The "Gift" That Keeps on Giving

I’ve never been a fan of those “Fruit of the Month” clubs.  You know…the type of gift you send to your mother-in-law because you never know what to buy for her birthday.  They start out really well intentioned—perhaps offering a nice varietal selection of apples from all different regions.  MacIntosh, Granny Smith, Red Delicious and so on—yummy!  But by the 12^th month, it has run its course on the more traditional fruit and your mother-in-law ends up with kumquats coming out of her ears.  Needless to say, she is not pleased with you.   

This got me thinking about two amazing historical stories of “Unexpected Consequences”. 

The first story is regarding Madalyn O’Hair.  Most people readily recognize this name as the woman largely responsible for removing the Bible and prayer out of the America public school system.  However, like me, you probably didn’t know much about her personal life.   

It seems that young Madalyn had an affair with a married Catholic man.  Apparently, she fell in love, got pregnant and wanted him to leave his wife.  He refused to do so because of his Catholic Faith. One wonders why he didn’t consider his Catholic Faith to help prevent him from getting involved in an extramarital affair in the first place.  But anyway, let’s just take for granted he somehow succumbed to temptation or “sin” –a concept which is not very popular anymore. 

When I first read this story, I was immediately struck with an understanding of what circumstances probably created an individual like Madalyn O’Hair.  Is it really any wonder that this woman later on in life demonstrated such a hatred for Bible principles that she doggedly pursued, with deep antipathy, removing scripture and prayer from the public sector?  Do I need to remind you of the saying “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”?  

So, it’s conceivable that ONE man’s abandonment of God’s law—Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery—was quite possibly the instigating factor in defining an issue that 50 years later has arguably left our public school system, and perhaps morality in our entire country, in shambles.
(See previous Blog dated July 15^th: “Happy?” Anniversary America)

This landmark case may also be alleged to be the definitive start of America’s slow death march towards Human Secularism as the new law of the land.  

Amazing story right?  Truly “Unexpected Consequences”—Just sayin’. 

C’mon—you may argue.  Seriously, isn’t that a bit of a stretch? 

OK...if you think that’s far-fetched, how about one sin that caused 97 million deaths? 

 Are you kiddin’ me?

It has been called “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World”.  One single man’s sin (giving in to the sin of pride/wrath/murder), literally was the catalyst for TWO WORLD WARS!  On June 28^th, 1914, a formerly unknown 19-year old named Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Ferdinand of Austria along with his wife Duchess Sophie.  It is believed that he committed this assassination in order to impress his radical friends that despite his small stature, he was a man to be reckoned with.  So, filled with misguided youth, pride and hate, he set out to prove himself.  Called “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World”, historians agree that this assassination eventually led to a series of events that directly fomented World War I.  A total of 37 million civilian and military casualties resulted from World War I.   After World War I, Germany was subjected to the stipulations in “The Treaty of Versailles”.  It was resented by the German people as overly punitive in laying “war guilt” on their nation. This ultimately let to the success of the Nazi regime under Adolf Hitler and World War II.  World War II was the deadliest military conflict in all of recorded history with over 60 million civilian and military deaths. All in all, the total death count from these two massive wars was NINETY-SEVEN MILLION MEN, WOMEN and CHILDREN!

All this from the sin of one insignificant, unknown person—I bet not one of us would correctly name this guy on a history exam.

 

How’s that for “Unexpected Consequences”?

So, what am I trying to say here?  Today, it’s fashionable to be lackadaisical about our Judeo-Christian foundation.  America has strangely adopted some weird dichotomous national “split personality” on morality.  It goes something like this:

Well, I personally don’t believe in _____________ (fill in the blank with some immoral social issue or choice), but I believe in the freedom to allow everyone to do what they want. I will also support laws that encourage and allow people to make these immoral choices.    

So human secularism starts out, like the Fruit of the Month club, with very good intentions.  Words like “tolerance” and “choice” and “fairness” sound so initially pleasing—so humanly reasonable.  However, we have merely substituted Man’s reasoning for God’s Laws.  Even young students know that when there is a “substitute teacher” in place—everyone just uses it as an excuse to go wild.  It signals an “open season” to act up.  In society the “fruit” of such lawlessness is called ANARCHY.    

Remember the old commercial for a hair gel called “BrylCreem”?  The slogan, for those of you under the age of 50 who don’t remember it, was “a little dab’ll do ya”.  So it is with sin.  Based on history, it doesn’t take much of it to set in motion a serious chain of events that has the ability to damage all of mankind.  History has shown us that not only will “a little dab do ya” but that a little dab will “do us in”. 

So…with the United States now approaching the 40-year anniversary of the “slaughter of innocents”, cultural redefinition of long-standing societal laws, and Governmental approbation of general lawlessness…what unexpected consequence might be coming next?  Like the Fruit of the Month Club, let’s start counting…World War I, World War II….

A little leaven corrupteth the whole lump.

~Galations 5:9

"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."

~C.S. Lewis

Please join us for The National Day of Repentance
9/25/12 (sunset)-9/26/12 (nightfall) prayer and fasting for our nation
www.dayofrepentance.org