But I'm tired of being quiet. I'm a resident of MS - the famous, back-woods state that still hates black people and doesn't have the capability of maintaining a functioning air conditioning (this all according to the Hollywood movies that are set here...). In 3 days, people in my state will vote for state-wide elections. Additionally, they'll be voting on an eminent-domain issue and the now-infamous Initiative 26.
Initiative 26 is an initiative to define a human being as a person at the time of conception. I have remained blissfully ignorant of all of the negativity surrounding this idea; a pleasure that I chalk up to the fact that I have not used Facebook since August 15, where the issue is plastered all OVER the statuses of those whom my wife has "friended." Some people that I know have an opinion that agrees with the initiative, some that I know have an opinion that disagrees. Like noses and backsides... everyone has one.
I want to share my opinion now. I haven't, up unto this point, for personal reasons. I feel like my opinion might carry weight that it shouldn't (even typing that makes me feel self-conscious and foolish). Because I always wear a suit and stand in front of a congregation each Sunday, some might consider my words to carry more weight. I certainly do not believe that they do, but in respect for others I have kept my thoughts to myself.
No more.
I am ashamed to approach God. I am ashamed of what His church has allowed to happen, here, in His creation. I am so very saddened by the state of things and the way in which we got here. As a representative of His church, I blush at what the Church has wrought here on Earth. I feel a great weight of responsibility pressing upon each and every believer... and yet we chose to look away and act as though it isn't there.
We have, for too long, placed faith in "politicians" to somehow legislate the morality that we are too weak to enforce in our daily lives. We have prayed that "they" would lead us out of the mess that we, smiling, walked into on our own. We have done this all while telling ourselves that we were seeking the "will of God," but were we to be honest with ourselves - His will is the furthest from what most of us desire.
Because God needs to be defined. See, the Creator isn't allowed to tell the creation what to do, what to believe, how to behave. No... the creation should be allowed to define the meaning of the Creator.
Perhaps you think this is not so - but look around. Look at the world we live in. The world that "we" created. Here, in this world, God's existence is questioned because evil and malice and greed run so rampant that there is no possible way that a loving Creator could really be up there above the clouds - all the while we ignore the agents of the Creator who gather together each week to "worship" Him and who were DEMANDED to see to it that no evil was allowed to gain footholds here. Who is the most inactive... God? Or us?
Initiative 26 saddens me, not because of what it's trying to do, but because it's mere existence calls to attention our failure to do what we were called to do.
Are we really so foolish to believe that murder, in any way, is permissible? Do we really believe that it's a person's "choice" to allow life or to take it? If so - why not set every murder free... they were simply exercising their choice. They just waited a little longer to implement their desire.
Initiative 26 isn't about person-hood, that's just the sheet hung over the issue. The issue is abortion. Please make no mistake about it. But, because we were too weak and foolish to prevent murder from ever becoming legal in the first place, we now have to dance to the tune that the winners play. And since they have convinced the world that it's a "woman's right to chose," then our weak attempts at reclaiming victory have been reduced to legal wrangling over the idea of a "person." The worst part? This attitude didn't stop at a woman's reproductive ability... it grew tendrils that extended towards those who were clinically "brain dead," to those who might have quality of life that "we" defined as less that acceptable.
It is, though you believe otherwise, NOT a woman's right to choose - because the "right" to choose is not ours in the first place. Consider it this way; how many of us "chose" to live? The answer, no matter how philosophical you choose to be, is none. Life, by the very nature of what it is and where it originates from, is a gift that none of us are able to replicate or claim as our own. Ah - but this can not be! God must be defined! Because an action "can" be taken, surely the action must be definable as correct, given the right sort of circumstances. Killing is wrong, until it's my choice. Let no one starve, until it takes food out of my mouth! Everyone should be allowed to be free, until their freedom encroaches upon my comfort... and we go on and on.
All while God looks down. How dare we look back at Him... How dare we claim to "believe" in Him and then pervert His greatest desires for us in whatever way fits our personal philosophy the best. How do we, with a straight face, claim to belong to Him and then live in total and utter rebellion to Him and His command upon each and every one of us? How? As a parent, I demand more respect from my own children than I see us giving to the Almighty. Day after day - as though there is nothing wrong with it. And when we do, for even a moment, consider our weak attempts to justify ourselves, the taste is so bitter, the hypocrisy so blatant, that we recoil back into ourselves and pretend as though nothing came to mind and that nothing is wrong.
We are such a simple people.
Initiative 26... is it wrong or right? I do not know. I am not a politician. I am not looking for the backdoors, the loopholes, the ways in which the intent of a thing can be so bent as to make the thing something it never meant to be. I leave that to those much better suited to their task.
But, I do know what is Right. I also have but one Initiative. It has no number, it has no clever signage to be placed in your yard. My Initiative is written on the hearts of men and women. it was not penned by clever politicians, nor was it "voted" on - it simply was... since the very beginning of time, it always has been.
Should you chose to vote - consider this; who is really telling the truth? Some say it will outlaw birth-control, others say it won't. They can't both be telling the truth. But, before you go arguing your political case, dig deeper. Look closer at life itself. How precious is it to you, really? How vital is it that life be protected and preserved?
How thankful are you that you weren't a "choice"?
The blood is on my hands. It is on yours too. We have allowed ourselves to be convinced that Truth is a vapor, too illusive to be obtained, all while holding in our very hands the Book which contains only Truth. We sing to Truth, we pray to Truth, we worship Truth. And yet... we betray Truth.
God, life, and who we are as His creation is not a vote. It is not a debate. It is not given to us by the voice with the most time on television. It was spoken to us by the Prophets long ago and revealed to us in a manger in Bethlehem. In the "House of Bread" came the Bread of Life. If this does not have the right to dictate to me how I should live my life, then nothing ever will - and the world is indeed lost.
How long do your children remain silent, Lord? How much ground do we give to those seeking their own way before we turn and take back that which was given to us to protect.
How ashamed you must be of us. We are stubborn and foolish and set our eyes upon the scraps of the world when you have given us the inheritance of Eternity. We cower and run at even the mention of difficulty, and yet You overcame the greatest of all difficulty... why? Was it so we could have the freedom to "choose" what to do with Your great gift of life? Forgive us for our foolish abuse of Your grace. Set us upon the right path, the righteous path, the only path.
Oh that we would one day again rise and be counted among those foolish enough to believe that the Creator really does have the right to choose.
"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." 2 Timothy 4:3-5
If you made it this far, thanks. Perhaps you'd like something else to think about:
