The Spirit of the Age

All things considered, this was a pretty miserable week:
Canadian body parts killer called "creepy"? No kidding.
Maryland man admits eating his housemate. This, of course, following the exceptionally freaky story of the naked Miami man found eating another man on the side of the road. (If this doesn't freak you out, particularly when the newsies refer to such activity as "a trend," I don't know what's up.)


But if you kept reading the paper this morning, you would find tucked away on page 7 (Chicago Tribune) a wire story by Ian Duncan over the failed Republican effort to ban gender-based abortion. First, I find it amazing that this story has been essentially buried. Second, just read the first paragraph of the story:

House Republicans provoked a fresh confrontation in the ongoing battle over women's health care rights, but failed Thursday to win approval for a bill designed to outlaw abortions based on gender.

Notice the language. Republicans provoked. This is a (pejorative) confrontation...a battle. What is at stake? "Women's health care rights." And, finally, what is the outcome--failure! So much for objective reporting.


If I understand why this bill was not passed (and I do), it is because such a bill would restrict South Asian women's culturally-determined right to prefer male children. That about sums it up. Of course, there was a great deal of very ironic rhetoric from the opposition regarding how signage of such a bill would essentially declare war on women (amazing logic, as the bill is an attempt to stop people from killing women). So, in any case, culture is now the litmus test. This is where it goes, ladies and gentlemen: culture--arbitrary, random, frivolous, ever-changing--is now the final arbiter of justice in the world.


If we believe what the Bible says about humans (that we are "hostile to God" [Rom. 8:7], that "the heart is deceitful...and desperately sick" [Jer. 17:9], and I could go on), we must take into account that when we follow the path of culture that is dismissive of God, it is not going to end well. At some point we will find that "anything goes." That was the refrain of the Dionysian cult of the 1st century. Whether our god is salt bath, comfort, male children, sex (hetero or homo)--there are legions of false gods we are more than happy to follow--we will in the end follow the spirit of the age into decay.