WHEN THE LOSERS APPLAUDED

 Relativism is shooting through every aspect of society to the extent that it's producing ludicrous results, ridiculous results but also insanely dangerous results. A case in point happened in the Live Free or Die State of New Hampshire as seen in the outcome of a beauty pageant.Competing in that contest was a male who is now a female. (Not too many months ago, that would have been a ridiculous sentence to write but this is now, that was then.)

The winner, in the opinion of the judges, signals the serious problem. The result signifies what relativism does to a culture: it causes the loss of categories. In such a society, all categories are gone--right, wrong, male female, good, evil, even the category of beauty or not beautiful. And that last word brings up a popular song of days gone by, a song of relativism called, "Everything is Beautiful in It's Own Way."

The Nazi concentration camps and crematoriums weren't beautiful. The starvation of his own people by Stalin showed us that communism isn't beautiful. The self-admitted blood lust of the Cuban thug Che Guevara wasn't beautiful. A comatose drug addict lying on a front porch in San Francisco is ugly.  Abortion would also fit in the class of those things which aren't beautiful. 

When the judges announced the winner, the losing girls acted as trained seals and, with smiling faces, applauded with gusto. Each one of the losers, after who knows how many months of preparation, were acting as if the final decision was normal. From everything I've read about the event, no parent, mother or father, no aunt or uncle, no brother or sister raised their voices against the charade. Everyone was acting as if the emperor was wearing clothes, to use the analogy of the fable. They were active participants in the farce.

There are those of you who were fortunate because of the genes you inherited regarding your appearance. Then there are the rest of us; not so fortunate. But, that's the way life is, and to pretend otherwise is a denial of reality and that's dangerous especially when it slides over into the denial of right and wrong.

Douglas Murray, a leading and perceptive critic of our relativistic culture, says that few have the courage to say, "No, this is wrong" or, "I will not listen to this." Or, "I will not participate in this." He points out that there will be a serious personal result from this, the person who doesn't speak up will hate himself later because he didn't say, "No." 

"In the absence of intellectual opposition, these notions  will gradually come to be absorbed into the culture. The uncontested absurdities of today are the accepted slogans of tomorrow. They come to be accepted by degrees, by precedent by implication, by erosion, by default, by dint of constant pressure on one side and constant retreat on the other--until the day when they are suddenly declared to the country's official ideology." (Ayn Rand)

We will leave it at that without saying more other than to say that a picture is worth a thousand words. You can judge for yourself by viewing the picture of the winner of the pageant as well as the losers by going to https://mwdentallab.org/transgender-brian-nguyen-wins-miss-greater-derry-2023-netizens-divide-over-models-beauty-pageant-winner/

The winner is in the center of the picture holding what appears to be the trophy. 

The categories are gone. Absurdity has triumphed and with applause.

 ONE STRIKE

There's a line in the famous baseball song, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game,'" that goes, "For it's one, two, three strikes and you're out of the ol' ball game." During the 7th inning stretch, the Cub fans at Wrigley Field stand and belt out that tune under the leadership of Harry Caray their late and beloved announcer in the broadcast booth.

Baseball has three strikes and you're out. Three chances to hit the 90+ mile an hour fastball or the curve, or whatever the pitcher throws. But what about God? Does He go by the three strike rule or is He, as we say, the God of second chances? Well, everyone of us proves that He is, that He does give us another opportunity after we've had our spritual failure(s). We prove it everyday since we still exist. God is gracious, isn't He? Abraham, Jacob, Samson, Jonah, Peter, and all the disciples had their second and sometimes third and fourth and fifth opportunities to get in step, in harmony with the will of God. It's all right there when you read the Bible, Old or New Testaments. 

But, you know,when you think about it, that's not the complete picture. Sometimes in recorded history, it's one strike and you're o--u-t out. So, let's balance out the picture of God in this regard and think of some one strike and you're out people. 

The first that comes to mind is a group: the angels that decided to rebel against God and follow Lucifer. They went that route once and that was it. They were cast out from God's presence and that was it. No repentance for them. No salvation.

But let's go to the human race. Remember Ananias and Sapphira? One lie to the Lord and their church--they were struck dead  immediately. No second chance to say, "I take it back, I'm sorry." How about Aaron's sons who didn't observe the proper approach to God by means of the sacrificial system? Nadab and Abihu, both gone in a flash through a consuming fire. There was no, "Can't we do the sacrifice over?" 

Achan and his family disobeyed God in the taking of the spoils of war for their own personal enrichment. God destroyed them right in front of everybody. They weren't allowed to say, "OK. OK.We'll give it back."

Then there's the really frightening one in Hebrews 6. In writing to the Jewish Christians who were defecting back into Judaism because of persecution from their kinsman according to the flesh, God said this of them:  "For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,  and then have [a]fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, [b]since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame."

For those who defected from the faith, there would be no second chances: it would be impossible "to restore them again to repentance." In context, He's saying that it will be impossible to restore them to progressing to maturity. 

As the author of Hebrews points out, that was their "willful sin," the sin of defection and siding with the enemies of Christ, thus "crucifying Him again." They would never recover from that; they would be "sinners in the hands of an angry God."

Is God the God of second chances? Of course, but there are times and there are sins  . . . We've been warned.