1984

We live in a time where the Truth of the Gospel is challenged more fiercely than at any time in history.

Televangelists spout their message across the airwaves in such a way the Truth often gets missed in the message. No ministry can run indefinitely without funding, and there comes a time when funds need to be raised, but the World hears this and screams "All these preachers want is your money!"

Sometimes they're right. Sometimes the ministry in question is questionable.

More often they're wrong. A minister of the Gospel spends hours each day researching, learning, reading, praying, counselling, writing and teaching the Gospel of Jesus. It's a full time job.

You never hear "All that doctor wants is your money!" when you go to the office with a stomach bug and he charges you for his time, his knowledge, his research, his counsel and the writing of a prescription.

The World ignores them because they don't conflict with the World's values.

Jesus dropped into 1st Century Palestine at a time when there was universal deceit. He spoke only Truth, and they killed Him for it.

Today you can be charged with inciting violence by hate speech in many countries, but these laws are never enforced on the people who use it the most: politicians. Rather they are pushed on simple and ordinary people. Bakers who don't want their store associated with homosexuality because their understanding is that it's sinful and they want to take a stand for their Faith, the Truth as they understand it. Clerks who refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples for the same reason. Preachers who have the audacity to say that a collection of writings from two millennia ago is still applicable in full in modern society, that God doesn't change and His decrees are absolute.

In some countries they get fired or put out of business. In others they get decapitated. Both are persecuted.

Now I'm not saying I agree with everything here in terms of action. We are called to allow ourselves to be subject to the law of the land, sometimes that means doing what it says, and sometimes it means not doing it and accepting the consequences. Should the clerk issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple? The law of the land says yes. But what is marriage in the eyes of the law and what is marriage in the eyes of God can be very different things. In law, marriage is primarily a financial institution. In Faith it is much deeper than that and goes to the core of humanity's sexuality.

Be subject to the laws of men. Eventually God will have the last laugh anyway. Two men may enter a non-sexual "marriage" in law so that they have a person they can turn to to make hard choices in the event of failing health. In modern terms, it could be argued that King David and Jonathon may have had a union of this kind as they are described as being of one spirit - yet there is no hint that they were sexually involved. I have lived with men as a younger man. One of my closest friends was my house-mate and confidante for over a year. I introduced him to his wife. At that time he knew me better than anyone else alive, but there was no hint of sexual intent on our part towards each other. We jammed music, ate, shopped, prayed and travelled together regularly. When his fiancee came to visit we found space. I wasn't dating at the time, but if I had been there would have been the same consideration there as well.

Then came the "Politically Correct" crowd.

It started as a good thing. A moral compass led by men and women of value and principle who wanted to take a stand against the decay of society. But it got taken over by "equal" rights groups.

Language changed. Simple terms like "chairman" were designated as sexist. Describing an individual of African origin as "black" was racist. So we moved into a world where individuals were not short, they were "vertically challenged", paraplegics were "differently-abled", those considered not to fit into society's image of attractive were "aesthetically challenged". Schools could no longer stream pupils in terms of A and B because "B" would feel inferior. No matter that group "A" was working on quantum mechanics and group "B" was still learning the basic times tables.

And then the PC crowd turned it's head to God.

Suddenly real Truth is offensive. Christmas has to be called "Winter Festival", Easter "Spring Festival". The Bible was removed from schools in America because it was not politically correct to "brainwash" children into believing in God, whilst the doctrines of atheism were planted firmly in place. It reached the point where public schools can't put on a Nativity play in case it offends someone. This in a society that glorifies sex, violence, drug use, vampires and all kinds of nonsense.

Most children are taught sex education at primary school these days unless the parents specify that they must be witheld from that. I was horrified in England about 15 years ago when I was taking part in a church school activity to find the seven and eight year olds were coming from sex education classes. These kids knew about erectile dysfunction before they knew how to spell it.

Like the Roman Empire, we are desensitised to violence from an early age. An estimate in the 1990s suggested by the time the average high school student graduates he (or she - must be correct) has witnessed 100,000 murders thanks to television and film makers. I pulled out an old movie I enjoyed a long time ago recently, "Malone" starring Burt Reynolds. It was given an 18 certificate for graphic violence when it was released. Compared to films that today get 12 and 15 certificates it was nothing. Even "Highlander" as a movie in 1986 got a 15 certificate in the UK, but the TV series was more graphic and broadcast at peak viewing time just six years later.

I read 1984 by Orwell as a teenager and thought it could never happen. "Animal Farm" and "Lord of the Flies" were also on my reading list. The concepts in them were so inconceivable that we had to suspend disbelief to follow the story and remind ourselves that in a civilised society this could never happen.

Fast forward to 2016 and we have Government bodies regulating what we can say and where we can say it. A Christian TV channel in England moved it's base of operations away from the UK because it was not allowed under UK law to air any program that stated Jesus is the only way to God because it might offend those who didn't believe. In my experience with television if I tune in to an Islamic program I expect it to try to convince me that Islam is the truth. So I switch it off. Not so any more, the thought police of "1984" are beginning to arrive.

"Free Speech Zones" are another PC thing. Very Orwellian in their construction. You can say what you like, but it will never be broadcast.

There are certain issues which rightly need to be addressed. Men and women doing the same jobs should be paid the same salary. If a man and a woman have the same qualification they should receive the same compensation for their work as long as it is of the same standard. There should be no place for saying a woman is simply there to make a man look good or vice-versa.

Consider the Gospel for a moment. Jesus is teaching and the woman caught in adultery is thrown at His feet. What does He do?

He writes in the sand.

Huh?

Immediately the crowd take their attention off the woman and her humiliation and focus on Jesus. "What's He writing?" "Is He drawing something?"

He could have been writing out the theory of relativity or doodling a cat. It's irrelevant. His action restores the woman's dignity by allowing her time to cover herself. These Politically Correct accusers are seeking to trap the Teacher. So He hits them with Truth. Instead of calling for the stoning or asking where the other party involved is, as adultery generally requires more than one active participant (or it did before the internet), Jesus simply says "Ok, but the first to throw a stone must be sinless himself." Then he goes back to doodling or calculating pi or whatever He was doing.

Thud, thud, thud. The stones fall to the ground beginning with the longest grey beards and finally the youngest walking away leaving only the woman and Jesus - the only one qualified to throw that first stone.

And Jesus restores her. He tells her to leave her sinful ways, but He refuses to condemn her. Read the story in John 8. I love the version in The Message, but they all say it. Jesus refuses to condemn her.

Once a year in Cape Town there is an event called the "Sexpo" for a few days, and predictably there are the "christians" outside waving banners and shouting "You're all going to Hell, Directly to Hell, Do not pass 'Go', Do not collect $200" like some transcendental Monopoly card. How different to the act of writing in the sand.

Researching an article I was working on some time ago I was looking for accounts of life changes and how acceptance works out in the real world. I stumbled on a blog by a writer called Jennie Ketcham called "Becoming Jennie". I'd never heard of her, but I read an entry or two and found myself cheering for her as she told her story through this blog of leaving the sex industry and trying to find a place in the real world again. Hopefully in the not too distant future nobody will know her for her past, but for her skills as a writer on the Huffington Post, a published author and a counselling psychologist. I don't know where she stands from a Spiritual perspective, but her actions show a clear repentance - completely turning away from her past life.

That's what we are called to do. Repent. Turn away from the past and set out in a new direction. Learn from it, yes. But not repeat it. It takes incredible strength to turn away from past addictions. Whether it's drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling or even things we don't think of like washing the car. Anything that puts itself between us and God we need to turn away from.

I find personally that I'm a work in progress. Like Paul, I do what I do not want to do, and I do not do that which I want to do [paraphrase of Romans 7:19-20] and I find myself spinning in ever decreasing circles.

But thankfully, the thought police are there to remind me how despicable I am.

No, wait. That's Orwell.

Thankfully, the Holy Spirit witnesses inside me that I am the Righteousness of Christ. He convicts me of Righteousness and that gives me the strength to turn away from whatever the sin of the moment is. Currently the big one for me is coveting. Mainly because of things that I had in the past that the old me wants back. I covet the things from my past and trying to recapture them often gets in the way of doing what I know God has called me to do. Procrastination is another one.

The Truth of Jesus is becoming known as hate-speech. We need to guard our tongues and hearts and make sure what we say lines up with the Bible, not the twisting of specific verses to fit the current worldly morality, but the Truth that is constant through the entire Scripture. We need to remember that the Word of God is Jesus, not the book. The book is there as a way for us to find Him.

But if we're going to follow a book, better the Bible than "1984".