A Marvelous Prospect

Shhh. I’m at a conference in Orlando. That’s code for DisneyWorld. Last night the event organizers took 3,000 of their favorite clients to Epcot. I rode “Test Track” – a pretty good roller-coaster disguised as a car test track. Being Epcot, the ride is sponsored, in this case by GM. As you wait in line (which you can apparently do for a really, really long time), you ease past a number of exhibits which explain simply the history and various aspects of car testing. Then you ride the roley-coaster, which simulates aspects of a car on a test track, including a crash – almost. Typical Disney.

In preparation for the evening at Epcot, which I had never been to, I did a little on-line searching to find out what the rides were and which were the neatest. One reviewer of Test Track noted that he had ridden it the day that GM declared bankruptcy, which leads to the tie-in to my topic. (I know you’re glad I’m finally getting to it.)

Why did GM go bankrupt, and what does that have to do with the  moral bankruptcy of the USA?

this morning as I was walking through the hotel lobby, a CNN report on HPV vaccine for BOYS was being discussed. HPV – human pappiloma virus – is a known cause of cervical cancer in women. It is an STD. 1/2 of sexually active women are infected.

So, what’s the point? Aren’t vaccines good things? Isn’t disease-prevention a good thing? Certainly. But in this case, there is a moral restraint that is being abandoned.

Rather than a vaccine, what we need is a moral and ethical climate that suggests to our children that sexual restraint before marriage and a monogamous relationship within marriage provides freedom and protection that is far better than any vaccine.

a couple of months have passed since I started this one…

I just learned that my neighbors are divorcing. I’m not surprised. They had to get married. Well, they didn’t have to, but she was pregnant with his child. So it was “the right thing to do.” I guess it was. But these are two adults who chose to ignore the moral restraints that God places on our sexuality, and that our society used to. I know, we all messed around, or wanted to, but we knew it was wrong. I don’t think that’s the case any more. Now we have another fatherless child that’s going to hit the streets in a few years. Nevermind her children from the marriage that their liaison busted up. sigh.

A couple of more lines of rant and I’m done with this one.

Earlier this morning I was poking around YouTube and watched a cute anti-smoking clip. Any time I say that smoking is OK, people should have the freedom to smoke, I get lambasted with how it causes cancer and all sorts of diseases, and how bad it smells. Of course I can’t argue with that. A question – has anyone actually pondered the costs to our society of the sexual perversions that are considered OK, and the laxness of morals across our society as a whole? Anybody? To borrow from Robert Heinlein, “there ain’t no such thing as free sex.”

Tiger Woods has been unfaithful to his wife. Who cares? Oh, you do? Why? I thought it was  a founding principle of this country that we’re entitled to “the pursuit of happiness.” If we pursue it and find it in the arms (or whatever) of a prostitute, aren’t we  entitled to do that, whenever and with whomever? That’s what the media says – all night long every night. And I think all day long too – in the Soaps, but I haven’t seen one of those in a long, long time.

What’s going on? Why are we collectively incensed that a successful athlete would make it with as many women as he could? It’s sort of the new cultural anthem. Wouldn’t you, if you were in his green jacket? Smoking is the new evil act – screw whomever, that’s all right.

OK. You know I wouldn’t ask a question without offering an answer. We are incensed because we know better. It’s written on our hearts. NO culture lasts long that ignores this basic natural law of fidelity in marriage. The family is the foundation of every society. We destroy it at our own peril. Even committing the act, Tiger knew better. “Sex addict.” Give me a break. The 7th Commandment (of 10) says “Don’t commit adultery.” Inherent in that is the concept of marriage and fidelity. Adultery is the act. Even the thought (addiction if you will) is prohibited in Commandment 10 – do not covet (or lust).

Don’t tell me that for all time men have been philandering. It might have been winked at, but it’s always been outside the acceptable norm. Everybody knew it was hurting somebody while at the same time pleasuring another.

It isn’t “sex addiction;” you know that as well as I do. It’s sin – a wrong choice. A focus on satisfying self instead of honoring God and loving our neighbor – beginning with our spouses.

While we’re here, we might as well address the issue of Buddhism and Christianity – which Britt Hume exposed and now Tiger has addressed. He said yesterday, “I have a lot of work to do, and I intend to dedicate myself to doing it. Part of following this path for me is Buddhism, which my mother taught me at a young age. People probably don’t realize it, but I was raised a Buddhist, and I actively practiced my faith from childhood until I drifted away from it in recent years. Buddhism teaches that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security. It teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint. Obviously I lost track of what I was taught.”

Well, they certainly have the pointless search for security part right, but to what end? Buddhism is about doing. Work hard and be good to “achieve nirvana and escape … the cycle of suffering and rebirth” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism) – escape to – nothingness. Yuk. Christianity is about being – accepting the gift of redemption bought by Jesus the Messiah through his death and resurrection – and doing – in gratitude, not to earn God’s love or to escape. We are forgiven and can hence forgive. We are loved and can love. We are not escaping, we are living an abundant life here and now. It’s Tiger’s only true hope.

Here is a good analogy showing the difference between Buddhism and Christianity, in the words of a former Buddhist: http://www.christianministriesintl.org/articles/03.html

Oh, do you know what “happiness” meant to the authors of our U.S. Declaration of Independence? Virtue – the pursuit of a virtuous life – “transcending self.” What a concept.

As I was doing my daily studies this morning, an old thought with a new object lesson popped into my head.

You’ve heard it said, and I’ve said it myself, “Life is like a garden…” or “Our minds are like a garden, you have to keep the weeds out.” How’s that?

Think about a garden. What’s there? Either the benefits of beautiful flowers or wonderful fruit (and vegetables, or course – the tomatoes are starting to come in seriously out back – Woohoo!).

One of Shirey’s laws of gardening is that it’s best to weed a little bit every day, that way it doesn’t become a burden that destroys your love for gardening – like devoting most of steamy hot Saturday to it will most assuredly do. But what of the weeds? Why weed at all? Because weeds are undesirable plants that compete with the flowers and the veggies. Leave grass alone and it will create a thatch that chokes everything else out. Skip a few days with some of our tormentors, and the whole garden seems to be nothing but this one species!

And Mark Sanford? OK, so in our garden-lives, the good plants are our good, purposeful thoughts and actions. They produce beauty and fruit. The weeds are sin – thoughts and actions. Dealing with sins as they pop us as thoughts (all action is preceded by thought) is work, but not that difficult as an exercised discipline. But let the weeds/thoughts go, and you have trouble in abundance. They take over. And the worst is that when the weeds growing right next to the good plants get big, you can’t get them out without disturbing or destroying the roots of the good plant.

Well, isn’t that exactly what’s happened in Mark Sanford’s life? The weeds of lust and adultery were allowed to grow, and now, trying to pull them out is going to destroy his wife and children’s lives and probably (hopefully) end his political career.

Weeding – how do we do that? Two disciplines:

Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.(the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome 12:2 – The Message)

Finally, brothers and sisters, keep your thoughts on whatever is right or deserves praise: things that are true, honorable, fair, pure, acceptable, or commendable.(Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi 4:8 – God’s Word)

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Postscript – Mark Sanford – who’s he? Just in case you should read this blog post after Mr. Sanford is long-forgotten, today he’s the embattled governor of South Carolina. A couple of weeks ago, while ostensibly on a solo hike along the Appalachian Trail, he was actually in Argentina un-solo. It’s proving to be his undoing (see, for example, http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/06/gop-censures-gov-sanford-absence-affair/)