This traces back to when I was more involved with Christian political activism.
(But the concerns on the table are still quite germane):
A sampling of what the ACLU finds worth defending- and worth opposing:
Supports:
-legalized child pornography
-legalized drugs
-tax exemptions for Satanists
-legalized prostitution
-abortion on demand
-forced busing
-ideological tests for court appointees
-automatic entitled probation
-public demonstrations for Nazis and Communists
-legalized polygamy
Opposes:
-legalized, voluntary school prayer
-sobriety check points (?)
-tax exemptions for churches
-religious displays in public places
-medical safety reporting (AIDS, HIV, STDs)
-parental consent laws
-education vouchers and home schooling
-government ethics committees
-prison terms for criminal offenses (?)
(?)
Wednesday, December 17, 2025
No Honor Among Thieves
It probably goes without saying that one Biblical term whose denotative (and connotative) emphasis gets overlooked within modern Christendom is the three-million dollar term: Honor.
Among the professing pastorate, we are more likely to hear terms such as: prayer circles, potluck dinners, and partnering to win the lost. But within the rubric of such "easy-evangelism" terminology lies the conspicuous absence of the matter and reality of honor, and of its attendant implications regarding all other Christian codes of conduct and outreach.
How many self-proclaimed Christian pastors have the gumption to rebuke one another when matters of honor, or the lack thereof, become apparent amidst internecine church squabbles? I am not implying the re-implementation of an 18th-Century duel or sword-fight; but the question lies dormant in the mind of the post-modern New Ager: "Do the Christians I know behave any more honorably that my Unitarian Universalist, or Wiccan acquaintances?"
In other words, an old Christian friend of mine once shared with me, early in my Christian walk, the oft-referred to idea of the "Christian Ghetto." This concept, properly codified, is the idea that once a Christian church, evangelist, or family begins to think that God is blessing their life and ministry, a sense of complacency and capitulation to social ease often sets into the lifestyle of the given person or group of "believers" in question.
When the Christian Ghetto principle begins to set into the cartilege and muscle tissue of a given body of professing believers, one of the first concerns that often gets thrown into the weekly refuse heap is that of honor. Rather than judging one another through a proper lens of grace and truth, people begin to decompensate back to gradeschool observances of outward observations and commonplace grievances, as human sin tendencies begin to rear their expected heads.
When new social strains and embarrassments hit a church that exists and subsists in the Christian Ghetto, honor gets booted out the back door- literally. No longer does the congregation pray for discernment, much less exercise available discernment, when various peripheral members or visitors in the church play their part in the Divine Comedy and shake up the comfort factor of the Ghetto. Rather than recognizing that the Sovereign Lord is never scandalized by ordinary sin and opting to dispense grace to the awkward sinner in its midst, the Ghetto instead hides (or masks) its own culpability in the same sin matter and tries to sweep the social tension under the proverbial rug in the inner sanctuary of God's temple.
But is God ever shocked, surprised, or taken aback by even the most wanton of publically shameful human infractions? (I hesitate to remind you of Hester Prynne.) I would suggest we read Psalm 2 to remember that Jehovah God is scandalized by one thing, and one thing only: the misuse of His Name, Glory, Honor, or Gospel by counter-Christos false teachers and prophets.
The Lord is not sitting on HIs Throne, arms and legs akimbo, biting His metaphorical fingernails, panicking, as it were, over each and every U.S. Senator's "moral failures." It may surprise you to hear me say that the Lord is not ultimately dismayed (although He is undeniably and rightfully grieved) by various pastors' sexual peccadillos. (Though I am in no way diminishing the grievous reality that such sins produce.) What absolutely, unequivocally infuriates the Sovereign Lord is when men and women take His Word, His Glory, and His Honor, and reduce or misuse it as a means to suit the end of their own vain ambitions and useless self-promotion.
That, in a nutshell, is manifest Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, which can never be forgiven, in this age, or the next. If you are currently existing or subsisting in the Christian Ghetto, make sure you run for the hills of Mount Zion, because the Jealousy of the Lord can most certifiably burn your pretenses to ashes in but a moment.
Among the professing pastorate, we are more likely to hear terms such as: prayer circles, potluck dinners, and partnering to win the lost. But within the rubric of such "easy-evangelism" terminology lies the conspicuous absence of the matter and reality of honor, and of its attendant implications regarding all other Christian codes of conduct and outreach.
How many self-proclaimed Christian pastors have the gumption to rebuke one another when matters of honor, or the lack thereof, become apparent amidst internecine church squabbles? I am not implying the re-implementation of an 18th-Century duel or sword-fight; but the question lies dormant in the mind of the post-modern New Ager: "Do the Christians I know behave any more honorably that my Unitarian Universalist, or Wiccan acquaintances?"
In other words, an old Christian friend of mine once shared with me, early in my Christian walk, the oft-referred to idea of the "Christian Ghetto." This concept, properly codified, is the idea that once a Christian church, evangelist, or family begins to think that God is blessing their life and ministry, a sense of complacency and capitulation to social ease often sets into the lifestyle of the given person or group of "believers" in question.
When the Christian Ghetto principle begins to set into the cartilege and muscle tissue of a given body of professing believers, one of the first concerns that often gets thrown into the weekly refuse heap is that of honor. Rather than judging one another through a proper lens of grace and truth, people begin to decompensate back to gradeschool observances of outward observations and commonplace grievances, as human sin tendencies begin to rear their expected heads.
When new social strains and embarrassments hit a church that exists and subsists in the Christian Ghetto, honor gets booted out the back door- literally. No longer does the congregation pray for discernment, much less exercise available discernment, when various peripheral members or visitors in the church play their part in the Divine Comedy and shake up the comfort factor of the Ghetto. Rather than recognizing that the Sovereign Lord is never scandalized by ordinary sin and opting to dispense grace to the awkward sinner in its midst, the Ghetto instead hides (or masks) its own culpability in the same sin matter and tries to sweep the social tension under the proverbial rug in the inner sanctuary of God's temple.
But is God ever shocked, surprised, or taken aback by even the most wanton of publically shameful human infractions? (I hesitate to remind you of Hester Prynne.) I would suggest we read Psalm 2 to remember that Jehovah God is scandalized by one thing, and one thing only: the misuse of His Name, Glory, Honor, or Gospel by counter-Christos false teachers and prophets.
The Lord is not sitting on HIs Throne, arms and legs akimbo, biting His metaphorical fingernails, panicking, as it were, over each and every U.S. Senator's "moral failures." It may surprise you to hear me say that the Lord is not ultimately dismayed (although He is undeniably and rightfully grieved) by various pastors' sexual peccadillos. (Though I am in no way diminishing the grievous reality that such sins produce.) What absolutely, unequivocally infuriates the Sovereign Lord is when men and women take His Word, His Glory, and His Honor, and reduce or misuse it as a means to suit the end of their own vain ambitions and useless self-promotion.
That, in a nutshell, is manifest Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, which can never be forgiven, in this age, or the next. If you are currently existing or subsisting in the Christian Ghetto, make sure you run for the hills of Mount Zion, because the Jealousy of the Lord can most certifiably burn your pretenses to ashes in but a moment.
The Perils of Our Age
I believe you and I can both agree, at least periodically, that we are living in perilous times. Much unrest abounds in the hearts of many, no matter where we are currently residing. So much heartache and betrayal, at the very least: and so many more live under the tyranny of fascist or negligent regimes which quash all human creativity, freedom, and individual dignity. How did our lot become so stricken with such plight and ignominy? What became of the war to end all wars, or again, the free love generation which followed not so many decades later?
Why is it that, generation after generation, we try, as human beings, to codify a nouveau sense of designation for our own ilk, and thus declare that we, the current alignment of humanity, have arrived at a secure plateau of liberation, or enlightenment? While this type of collective pep speech may sound sophisticated, or mildly comforting, is it not true that by and large our own individual realities are not commensurate with such idealism, or such idyllic notions of human evolution?
I believe it is far more accurate and honest for each of us to appraise what stock we are truly buying into, this side of eternity. Is it the stock of denotative love and fidelity to our closest friends? Is it a stock whose value increases per quarter because we are consistently broadening our reservoir of confidential trust and accountable counsel with those who benefit from our time and, pray tell, our wisdom?
In other words, let me pose the question of the Ages, which shouldn't flummox you for very long, even if you are not a self-professing student of Scripture. Simply stated, what did the Lord Jesus Christ say were the two greatest commandments? And subsumed within this query, what are the immediate implications for you, when you weigh and consider what this divine edict confers to you? Which friends do you need to devote more time to, and which activities or mutual efforts can you and your primary allies mutually engage in, so that you may promote the light and glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
If you are not currently disposed to endorsing the Christian faith, let me remind and exhort you to look into what the man who claimed to be God declared were the two greatest commandments, and in so doing, consider whether or not, even if you don't currently affirm faith in Christ, such a mandate seems like an injunction that most people, at a cursory glance, would agree is an important "mindset" to maintain, even if they disagree that it is predicated on the God of the Bible. (I'm not playing word games with you: rather, I'm keenly aware that you and I both possess a divine imprimatur on our very personages which we simply cannot gainsay. This imprimatur affirms to us that we have an eternal calling and destiny to heed and follow, the journey of which will most assuredly be exciting and increasingly meaningful...)
But will we heed the call of the Master who beckons, with outstretched arms and open benediction awaiting us? Or will we shrink back in denial or accusation, capitulating into a defeatist mindset of compromise and languor? I pray that we attend to the first choice- that of the call of denotative love...love which is sincere and knows no guile or avarice.
My sincerest best to you as you consider my words,
with the Shekinah glory of the living God as my bulwark,
RCC
Why is it that, generation after generation, we try, as human beings, to codify a nouveau sense of designation for our own ilk, and thus declare that we, the current alignment of humanity, have arrived at a secure plateau of liberation, or enlightenment? While this type of collective pep speech may sound sophisticated, or mildly comforting, is it not true that by and large our own individual realities are not commensurate with such idealism, or such idyllic notions of human evolution?
I believe it is far more accurate and honest for each of us to appraise what stock we are truly buying into, this side of eternity. Is it the stock of denotative love and fidelity to our closest friends? Is it a stock whose value increases per quarter because we are consistently broadening our reservoir of confidential trust and accountable counsel with those who benefit from our time and, pray tell, our wisdom?
In other words, let me pose the question of the Ages, which shouldn't flummox you for very long, even if you are not a self-professing student of Scripture. Simply stated, what did the Lord Jesus Christ say were the two greatest commandments? And subsumed within this query, what are the immediate implications for you, when you weigh and consider what this divine edict confers to you? Which friends do you need to devote more time to, and which activities or mutual efforts can you and your primary allies mutually engage in, so that you may promote the light and glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
If you are not currently disposed to endorsing the Christian faith, let me remind and exhort you to look into what the man who claimed to be God declared were the two greatest commandments, and in so doing, consider whether or not, even if you don't currently affirm faith in Christ, such a mandate seems like an injunction that most people, at a cursory glance, would agree is an important "mindset" to maintain, even if they disagree that it is predicated on the God of the Bible. (I'm not playing word games with you: rather, I'm keenly aware that you and I both possess a divine imprimatur on our very personages which we simply cannot gainsay. This imprimatur affirms to us that we have an eternal calling and destiny to heed and follow, the journey of which will most assuredly be exciting and increasingly meaningful...)
But will we heed the call of the Master who beckons, with outstretched arms and open benediction awaiting us? Or will we shrink back in denial or accusation, capitulating into a defeatist mindset of compromise and languor? I pray that we attend to the first choice- that of the call of denotative love...love which is sincere and knows no guile or avarice.
My sincerest best to you as you consider my words,
with the Shekinah glory of the living God as my bulwark,
RCC
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