The Plight of Sodom

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A small post at TSOs yesterday or the day before titled “Not a Parody” made me think about the Sunday scripture from the book of Genesis.

I know that there is a bevy of doom-mongers out there who spend much of their time finding parallels between our own society and the decadent societies that preceded it. But as I was hearing the scripture proclaimed (or is it merely read?) unbidden there rose to mind an image of the fifty states.

A moment of additional background: presently in Florida there is a lesbian couple suing the state for recognition of their marriage in Massachusetts. This, in fact, was precisely what I feared and what most people who oppose the Marriage Amendment won’t say anything about. Under the 14th amendment (I think, although I leave it to the many lawyers and constitutional experts who visit the site to correct my mistakes) there is a provision that requires states to recognize the legality of certain actions performed in other states. That is, while Florida may not have to permit gay marriages, they would have to recognize and legally validated gay marriage conducted in states where it is legal.

The connection between gay marriage and Sodom probably is significant. I was hearing the doom of Sodom with Abraham begging God to look with mercy upon the city. And Abraham argued with God down to 10 good people remaining.

And I thought of the fifty states as these men. Will God find 10 still standing after we are done with gay marriage, with abortion “rights” and with all manner of the outcry of the innocent to God. (Well, Gay Marriage isn’t a outcry of the innocent, nor is it particularly as alarming to me as the obvious embrace of abortion noted by TS in his post, nevertheless, let’s roll with it.) Will ten still struggle for traditional morality? Are we standing in the place of Sodom? Will we be like the Cities of the Plain? Is it already so? (No, I didn’t start asking about when the Rapture was going to occur.)

But as I noted in an e-mail to a correspondent, so long as God preserves His Church and the truth it represents, we have nothing to fear from these trends. They may drag the whole of society down (they may not—let’s face it, we’re not terribly good at predicting what these trends may mean.) But the gates of Hell will not prevail against the Church that Jesus establilshed.

The Holy Spirit informs, protects, and guides the church in all of its ways. So long as some number of us abide in Him and He in us, the gates of Hell will not prevail. It is as John Paul II quoted at the beginning of his pontificate (long may it continue), “Be not afraid.”

The one thing we cannot afford in our encounters with the culture of Death is fear. To quote Frank Herbert “Fear is the mind-killer.” (aside: Those of you who have not read Dune have missed out on some great stuff.) And in response, a quotation from the first letter of John (1 John 4:18) “Perfect love casteth out fear.”

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While if God perserves us in grace we might have nothing personal to fear, but I saw a quote from St. Augustine today that said.

"Moreover, this is the rule of love: the good that we desire for ourselves we desire for our neighbor also; and the evil that we are unwilling to undergo we wish to prevent from happening to our neighbor. All who love God will have such a desire toward everybody."

Trust in God helps us to not fear those who are caught up in the culture of death. Put as you quoted we need that perfect love to both cast out fear and to pray for our neighbor.

Oh and I also thought that “Fear is the mind-killer.” from Dune is an excellent phrase to think upon. I am not much into re-reading books I have read before, but I think I have read the Dune series about three times over the last 25 years.

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This page contains a single entry by Steven Riddle published on July 28, 2004 8:22 AM.

Prayer Requests 28 July 2004 was the previous entry in this blog.

How NOT to Read Scripture—Part I (with an Agenda) is the next entry in this blog.

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