The strangely fluid and beautiful creature leaps and bounds in bright colorful array engulfing the structure that is the object of its appetite. A crowd gathers, for a moment stunned by the apparent freedom of this gaily frolicking entity. Then, as if shaking off a kind of stupor, someone screams to be saved.
In answer to the plea, a courageous number of that fantastic fraternity formed to fight this very devil, soon arrive and begin their bold work. The flames are doused and the remaining folks gathered at the scene, staring at the remnants of the edifice as it smolders amid the ashes, observe as the next skilled team arrives and begins the important work of inspection that will ultimately, hopefully, determine the origin of the monster.
The Church is on my mind, and having lived more than a half century now, it is my estimation that the road to perdition begins with one’s elevated view of oneself.
In America, no more than 2% of our total population is gay, and approximately .8% of the 2% are involved in a same sex relationship, and fewer still are legally married. Clearly, we have a much greater problem with other sexual sins in this country, such as fornication and adultery. Of course, even the criminal sexual sins of child molestation and rape occur more frequently among us than does the sin of practicing homosexuality.
The sanctity of marriage is intended to be built upon a foundation of sexual purity which applies to all people. The foundation has been under attack since humanity began. Most of the twentieth century saw the institution of marriage, an institution necessarily established by God for our protection and to increase our joy, being questioned and demeaned by American society in general. Yes, even we, the organized church felt it necessary to debate many issues surrounding the sanctity of marriage and family long before beginning to argue its very definition. I submit to you that we, as a church, failed to properly defend marriage against those relatively minor attacks, thus we now stand perilously close to losing the war.
However, while It may be too late for us, as a nation, to raise the stakes- it is never too late for us to up the ante as the church. Jesus did.
Jesus said, “Let’s begin with understanding lust as a sexual activity sinfully equal to adultery. Let’s begin by demanding of ourselves a clean heart.”
If we, the American population of the church, begin cleaning at the level that Our LORD mandated we may be able to effect the kind of change in our nation that is seen as nothing short of miraculous.
Copyright 2015, L.L. Shelton
