In Praise of Pope Benedict
I do not believe in Catholicism but I admire the Pope for letting his “yes be yes and no be no” in certain spiritual matters. The Pope has unequivocally spoke against certain modern day issues ranging from euthanasia, human embryonic stem cell research, including women in priesthood and recently the use of condoms to deal with AIDS.
It is not easy to take a stand on your belief especially when your stand provokes strong reaction. You may end up unpopular, a lone voice in the wilderness or even an outcast in the community.
Taking a stand separates the sheep from the goats. It shows what the basis of your stand is. To stand up for God requires one to walk by faith not by sight. The foundation is based on “Thus saith the Lord”. It is grounded on” an assurance of things hope for, a conviction of things not seen”. When you stand for your faith the only evidence you need is the existence of God even though you may not have evidence of what is to come with regards to cause and effect. Thus to a person who walks by sight, finds the faithful subjective; the unseen is without basis thus deemed as unscientific.
To reason scientifically one seeks to walk by sight. To show a cause and effect, an effect must be manifested to be monitored and measured before one can arrive at some conclusions. For evidence to show, the damage is already done. It is “after-the fact”. To show that condoms lead to the increase in AIDS, someone must end up as a statistical data contributing to the effect to be measured. Would you be the one?
Such faithless reasoning has arisen many times in various situations in modern Singapore. One good example is ratings for artistic expression e.g. U, U16, PG, R-rated. There is a balance between one’s artistic expression and the impact on the community. I wonder how many of those who do not believe that R-rated is a contributing factor to sex crimes, are parents themselves. I wonder whether such people are even married. A good test of whether you are true to your belief is when you are at the receiving end of your philosophy. An artiste who chooses to be lewd in the name of artistic expression may certainly cry foul if she was sexually assaulted but may never admit her part in encouraging sexual immorality.
Recently when an all male cast performance of “The Importance of Being Ernest” was rated for above 16, some parents complained about the homosexual tone of the performance. One prominent artiste said he was surprised because the performance was true to the original intent of the play. Is being true to the play the only consideration without implications? How does a child of God respond? Thus saith the Lord or thus saith the playwright? Artistes tend to be adverse towards any attempt to “stifle” their artistic expressions but they do not have any hesitation to stifle those who walk in the straight and narrow way. Yes they are broad minded, so broad that they are making a spiritual sewer out of our society.
Words like sexy, saucy, naughty and sexual innuendoes are used so frequently in today’s TV program and radio chat shows so much so that they are considered normal. The latest is the S factor show. Just listen to their language and the justifications by the girls to stand out amongst the contestants. Any displeasure shown towards such usage is deemed as being old fashioned, judgemental or self righteous, yet advocates of such behaviours evangelistically spread their carnal lifestyles without much of a blush. Insisting on one’s rights is fine with them but do not insists on righteousness.
The righteous may have to suffer because of the foolishness of the wicked. If society does not learn by reason, they will learn by pain. This was what happened to Israel and Judah when God pronounced His judgement through Jeremiah,
Jeremiah 2:19 Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.
The consequence of their wickedness will correct them. The consequence of their backsliding will reprove them. Why? Because the fear of God is no more in them. Poor Jeremiah and Baruch had to bear the sorrow and sufferings together with the wicked during the fall of Jerusalem and subsequent captivity. Unless we dare to stand up for our faith, we are more than peculiar. We become paganised Christians.
Add comment April 6th, 2009
