Technically, this was written 4 days ago when i had a severely malfunctioning laptop and no internet, but i haven't found a chance to post it till now...
Obeying God’s commands, or obeying social norms. When you proudly declare that you have never murdered anyone at all in your lifetime, is that because you fear God, or because you fear the potential repercussions?
That’s an extreme example, so bring it a little closer home. Right next to where it says “Thou shalt not murder”, is a similarly well-known line “Thou shalt not lie”. Yet somehow, we see the two as a world apart in terms of “severity” and “gravity”. Why?
What brought this argument to mind was that discussion on how ladies choose to dress. Someone was talking about bikinis. How the amount of materiel used to make a bikini is significantly less than the amount that goes into normal underwear. How the amount of skin being covered dwindles to an insignificant amount. How the styles and designs, or lack thereof, leave extremely little to the imagination. How is it an offence for a lady to walk around in underwear in Orchard Road, yet be perfectly acceptable to wear even less at the beach.
The truth is, of course, that men need to learn to stop staring. If a man wants to look twice, he will find something to look at, unless the ladies are dressed in burqas and veils. But that’s entirely besides the point. How can one person have two different opinions of right and wrong based on circumstances? It’s like saying it’s ok to lie sometimes, and ok to kill sometimes. And it belies the truth, that as Christians we no longer hold on to the gold standard we once had. The truth is that often, our values are based on what is socially acceptable within our own networks. Because our networks are so often mainly Christian, so our standards are somewhat higher than some other people. But because we come into contact with others, as we must, those standards melt like snowmen in the sun.
It is a tragedy.
