Everybody's is doing it!

First of all no matter what “it” is, it's not true, “everybody” covers far too much ground. Perhaps the thing on your heart is widespread, but in Biblical terms as the Lord tells Elijah “I have reserve seven thousand in Israel― all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal” (1 Kings 19:18). Elijah was feeling sorry for himself and feeling that he was the only one who was faithful, but God had kept seven thousand who would not go along with the crowd and worship Baal. Similarly in this day, God has kept those who are faithful to Him and to His commandments. It may look like “Everybody's doing it,” but it's not true, not everybody is conformed to the World (Romans 12:2).

Second of all even if it were true, “everybody doing it” it would not make it right, nor would it mean that the choices being made promote a healthy life. When I was growing up “everybody” smoked, and we are still paying the grim reaper for the many related incidents of lung disease. Following the crowd many times does not make for health, wholeness, joy peace or prosperity. Certainly some cultures are more healthy than others but a 51% morality is not God's way, nor does it bring in holiness, righteousness or justice. At one stage (perhaps it still is) it was widely held that education promoted maturity and goodness, that it was ignorance that promoted evil. I used to think that, that is until I became a graduate student. It was here that I learned that the Educated can be even nastier than the poor and uneducated. The only real difference was that Educated nastiness is more subtle, more hidden and more insidious. The fact of the matter is that human nature has changed very little over the centuries of recorded History. Human nature still embraces might as right, people are still basically selfish, and the default still seems to be to go wrong.

We can put a man on the moon, but we still turn a blind eye to poverty and oppression. If you doubt any of this consider that we have enough to feed the world. What is missing is the will to do it, both the collective political, and the individual will. Though some will respond to information about the plight of the hungry, most of us get tired because “we gave last year.” The World is filled with political injustice and we do intervene, but we intervene where it is expedient to do so (for example to protect our supply of oil), and we refuse to interceded where it it not. Might does not make right, political power does not bring justice. Democracy where the outcome is determined by the majority is better than the alternatives, but it only works where there is righteousness and justice. Democracy has worked in the West because whether we acknowledge it or not, it is based on Judeo-Christian values, the value of the individual, the value or rights and freedom, of freedom of speech and religion. But these values increasingly are being eroded by the “everybodys” of our society.

Jesus has a lot to say about the views and values and behaviours of the majority. He tells us “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13,14). To put it in modern jargon He is saying that the default is destruction. Don't take my word for this, look at where our godlessness is taking us. Already several countries have decriminalized incest, and what about euthanasia? In what way is this different from ethnic cleansing and the Nazi programmes to eliminate undesirables? As many philosophers have said “Without God all is permissible”. This is not to say there are not moral atheists. But there is no sound basis in atheism for morality, for if there is no God who is to say that this or that is wrong? A 51% morality may be broad minded, but it is a shifting sand and it is leading us to destruction. Perhaps everybody is doing it, but if so are we not in danger of being like so many sheep prepared for the slaughter (Jeremiah 12:1-3)?