The Omega Letter Intelligence Digest
Vol: 42 Issue: 16 - Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Institutionalized Madness
"I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness:" (Ecclesiastes 7:25)
Wisdom, noted Solomon, is the application of reason to the pursuit of knowledge, and he further notes that one cannot be wise without some understanding of the wickedness inherent in 'folly, foolishness and madness.'
The Bible addresses what is best described as a form of collective madness that will hallmark the last generation before the return of Christ.
Paul writes in Romans 1:22, "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,” with the end result being that, "even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient." (Romans 1:28)
According to the Book of the Revelation, the antichrist will become so popular that he will become an object of worship, to the degree that "they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?" (Revelation 13:4)
We ran a column a few weeks back in which we discussed the decline in atheism as a consequence of scientific discovery pointing to something science is now calling "Intelligent Design."
But instead of causing people to turn to God, they are turning instead to pagan religions, worshipping the creation instead of the Creator, as Paul prophesied.
We live in a mirror-image, Alice-in-Wonderland world where up is down, black is white, right is wrong, where we've learned to accept double-speak and nothing is what it appears to be.
Take, for example, a January 23 Washington Post story about a legal challenge mounted against the McSwain Elementary School in Staunton, Virginia.
McSwain, and three other Staunton public schools take daily 'Bible breaks' during which time they pray, sing and play Christian-themed games as part of a local tradition that dates back sixty-five years.
The program is so popular that an estimated 80 to 85 percent of the first-, second- and third-graders in Staunton participate.
And THAT fact is the basis for the challenge -- it’s TOO popular. So a group of parents have gotten together to demand the sixty-five-year-old program be discontinued because -- I'm not making this up -- it 'stigmatizes' the handful of children who DON'T attend.
Assessment:
"The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." (Proverbs 14:1)
We've discussed the institutionalized madness that finds the Supreme Court -- sitting under a bas-relief sculpture of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments -- trying to decide if the Ten Commandments have any historical relevancy.
Or determining our Constitutional guarantees are granted by a 'mythical' Creator but that, somehow, those guarantees are valid nonetheless.
"Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. . . and, "even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind:"
A reformed criminal named John Kinlaw was recently invited to speak to a North Carolina State University social deviance class about his past, and how religion helped him to reform himself.
Kinlaw told the whole story to the first class he visited. Student Daniel Underwood reported in the NCSU student newspaper;
"The next day, before speaking to the second class, the professor pulled Kinlaw aside in the hallway.
"I want you to do me a favor, Kinlaw," said the professor, "and not mention that Person's Name in my class today."
There was no doubt as to whose name he was referring to -- Kinlaw knew he meant Jesus. Puzzled by the professor's polite, yet unequivocal demand, Kinlaw just said, "OK."
The professor hurriedly told him that there were people in his class of different beliefs, and he didn't want to "offend" any of them.
So Kinlaw gave the entire message over again to the second class, except that, when he got to the part about his changed life, he became very quiet and said, "I want to tell you about the Person who changed my life, but I've been asked not to mention His Name in this class."
'Life changing religion' -- without Jesus! Institutionalized madness!
Consider:
A federal court ruled the city of Oakland had a right to bar two employees from posting a flier promoting traditional family values on an office bulletin board.
The flier announced the creation of an informal group "that respects the natural family, marriage and family values."
The court ordered the removal of the flier, stating it contained "statements of a homophobic nature" and promoted "sexual-orientation-based harassment," even though it made no mention of homosexuality.
Or, consider the students at Middle Tennessee State University who concluded that use of the word “lady” to refer to female athletic teams was sexist and derogatory.
The panel of students and faculty suggested that the school no longer use the term "Lady Raiders" to refer to the women’s basketball team. Because of the connotations of the word "lady," it is demeaning to athletes to refer to them in this manner, the panel concluded.
The DEMEANING connotations of the word, 'lady'???
"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" (Isaiah 5:20)
Woe, indeed!
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