I was thinking of the Gospel of the Pharisee and the publican this morning. My conscience is often pricked by the introduction to the story, "He then spoke this parable to those who believed in their own self-righteousness while holding everyone else in contempt." How often we imagine this parable is addressed only to the holier than thou, or church leaders and those who preach, or to anyone who dares to condemn another and congratulate himself on doing the right thing. I'm sure we all can convict ourselves of such pride at one time or another. Nevertheless, the same principle of "I'm better than he is" is often applied by those who believe themselves to be the poor publican in the corner, beating his breast. I can be convicted on that point as well. In fact, this post may condemn me.
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Taking that risk, I'll continue with what I want to say. Though the proverb the title of this post refers to says, "there is no honor among thieves", I think there really is a sort of twisted, disordered moral code amongst us, founded upon pride, which allows even the most hardcore, sin-loving hedonist to look down on someone else as worse than themselves.
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Alcoholics and addicts will know immediately what I mean by that. I first was made aware of it after my brother entered treatment for alcoholism the second or third time. I attended his 'graduation' with my sister, his ex-wife and my niece. After the ceremony I asked him, "So, what's next?"
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"Nothing!" He proudly declared.
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"What do you mean? I thought you are encouraged to get into a support group - like go to AA meetings?"
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"Nope! I'm cured - I don't need that stuff!" And then lowering his voice to let me in on his secret he said, "You can't believe the losers I was with in there - that's what AA meetings are for. Just a bunch of losers."
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I knew he was probably going to stop at a liquor store on his way home from recovery. Actually, he never did recover.
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Similarly, I recall an interview with Whitney Houston about her drug use. Obviously a little buzzed, she proudly declared that she "don't do that street stuff - we have good, clean drugs." That is not a direct quote, but it's close. Evidently the point she was trying to make was that she and Bobby were too classy to be categorized on the same level with street drug abusers, and that they were just fine. Unfortunately, Whitney has pretty much destroyed her voice and ruined her career in the process.
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Why do I mention this? Because many people are not aware, or in denial that some really serious sins have been gentrified and made socially acceptable, and within various classifications of politically correct sins, false standards have been manufactured, frequently with clinical and legal definitions to supersede traditional moral codes. That new morality is based upon lies.
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For instance, Family Planning. The secular understanding of this is all about contraception and legalized abortion.
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Legalized marijuana use. As if legalizing a drug will eliminate drug abuse.
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Same sex marriage. The legal process to legitimatize homosexuality.
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Within the homosexual movement to redefine marriage, gender, and society, one sees a concerted effort to make the lifestyle appear as normal as heterosexual family life. Many gay people have even convinced themselves that it is the same. That is one reason why activists insist upon indoctrinating children at an early age through PC sex education, LGBT school clubs, organization such as GLSEN, the campaign for anti-bullying legislation, and so on. Always there is an element of good within most of these efforts and programs, but underlying the best intentions is an agenda driven effort to change Judeo-Christian moral teaching and influence.
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That said, within LGBT culture there is an attempt to sanitize and normalize behaviors once too awful to even mention publicly. Similar to the effort by pro-abortion advocates to suppress what an abortion looks like from the public view, gay activists strive to keep the creepy aspect of homosexual behavior from public scrutiny. As they invent new moral standards, sexual behaviors are either denied to exist, or are said to be perversions occasioned by adherence to a formerly religious based moral code which forced homosexuals into shameful, anti-social promiscuous behaviors.
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Activists and promoters pretend that gay erotica, depicting every form of sexual perversion - and is a staple in many gay homes, is not the norm. They pretend young gay men and old gay men alike, no longer frequent bars, public sex parks, restrooms, private sex parties, as they once were forced to do. They like to deny that any erstwhile behavior such as ephebophilia fits into their cleaned up version of sexual preference and practice. If perchance they do acknowledge these behaviors, they attempt to convince themselves and others that these nasty habits will disappear when gays are accepted as equal to heterosexuals, and gay sex is no longer considered a sin. Thus the shame and guilt will disappear - and we will all be living in a sexually fluid, non-labelling utopia of pleasure and gay abandon.
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That's a lie - which seems to prove the proverb after all; "there is no honor amongst thieves." .
