We commonly hear the argument about people being responsible for their own decisions:
- if someone wants to smoke despite knowing the health risks, then that is their choice
- if adults want to watch pornography, they are free to choose to do so
- if people want to drink to excess, then they are responsible for their own actions.
In each case the argument is that people are responsible for their own actions and choices; it is not for anyone else to interfere or restrict their freedom. So the gainsayers are routinely dismissed as restricting free choice and taking responsibility from people for their own decisions.
So tobacco firms state that consumers are free to make up their own minds about smoking cigarettes; those who produce pornography state that adults can choose to watch whatever they wish; and drinks manufacturers and distributors say it up to the drinker to be sensible.
But where does responsibility actually lie?
It is true that each person must take responsibility for his or her own actions. But all the above examples - although they sound reasonable - only look at one end of the transaction; they tell just half of the story:
- Manufacturers of cigarettes are also responsible for their actions, and, as they know that cigarettes harm people's health, they produce goods and make a profit by helping people to harm themselves
- The producers of pornography are also responsible for their actions, and do work that degrades and can be dangerous to their actors, and which encourages damaging attitudes to sexuality amongst their viewers
- And retailers who sell alcoholic drinks in promotional multi-packs below cost price are also responsible for their actions in promoting irresponsible drinking.
So, while each individual is responsible for their own choices and actions and cannot simply blame the manufacturers, the manufacturers cannot evade their own responsibility by hiding behind the 'freedom of choice' argument; to do so is disingenuous. Denying their own responsibility and making a profit by helping people to harm themselves in one way or another is not just unethical, they are also responsible!
All of life is lived in relationship, there is no 'me' who is not in relationship!
Of course, we relate to our friends and families, work colleagues and the other people and neighbours we know. We even relate to a stranger as we walk down the street, just by a glance as we move aside in order to not bump into each other.
We relate to shop-keepers when we purchase goods, and we relate to the producers of the goods we buy, by contributing to their gainful employment, or to their forced labour in third-world sweatshops.
We relate to 'friends' we have never met via social media, and to internet providers by browsing their material, and to advertisers and marketers by being influenced to buy their wares.
Watching TV, we are in a two-way relationship with those we watch, by giving them market share, so employing them and promoting their work. There is no "me in the privacy of my own home" when we look at pornography on the web, for we perpetrate abuse and provide business to people traffickers.
Even when we are physically alone and just with our thoughts, we are relating to ourselves: observing ourselves, 'talking' to ourselves to criticise, belittle or harm ourselves - or to nurture, encourage and build ourselves up.
When we are asleep, we relate to others in our dreams.
Even considering death, there is no "it's my life and I can die if I want to", for by taking our own life we affect family, friends, medics and officials, and others we have never met by changing the path of the world, even if just a little.
In acknowledging God, we bring joy to his heart when we are in relationship with him, and we grieve him when we ignore him, disobey him, or disbelieve in him who is our sustainer, and who made us to be in relationship with him.
Life is relationship. There is no 'me' who is not in relationship.
The world's gone mad!
- Unruly youth
- Binge-drinking
- Drug addictions
- Corruption in high places
- Increasing divorce rates
- Growing sexual perversions
- Addiction to pornography
- Rioting in the streets
- Violence
... and that's not the half of it.
How we long for those former days - quieter, more genteel, better mannered, more Christian! Why don't people behave like that nowadays? What has become of our Christian nation?
Oops! There's a lie of the devil in there somewhere. Just because (in our rose-scented memories) life was 'nicer' in the past, don't confuse that with Christianity, and don't confuse civilisation with sanctification. Whatever being 'civilised' means, it is not the same as being Christian. Civilised people just have more polite ways of expressing their sinful nature...
In fact, the Bible makes clear that such behaviour is not a new problem at all. Written in the 1st century AD, Paul says: "The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like." (Galatians 5 v19-21)
Non-Christians are free to get on with doing things in whatever way they like. That, after all, is the definition of a non-Christian: they have chosen to do things their own way - not Christ's way.
Let's stop the pretence that we live in a Christian nation - we don't! Let us praise the Lord that as the world gets darker, Christians will stand out as more distinctive, with our counter-cultural Christ-centred ways. It's only in the dark that a light shines. Again, it is the Bible that says it well: "Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." (Matt 5 v16).
So, instead of moaning about the signs of the times, maybe we will get on with the job of rescuing people from the clutches of the devil, through the power of Jesus who gives new life. This isn't about simply expecting people to conform to certain behavioural norms of decency - which isn't Christianity anyway.
By the way, there are still decent young people, couples who are faithful in their marriages, men and women who are honest, etc. And these are people who need the saving love of Jesus no less than the others.
In case you thought you were not part of the darkness all around, the Bible makes clear that each of us is sinful. It is God, by his grace, who has shone his light into our hearts. "For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ." (2 Cor 4 v6)
So we are not to condemn or look down on anyone, however unpleasant and evil they may seem; they are merely displaying our own true nature more clearly. Alexander Solzhenitsyn put it well: "The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being."
And for those of a nervous disposition, whatever is happening in society, there is no need to fear that Christ's light will be extinguished. Speaking of Jesus, the gospel writer John says, "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it". (John 1 v5). Nor will it ever.
