The Rightness of Calling Things Wrong


Had a day off today with lots to do. When I finally finished it was about 3:00 p.m.. I was happy to be done with stuff. I was able to catch the tail end of an old movie I like titled, "Since You Went Away." Filmed during WWII in 1944, it was about the experiences of a family whose patriarch has headed off to the European Theater to fight in the war.


I thought about that a bit. I've read people's recollections from those times and watched a lot of documentaries, and I still don't know a thing about what it's like to go through something like that. I can only imagine. I remember when my own brother, ten years my senior, left to fight in Vietnam. I worried a lot about him as an eight year old, and and received some serious reassurance from a very kind neighbor girl whose own father had left to serve a second tour there. We were both fortunate to see our loved ones come back alive, but the experiences of an eight year old in the sixties share little in common with those of people whose entire lives were invested in support of a nation's effort to prevent a madman and those joined with him from dominating the free world.


The tenor of people's lives change dramatically when living life together to serve a common purpose, when there is an indivisible commitment to do what is good and right, despite great personal cost. People did not want to be in a world that had to answer to the leader of another misguided European ideology. I have read sermons from those times. Some of them are pretty interesting reading. Peter Marshall comes to mind. I enjoyed reading the things he wrote, and sermons from that period of time.


People could see the immediacy of the consequences involved in their decisions. They had to act. I think things were easier for people to see at that time. Good and evil seemed to be more easily contrasted. Sure, there were Hitler sympathizers. There are so today. That's no different. What is different is how people perceive good and evil.


In a postmodern world, moral relativism is so pervasive in people's thinking that most folks just can't think of a way to say that something is, well... wrong. As a family on Thanksgiving, we prayed after the bombings for the family and friends of those killed or injured in Mumbai, India by criminals. Yes, criminals. It should be easy to say. Some people just cannot do it though. These were Muslim thugs, and they committed another cowardly criminal act in order to terrorize people. Why is it that the blame for something like this is not placed on Islam?


The wisdom of not wanting to alienate peaceful Islamics is not lost on me, but I think it ought to be plain that that another of a long line of criminal acts has been once again perpetrated by Islamic fundamentalists. Pretty simple, right? Wrong. I challenge anyone to find a logical reason outside of their "faith" that explains why they murdered 200 people. The thinking of Islam is just plain wrong and still about the only way one could hear a connection mentioned between these "extremists" and Islam was to go to the Internet. Major news sources wouldn't do it.


I guess it is unlikely that people in the media will have a good understanding of what is happening in the world without an equally good understanding Bible prophecy. That statement probably labels me as a nut ball, but people who see time as winding down to an expected end usually are. I am liable to lumped in with the grocery store rags that say the world is ending on Monday, so be sure to read about it in Tuesday's paper. That's okay. It isn't any secret that as things wind down, that right will be exchanged for wrong. One of the ways that happens is that few will be willing to shine any light on wrong things and call them so for fear of offending some "group".


So am I advocating drawing battle lines? Standing on a soapbox and yelling out things at passersby? No, though sometimes in this world things like that become necessary. I am saying however, that we as believers need to stand up for the Word of God in our churches, and in our lives. We must hold unswervingly to what we know is of God, and do what He tells us to do. We must demonstrate with our behavior the steadfastness and strength that Jesus Christ gives us to reach the hearts and minds of people who do not know Him, with wisdom and a gentleness of spirit, and if necessary, declare what is wrong and who is to blame for it.