When Moral Compass Collides with Deep-Rooted Loyalties

In the landscape of Western civilization, the issue of morality has been blurred to the point of invisibility.

As a baseball player for many years and into college, as a catcher, I would watch in the early innings as each batter would come to the plate, and slowly dig his toes into the white line of chalk that marked the back of the batters box. The reason for this was so they could move further back in the box to gain an advantage as a hitter. The further back in the box that they stood, gave them more time to adjust to the speed of the pitch. It also skewed the umpires view of when and where the pitch crossed the plate.

As we progress into the 21st century, these lines continue to be blurred in every day of society.

It wasn’t long ago, as Christians, we would balk at too many swear words in a movie. Now we don’t blink an eye when a man is kissing a man or a woman is kissing a woman on a prime time sitcom. We have de evolved to a point where we aren’t surprised when a man, dressed as a woman, is running for office in the political sphere of our nation.

“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.” Isaiah 5:20

If the prophet Isaiah were alive today, I believe that his words, spelled out in this verse would be describing things lightly.

Regardless of the sphere of influence that we find ourselves in, the lines continue to be blurred. Morality has become unpopular, and acceptance of wrong has become the norm.

We have traded our morals for the status quo.

Just today, I read a letter from the head of the Republican Party in Colorado that was sent to its leaders, telling them that the party by laws require the officers and its committees, to support all duly elected candidates. He went on to say that any events, press releases or social media posts should be in full support of the elected candidates.

Now there could be a gray area in his statement where he could be referring to the sponsored pages, or social media accounts of the party, or he could be referring to the individuals themselves.

This is where the line begins to blur for me.

To what end do we continue to support a party when we are completely against the elected candidate? At what point do we say, “Enough is enough?”

Have we become so stricken with loyalty to a system, that we forget about our personal convictions?

We hear things like, “vote for the lesser of two evils,” or “if you don’t vote, you might as well vote for the opposition.”

As a believer, I see this same issue has crept into the Body of Christ.

We have blurred the lines in our belief systems to a point where we don’t know the difference when someone appears to quote a verse from the Bible, or if they are just making a statement that sounds spiritual or feels like it might be in the scriptures.

We have fallen prey to the talking heads!

These talking heads have infiltrated almost every part of society. From politics to religion, and sports to entertainment, along with everything in between.

We have made excuses for preachers fleecing their people and defended the rhetoric of political agendas in the world of entertainment.

Just recently, I was in a meeting with ministers from different parts of the country, discussing the ROI of their investment in marketing for donor acquisition. The topic was financial trends, but the Q&A was geared towards the marketing to more donors.

When you create a contrast, you can see the difference, but when the back of the batters box has become blurred to the point of being unrecognizable, it becomes easy to make a lie sound like the truth.

When a giver becomes a customer, the marketing pitch changes its form. Instead of preaching salvation, we do market analysis to understand their buying triggers.

Let’s call it what it is. A business operating as a non profit.

I’m not opposed to ministry receiving gifts and donations, but where do we draw the line?

Im not against a political party requesting its members to vote with party guidelines, but when did we lose our right to freely choose?

Even if the popular choice is not my choice, it is still my choice.

When a political party requires me to vote according to their bylaws, and not my morals or by my standards for who I want to represent me, I will choose to walk away.

When a christian organization or a church insists that I attend their service and skip my children’s dance recital, I will choose to walk away.

We have forgotten one of the principles upon which this nation was founded. We have lost our freedom to choose.

When the man or woman behind the pulpit or behind the microphone continues to repeat the same talking points that every other preacher or politician is repeating, I will question the narrative.

You can call me a rebel. You can tell me I have a hardened heart or that I must have been hurt along the way.

Maybe this is true, but maybe the truth is, we have blurred the lines to a point where our moral compass does not give us the proper direction anymore.

Maybe we are in this mess because for so long we have voted against our better judgment.

We vote for the candidate of the party rather than our candidate of moral choice.

We continue to financially support that preacher, and we never read the scriptures for ourselves to find out if what they are saying is true.

I’m not telling you to quit church, and I won’t even tell you not to vote, but what I’m asking you is this.

Before you cast another vote…

Before you defend another organization…

Before you repeat another talking point…

Ask yourself one simple questions:

“Am I following my convictions…or am I playing a game of follow the leader??