Weekly Pastoral Message prepared by Rev. Murray Adamthwaite
for Sunday 4th October 1998

From the Pastor: Beatitudes and PC I

"Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness." Isaiah 5:20 It is commonplace to observe that the phenomenon of "Political Correctness" (PC) is not only the accepted wisdom, but equally the accepted morality of today's community. We constantly hear it, albeit not under that term, brought to bear on race issues, women's issues, or discrimination issues, to mention a few. Indeed, it is the new mark of respectability in our "enlightened" modern society. Hence being "correct" in speech, in tolerance of "gays" and those of differing "faiths", or in concern for the environment is hailed as the epitome of moral rectitude. These are the current standards of the world. When we turn to the Bible to find its values the word to notice is "blessed", called a beatitude. But before coming to the Beatitudes or the Sermon on the Mount we need to remember that the converse of a "blessed" is a "woe" or a curse. Our Lord's four "blesseds" in Luke 6:20-23 have a corresponding four "woes" in Luke 6:24-26. However, a particularly apt woe for our upside-down world is the one above. The prophet complained about those whose value was pleasure (Luke 5:11-12), whose claim to fame was in mixing cocktails (Luke 5:22), and whose penchant for self-justification led them to explain away the most blatant evils. Hence the inversion of what God has ordained. When we see, as we did a few days ago, millions of dollars spent to relocate a single whale, while during that same period thousands of helpless babies were killed in their mothers' wombs; when we hear the homosexual lobby crusade about their "rights" but churches are forbidden to exclude them from membership or staff positions; when we cannot compliment a lady for a stylish hairdo for fear of "sexual harassment", but must endure a flood of the most revolting pornography in every newsagent, then evil is being called good, and God's woe is indeed upon us. To all of us the message is clear: repent, and enter the kingdom of God's Beloved Son. Then our vision will be set straight.