The Normalization Of Sin

It may seem a bit strange to a younger generation being raised in this age but I remember a time when fornication and adultery were not allowed to be depicted on television. It was an age when people "living together" was not accepted and very scandalous. Today, people having casual sex or living together is anything but scandalous: it is the norm. So how does sin go from unacceptable to being accepted as the norm?

At some point the Church made assumptions and stopped doing what it was suppose to do; mainly making disciples. We preached, we held people accountable but we did not come alongside and demonstrate what life in Christ looked like. We didn't invite people to become part of our lives, teaching them as we lived. We did the same with our children, assuming they would grow up in the faith. We taught them the Bible but we didn't have them walk alongside us, demonstrating what the power of Jesus looked like. We taught theory and assumed people would live it.

Now, along with this, we had people outside of the Church, not wanting anything to do with Jesus, doing whatever they felt was best. They saw the Church as an instrument of control instead of an influence for God's righteousness because, in truth, leaders of the time had the wrong attitude. They lorded their "power" over people instead of serving them. These disillusioned people arrived in places of influence and used the media and education as excellent instruments to change people's thinking.

So we had a huge part of the Church made up of nominal believers, ready to be swayed by the changing wind and we had a changing media and educational system that became a conduit of the wind. The most effective way to change people's mind toward sin is to normalize it, depict it as a common part of life. Slowly we saw more and more adultery and fornication being depicted on TV soap operas and TV shows after 9 pm. The attitude of society began to change and soon most people knew someone who was cohabiting instead of getting married. "Family" shows like Happy Days alluded to teens experimenting with sex. We began being entertained by the things God had declared as offensive to him. And the educational system welcomed and encouraged the changing attitudes.

This change has continued so now we celebrate vigilantes who murder in the name of justice and we call them heroes. We can turn on the television at any time of the day and see depicted sex acts between people who are not married. According to television, parents are idiots. Homosexuality is now depicted in almost every show as a normal, common thing. Our children are being educated according to this changing wind so that they are encouraged by teachers to experiment with sex, in any way their imagination takes them, as long as they do it with safe methods. It is now okay for a boy to think he is a girl and for a girl to think he is a boy. These are becoming the new norms, regardless of what the Church tries to teach. And so we see the mind of our society changing with the wind, but what is worse is the change we find in those we have failed to root in Jesus.

So the question we ask ourselves today is what mind do we have, one that is changed with the changing wind or the mind of Jesus, which knows the will of our Father?

So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. (Ephesians 4:11-14)