He gave me a totally new heart, a new way of looking at everything. He cleansed me and made a completely new person.
John 8:3-11
As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and Pharisees brought a woman they had caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd. "Teacher," they said to Jesus, "this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?"
They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, "All right, stone her. But let those who have never sinned throw the first stones!" Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust.
When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. Then Jesus stood up again and said to her, "Where are your accusers? Didn't even one of them condemn you?"
"No, Lord," she said. And Jesus said, "Neither do I. Go and sin no more."
I'm still working on that whole "sin no more" thing, but I sure am glad He sacrificed Himself for me...unworthy, unholy, unfit. If I am worth anything, it's because of His love for and His redemption of me.
Posts
