IrContent

Professing to be wise they became fools . . . . Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor their bodies among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator.

It is interesting to me that Paul connects idolatry and sexual immorality in his famous “sin spiral” of Romans 1:18-32. It seems that once men rebel against God the void gets filled with idols, and once they rebel against God’s provisions the void gets filled with perversions. Perhaps this is because one of the idols that lays claim to the devotion of mankind is the penis . . .When mankind exchanges the creator for the creation he becomes the arbiter of goodness. An objective universal ethical code is replaced by the drives of each individual human being. After all, if we are merely animals wouldn’t it be unnatural for us to deny our fleshly cravings? Or, from a “spiritual” standpoint, “How can God blame us for what we do when He made us this way?” People holding to either of these perspectives are essentially placing their sexual drives where God should be.

Peter Kreeft made an interesting point regarding sexuality and ethics. I do not remember the reference (and I think I’ve seen it in several places), but he says that distorted sexual desire is responsible for much of the worst in ethics today. He makes a good point – just look at some of the outcomes (some of the most heated issues of the day): abortion, venereal disease, unwanted children, homosexuality . . . how many of these evils would be avoided if we merely accepted God’s gift of, and provision for, sexual fulfillment?God says that sexuality is to be enjoyed by a husband and a wife (this is an adult male human being legally married to an adult female human being for those of you confused by liberal idiocy). This means that sex is not for the unmarried. Sex is not between other spouses of married individuals. Sex is not to be between two people of the same gender. Sex is not for children. Sex is not to be between two beings with different natures. Sex is also not for solo gratification (we can debate about whether masturbation is technically a sin, but let’s face it - sex with yourself involves many of the above prohibitions!).

The statue above may seem to reflect some primitive culture’s gross immorality in worshiping sexuality. But I think that particular culture was just being honest. If we “cannot” control our lust and its gratification then penises become our idols too (either our own or someone else’s).

Oh, I did not mean to exclude the heterosexually-challenged wymyn out there (gender profiling???), so here ya go:

I decided that I would be motivated to go to the gym and mow the lawn more often if I could find some way to use the time for more than just working out or cutting grass. As it turned out, the perfect motivational tool turned out to be a new MP3 player . . .

I got a Creative Zen Nano which is basically a 1gb flash drive with earphones and an armband. Now, I can rip (or “record” for us analog folks), store, and play music with this device - but you can also download books from the internet! There are a variety of sources that I have only begun to explore, but one of them, Audible Books, gives you a few free with a trial membership.

So yesterday my lawn mowing was first turned into a dramatic event of high adventure due to the soundtrack provided by Smalltown Poets and the Violet Burning. About half way through my epic battle, I got to listen in on Plato’s account of Socrates’ dialogue with Euthyphro over whether a thing is holy because it is loved by the gods or loved by the gods because it is holy. Pretty sweet way to work if you ask me!

I was having an interesting conversation with someone the other day who said that she was looking for a religion with strong spiritual connections, that in her opinion Christianity could not provide them, and so she was looking into paganism and satanism(!). Can Christianity compete with pagan “spirituality”? I answer that not only can it compete, but it is the clear winner - for it engages the whole person with the ultimate spirit.When people speak of “spirituality” they usually are referring to some sort of emotional sensitivity to certain things, ideas, or events - like a walk through the woods or standing on the shore of the ocean. For those whose emotions are attuned to such things this can be a very moving experience – even “spiritual” if you will. Experiences of this kind are generally quite vague because they touch only the emotional part of our soul. We generally cannot put our finger on exactly what the experience is – only that it is.For the pagan this sort of experience is the ultimate experience - because for them creation is the ultimate. Christians object to this, for in much the same way that one should not praise a paintbrush for the beauty of a painting but rather the painter, worship should be given to the creator, not the creation. (see Romans 1). To worship anything less than the ultimate is idolatry.

But recognizing a creator behind creation involves the intellect – not the emotions. We do not experience God directly through His creation, but rather, creation serves as a pointer to God (see Psalm 19). That an ultimate creator exists can be known apart from special revelation or religion – philosophers from the very beginning have posited a first cause behind all that is in our common experience.

And even this is not the end of the story, for once one has recognized that there is a creator, one must decide how to react. This choice involves the third part of a person: the will. Acknowledging God’s existence is only the first step in true spirituality, for if one then turns from God in disobedience then the purpose of gaining that knowledge and that having that emotional experience is thwarted (Romans 2). To be a truly spiritual person all three aspects of the spirit must be involved.

True spirituality can only be measured in relation to the subject and object of that connection. For example, a rock has zero spirituality for it cannot feel, think, or choose. A mere animal can feel, but cannot really think or choose because they lack rationality (this is why people who are controlled by their emotions are referred to as “animals”). A person, however, is a being that can feel, but can also think and choose rationally. These intellectual and volitional aspects of our being are what make us different from all other physical beings (and what makes a thing different from all other things reveals its purpose). As many pagans have realized, it is the purpose of human beings to be spiritual, the problem is that they engage only a small part of their person and connect to that which is less-than-ultimate.

Thus, for a human to be truly spiritual they cannot be satisfied with only an emotional reaction to creation. Emotional sensitivity is important, but the truly spiritual person will engage their whole being (emotion, intellect, and will) into seeking connection with the ultimate. That this is truly our purpose is demonstrated in Jesus’ answer to the question, “What is the greatest commandment?” His answer was quite simple: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. . . . and love your neighbor as yourself.” (see Matthew 22:34-40). On this ideal hang all the rest of God’s laws - laws designed to protect our ability to fulfill our spiritual purpose.