Are We Shocked Anymore?

[I wrote this a few years ago. As you read it, consider how much our culture has shifted. Truly, any nation that rejects God will be punished. But may it never be said of us that we laid down the sword of the Spirit and walked off the spiritual battlefield in the middle of the good fight.]

In 1993, on the T.V. show Seinfeld, Jerry and George (his best friend) were mistakenly thought to be a gay couple. In shock, they vehemently denied that they were a homosexual couple. But, what was telling was the tagline. Every time they denied being gay, they would say, “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.” At that time, even those who saw nothing wrong with other people committing that sin were shocked when someone thought that they were guilty of that sin. Fast-forward twenty years. Now we live in a day when the president of the United States personally congratulates the first openly gay NBA and NFL players for their courage. Our culture is doing everything it can to do away with the shock and shame associated with that sin – even replacing shame with a badge of courage.

I recently heard someone contrast the present culture with that of our grandparents and great-grandparents. He said that in today’s culture, it is seen as shameful for homosexuals to continue to hide “in the closet.” But in the ‘50s, they were ashamed to be “in the closet” in the first place. It’s no wonder that so many young people are confused about their sexuality. They’ve been told their whole lives by the culture that homosexuality is just as valid as heterosexuality. Premarital sex and cohabitation are just the natural steps you take before marriage (which is optional). And, divorce is a “no-big-deal” option that will always be on the table when marriage isn’t fun anymore. “Do whatever makes you happy!” has replaced “In God We Trust.”

There is a reason we shelter and protect ourselves, and especially our younger, more impressionable minds, from certain movies, T.V. shows, music, locations, people, etc. The more we allow the world to portray “evil as good” before our eyes, the less shocked by evil we become (Isa. 5:20). This is the searing of the conscience about which Paul warned Timothy (1 Tim. 4:2). And it is the method Satan has used since the beginning to bring nations to their knees. Recall that Ahab, the opponent of Elijah, was the most evil king of Israel. His attitude toward his own sin is described. He regarded walking in evil “as though it had been a trivial thing” (1 Kings 16:31). Sin was no longer regarded with shock and shame in that culture.

When the contrast between light and dark is no longer made, that which is evil will eventually end up in the same category as that which is good. Even further, the world has tried to cast a cloud of shame over the marriage between one man and one woman for life, because this standard implies that other “definitions” of marriage are not valid.

Peter describes Lot as a righteous man, “who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked” cities of Sodom and Gomorrah that “tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds” (2 Pet. 2:6-8). Lot lived in possibly the most sinful city on record – so sinful that it was destroyed beyond archeologists being able to find its remains. But Lot is shown to have been living in such a way that he was still shocked by sin, even to the extent that it “tormented” him to be in a place where sin was so pervasive.

Are we shocked anymore? Does sin bring shame anymore? If sin has become a trivial thing, it is because we’ve forgotten what it does. It separates us from God and breaks the heart of God. It nailed Jesus to the cross! The truth about sin gives us a proper attitude towards it. Acceptance of someone’s sin is hatred toward that person. Jesus hated sin so much that he did everything that could be done to remove it. True love for others is confronting sin with the blood of Christ.

-Cary Gillis D.Min.

June 4, 2022