TRUTH: Good And Evil Depend On Who You Worship

A while back, I wrote a post in which I referred to those who intentionally deceived the American people in the process of pushing the Affordable Care Act as evil.  I do not apologize for that assertion.  My understanding is that the Devil is the father of lies and deception and that God is not capable of either.  However, a reader made a comment that got me to thinking about what I had written and why I believed as I did.  I’d like to share what I have concluded as a result of her comment, but first, I want to make it perfectly clear that I am in no way passing any judgment on her.  The last thing I wish to do is pass judgment on another person’s heart, and nothing she said leads me to believe she is at all part of what I am about to address.  That is a matter between her and God.  I just want to thank her for the comment.  I count it blessing because it made me think, and that led me to a small but significant revelation.

In considering the comment, I realized that, when we deal with matters of this world, we often think of ourselves as part of a group.  This is not the natural order of man.  Man is an individual and, left to himself, he thinks in terms of himself and other individuals.  So I can only conclude that we have been trained to think in terms of group identity.  This led me to wonder why our society has been taught to think this way, by whom and how.  From that, and from my reading of history, I know that – at least in part – the answer is this:

We have been taught to think in terms of group identity by people who hold an ideological driven agenda that, today, is most often referred to as Progressive, Statist or collectivist.   However, whatever word we assign to it, we are dealing with people who believe that man’s nature can be “engineered,” and that they are somehow qualified to do the engineering.

The reason we have been taught to think in terms of group identity is because it makes it easier for these people to control us.  When we were young, we exhibited the tendency to think and act in terms of boys against the girls, and we naturally segregated ourselves on these lines (this was before those seeking to change our nature started to teach our children that this is wrong).  Sports fans do not have to be made to support their favorite or to have some animosity toward rival teams.  This is inherent in the nature of the group.  Politically, Party allegiance serves the same purpose: it assures that the rank-and-file voter of your Party will have a natural tendency to oppose all other Parties without consideration of the other Parties’ ideas or proposals.  In fact, we can see this in many things: which news network you watch; what type of music you listen to; how you dress; where you live; even what church you attend or if you attend church as all.  In every case, group identity serves to divide us and set us against each other.

So how do they do this?  Again, because I read history, I know that they have done this through public education.  In fact, I know that this is why the United States made public education mandatory: so they could make immigrant children into “good little citizens.”  It was also to make those “good little citizens” serve the State without question.  But it isn’t just our schools.  We are controlled by the law and government regulation.  But we are also controlled by the media – all types of media.  What we think and feel about nearly any issue is shaped and directed by the people who produce our news and our entertainment.  Too many people have exposed this truth and, if we know where to look and who to read, the people doing this have openly admitted they do it.  In fact, they think the formation and direction of public opinion is a ‘science.’

I have covered all of this in past post, so regular readers may be wondering why I consider any of this to be a revelation.  Well, it wasn’t this that surprised me; it was how this leads us to think of the people in the groups we oppose as good or evil.  If we like the group, then they must be good; but if we oppose or dislike a group, then we tend to think of its members as evil.  But we never really stop to consider the ideas that each group supports and we certainly never look at each member within that group as a unique individual.  Instead, we replace the individual with our perception of this artificial entity called the group.  But that still isn’t the full revelation.

What surprised me is the realization that, if we are a Republican and we consider Democrats evil, what does that actually mean?  Good and evil are spiritual matters.  They deal with the things of God (without God, there can be no such thing as good or evil).  So, if a Republican calls a Democrat evil simply because they are a member of the Democrat Party, the Republican’s words actually suggest he/she worships the Republican Party.  This got me to thinking about good and evil.  For something to be truly evil, it has to be something that works against the kingdom and glory of God, not just something we really dislike or hate.  So, what we consider to be good and what we consider to be evil can actually tell us a great deal about who or what we are worshiping.  If we think an action is good or even acceptable, yet Scripture calls it a sin, then we may need to search our soul to see who or what we are actually worshiping that holds the action in question as good when God says it is evil.

Finally, we need to understand that an action does not condemn a person.  Scripture tells us not to judge or condemn the person, only the action.  But we cannot do that if we continue to think in terms of group identity.  We must see the individual and treat them as an individual.  Then and only then can we deal with the individual’s actions in the proper way.  And this works both ways.  People can see who we are through our actions, and they can get an idea of what we worship based on those actions (and our language, which, after all, is a form of action).

Anyway, this may all be old news to you, or you may strongly disagree.  Either way, this was fairly profound to me and for me, personally, so I thought I would offer it for your consideration.  Make of it what you will.

[NOTE: Progressives study language because they know it can not only shape the way you think, it can also shape what you believe.  Scripture teaches us this same Truth.  For this reason, we should guard our language as it reveals the truth about what is in our heart, but it can also help us change what is in our heart.  Whether or not that change is for better or worse depends on what you value most; who or what you worship.]