What happens when a nation which was founded with a knowledge of God’s moral law abandons that law — no, not only abandons it, but spits upon it, dances upon it, and rejoices in their rebellion against it (as we see in San Francisco and all across our nation)? We all watched an incredible example last evening. The final story is not out, but it appears that the Governor of New Jersey, James McGreevey, appointed a man to a high position (and $110,000/year salary) that involved the security of every citizen of the state. The man, it seems, was his homosexual lover (though McGreevey is on his second marriage and has two children). The man’s greatest credentials, it seems, involved his ability to write poetry. In any case, McGreevey was involved in fornication and adultery with this other man, and when that “relationship” ended, the man threatened to bring a lawsuit against McGreevey for “sexual harrassment.” Rather than showing the slightest bit of repentance (which would have involved his immediate resignation, which he so far has refused to do, preferring to play more politics and push off the selection of his successor until after the general election), McGreevey heaped further shame upon his wife and family by announcing he is a “gay American.” This immediately brought the far left to his side to laud him as a great hero and tragic figure.
The truly incredible part of his “confession” involved the manhandling of Scriptural phrases and a thoroughly post-modern defense of his sexual debauchery. I transcribed the relevant portion:
I do not believe that God tortures any person, simply for its own sake. I believe that God enables all things to work for the greater good. In this, the 47th year of my life, is arguably too late to have this discussion. But it is here, and it is now. At a point in every person’s life one has to look deeply into the mirror of one’s soul and decide one’s unique truth in the world, not as we may want to see it, or hope to see it, but as it is. And so my truth is that I am a gay American. And I am blessed to life in the greatest nation with the greatest tradition of civil liberties in the world.
I am uncertain what the first sentence means. He seemed to stumble in his notes at that point. But the abuse of Romans 8:28 is quite clear. The Governor seems to have missed the fact that the promise of Romans 8:28 is for those who love God (not their sin) and who have been called according to His purpose. It doesn’t say “for the greater good” but “for the good of those who love God.” Yes, I know, he’s a politician: but when were politicians given free license to pervert the Scriptures? Does anyone think God will be any less offended by a politician perverting His truth?
Next we have the wonderfully post-modern yet still utterly unintelligible phrase “decide one’s unique truth in the world… And so my truth is that I am a gay American.” Well, there you go. There you have the ultimate post-modern trump card. Such a statement is, in a society gone morally blind, beyond challenge. Why? Because McGreevey told us he had “looked deeply into the mirror of his soul” and in that existential experience he had decided his “unique” truth. And that’s it. That’s the whole story. That’s the ultimate claim of truth today: who can dare say he’s wrong? Only he can look into the mirror of his soul, therefore, what he says must be true, right? Only if you have the moral IQ of a potato chip. McGreevey looked into his soul alright, and realized the walls were falling in on him. His lusts had done him in, his poet-lover was about to blow the whistle, he had traded the safety of the people of New Jersey for his own sexual satisfaction, he had betrayed his wife and children, made a mockery of marriage, and only then did his soul-mirror scream “Make yourself a victim!”
There was a day, once, long ago, when such behavior would have brought on a feeling called “shame.” But we have gotten far beyond that feeling now. Shame is bad! No one should ever feel shame, even when they embarrass their wife, their children, their office, their state, and themselves, by their behavior! Still, there should be no shame, because shame implies a standard of behavior outside of ourselves, and we cannot be good post-moderns unless we manage to rid ourselves of that ancient notion! The Psalmist said it long ago:
The wicked freely strut about when what is vile is honored among men.
