I’m semi-borrowing the title from an infamous
trilogy of books and movies made from those books. I’ve read the trilogy, avoided the
movies. However, that is not what this
blog article is about.
Imagine yourself in the studio audience for a talk
show where there was to be a special audience give-away. The host asks everyone to stand up. Then the host begins issuing directions to
the audience in steps in order to narrow the winning field.
“If you have ever cheated on your taxes, such as
including a personal trip as a business expense or even something as small as
‘padding’ the amount of donations of tangible goods you gave, please sit
down.” Next is, “If a cashier ever gave
you too much change and you didn’t point out the error and give it back, please
sit down.” After that comes the
instruction, “If you’ve ever been in a waiting room reading an article in one
of the magazines provided but didn’t have time to finish it, so you either tore
out the article or took the whole magazine with you, please sit down.”
How many people do you think would still be
standing? Then the instructions continue
with, “If you have ever ‘permanently
borrowed’ something from your work place, even as small as a box of paper
clips or a roll of tape, please sit down.”
I suspect that would cause quite a few people to
return to their seats. Then the host
offers this one final instruction: “While you’ve been at work, on the ‘work
clock’, if you’ve ever checked your cell phone for personal means, made a personal
call or sent/answered a personal text or used either your phone or the
company’s computer to look at (and possibly engage in) any of your personal
social media sites, please sit down.”
If every person in the audience was being truthful,
there would be no one left standing.
What’s my point?
My point is each and every one of these acts can be defined as
“stealing”. But they seem almost
innocuous in harm compared to the criminal and religious sins of the people in
the world today, so they become almost acceptable.
Yet right is right and wrong is wrong. Rules are clearly written in “black and
white” but over the course of time, so many of them have become shaded in gray. I’ve always tended to see the world in more
“black or white”; if something is wrong, it’s simply wrong. I don’t see the degree of wrongness and how
something that is less wrong is better than something that it more wrong.
Let me give some examples: Someone is murdered. Is the person who murdered him/her more or
less guilty if it was a single shot to the heart versus multiple shots to the
body? Is shooting someone more or less wrong
than stabbing someone to death?
Someone intentionally cheats on their taxes. Does it matter if it saves them $15 or
$15,000?
Someone avows – often quite publicly – that they are
a Christian. They attend church
regularly, support their church financially and can quote many Bible
verses. However, what no one knows that
that this same person gets regularly drunk on the weekends and verbally (or
worse) abuses their spouse and children.
In a conversation recently, I was reminded that Christians are taught to
ask for forgiveness and voila, all is forgiven.
However, every Saturday night this same sin occurs and every Sunday this
person attends church and asks for forgiveness.
I’m afraid I don’t get it. How did Christianity come to the place that
it’s okay to commit the same sin as long as forgiveness is asked for each
time? How did that come to be acceptable?
The problem with “gray” is that society has come to
accept it in others partly because we are guilty of it ourselves. Look at Bill Clinton being able to stand up
and not only say, but believe, that
he “did not have sex with that woman” because it didn’t involve vaginal
penetration. Some agreed – those who
wanted to support their President and probably those who were also guilty of
the same infraction. Some disagreed –
those who disliked the President and were willing to look at any means that
would get him out of office.
In a black and white world, you either believe
something is wrong or something is not wrong.
The alleged sin should have nothing to do with the person’s race,
religion, gender or political ideals. But
all of those things do get tossed into the mix and what should be black
and white becomes gray.
I remember a licensed psychologist who also touted
to be a devout Christian had a client who had been found guilty of incest. It was suggested by this psychologist for
leniency in punishment because the acts were of digital penetration and not of
penal penetration. Go back – read that
again. I hope your mind is asking,
“What?” I hope you feel indignant that
this forced act upon an innocent child should be punished differently because
of the way it was performed. Could you
look at that child and say, “Well, yes, he hurt you, possibly scarred you for
life, but not as much as he could have?”
A crime is a crime is a crime. Infidelity is a bonafide reason, supported by
the courts, for divorce. It doesn’t
matter what form of sexual misconduct occurred, only that it DID occur.
Cheating on your taxes is illegal. It doesn’t matter HOW MUCH money you cheated
for; you cheated and that’s a crime!
Murder is a felony.
Again, the courts see this as a crime, regardless of the way the body
was murdered.
We are all sinners.
Yes, some sins are far more unfavorable than others; there are degrees
of sin, I suppose, in that regard. But committing a crime/sin in any degree
makes us sinners.
Jesus said, “Let he who is without sin cast the
first stone.” He didn’t specify a sin or
to what degree we’d done it…. He simply said those words. And there is no one among us who is,
according to those words, able to cast the first stone.
We can’t have it both ways, folks. Our laws are murky enough in their nuances
that we can’t allow them to become even murkier with these subtleties.
I know my thoughts on this won’t change a
thing. This is my way of speaking out to
the people I know who perform these, in their eyes, seemingly ‘negligent’
things while they still parade themselves to be of extremely high morals and
Christianity. I am also blessed to know
people who truly show their Christianity by their every action. To them, I say “thank you” for showing me
what being a Christian truly means.
To those of you who speak your Christianity loudly but so blatantly show us differently by your actions, I say, live your life how you want. Just don’t stand there in your righteousness of persona, as a sinner, and dare to cast the stone at others! Matthew 7:1 Judge not, that you be not judged. Romans 2:1,2 Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are that judge: … Romans 14:3,4,10-16 Let not him that eats despise him that eats not; and let not him … 1 Corinthians 4:3-5 But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you,…
Ramblings and Ruminations 