Seeds of spiritual corruption

Dear sir:
Remember the big news a couple of weeks ago about the government financing hockey teams? The news was hardly out of the bag before public sentiment peaked in protest and suddenly government pledges and agreements to bail out teams fell to pieces.
The good news about democracy is that it still does work, despite the claims of those who moan that they are powerless to oppose “the powers that be.” People do get the kind of governments they deserve because they get the governments that are most like themselves.
By definition, in a democracy, voters are indeed the ones responsible for electing “the powers that be.” And believe it or not, those powers respond to the will of the people–even a minority of the people–if their voices are loud enough.
Just ask the hockey team owners!
This past week, the news is much closer to home. The Tuesday, Feb. 1 headline in the Daily Bulletin read “Escort service plans to open here.” Details in the article explained that although sex is kind of implied, “there’s no law against making an implication.” Also, in the case of an application for a business licence, there “wouldn’t be any reason for the town’s administration to deny it.”
I’m sure that at one point in the recent past, the government thought the same thing about the hockey bail-out.
Ironically, on the same Tuesday, Feb. 1, a pretty young lady came into my office asking for help. Sherry (not her real name) was fleeing from a big Canadian city and through a strange twist of fate, found herself in our little town. She told a sad tale of prostitution and drugs–a tale that was still haunting her, following her, and still taking its inhumane toll.
I realized the price Sherry was paying was really being borne by us all.
Like any other sin, whether adultery, homosexuality, or fornication, sexual perversion costs the most for the individual who is yielding to it. But in the end, it costs everyone touched by that perversion and the results are extremely far-reaching. There are many in our community whose voice will not be heard in opposition to the opening of the above-mentioned escort service.
They are the “children” (perhaps some of them are the “fathers”) of a revolution against all the values of the past and against the accumulated wisdom of the centuries. Knowingly or unknowingly, they support a revolution against a God-centered universe, a universe of standards and values, a universe having a moral code.
According to the teaching of the Bible, the relaxation of sexual regulations results in the corruption of any class or race of people. Countless studies of history confirm this; not that God is impressed when men find He was right all along.
A “standardless drooling over sex,” as one writer described it, has brought Western culture to the brink of disintegration.
God expressly forbids irresponsible sexual behaviour in order to spare us the disastrous consequences. “The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord . . . flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.” (1 Corinthians 6:13, 18, NIV)
According to God, premarital sexual relations are always wrong, and sex outside the bounds of matrimony brings condemnation and judgement. But God offers deliverance for immorality, as with any other sin. In 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, Paul the apostle says that none of the sexually immoral will enter the kingdom of God.
But he adds, “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed (born again), you were sanctified (cleansed), you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of God.” (1 Corinthians 6:11, NIV)
Does Fort Frances have the moral/spiritual integrity to resist this latest effort to plant new seeds of spiritual corruption in our community? Across North America, very few communities have even cared to oppose the flood of sexual perversion overtaking the country.
Do we care about the blessing of God upon our families and communities? Do we want to protect and preserve the moral purity of our children for the next generation?
Our response, one way or the other, will be loud and clear over the next number of weeks. Will we speak loudly against funding “distressed” hockey teams yet remain silent about exploiting young girls like Sherry, and promoting fornication and adultery in our community under the banner of “legitimate business?”
Remember, democracy will work: we will get what we want, even though it be by default. “In order for evil to prevail, it is only necessary that good men do nothing.”
God help us to be proactive in our own futures and those of our children.
Signed,
Eric Alcock, Envoy
F.F. Salvation Army