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A man cannot be established through wickedness; but the righteous cannot be uprooted (Proverbs 12: 3)
It’s one of those unfashionable words isn’t it: wickedness; like something your grandmother used to say as she huffed and puffed over the younger generation; a word the famous five would use in their latest adventure tracking down the gardener-come-kidnapper who you could never believe would be caught up in such a horrid affair.
But wickedness – that purposeful rebellion of man against the ways of God – is all around us. Sometimes in the obvious events that happen around the world such as murder and genocide and oppression and child abuse. But it is also evident in more subtle ways. For example I wonder how many of us would perceive the latest decision by the government to allow pro-abortion businesses to advertise on TV as wicked? You see, in my mind it is not only unfair – anti-abortionist pressure groups can’t afford such air time; it is misguided – encouraging abortion can only weaken the case for sexual purity; but it is also wicked because it encourages purposeful rebellion against God.
There seems to be this misapprehension that somehow, if we remove the possible consequences of sexual promiscuity through such things, we will somehow become a better society – a more established, healthy and stable society. But this misses the point. Because it is the activity itself – the purposeful rebellion against God’s ways – that causes our society to flounder, lose it’s way, become unstable, not the consequences.
We may want to question the way in which it was communicated, but when the Pope made his famous comments about condoms recently, I think this is what he was referring to: you maybe able to remove some of the consequences of promiscuous activity, but unless you deal with the heart of the problem, you will always be flapping in the wind.
If society continues in wickedness – whether or not that brings uncomfortable consequences – it will never truly find it’s feet. It is only through righteousness – the purposeful pursuing of God’s ways – that will allow us to become rooted, strong, stable, healthy.
Established.
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the baby and the bathwater 