DEATH OF SELF RESTRAINT

Yes, Oprah had a rousing speech at  the Golden Globes.  Why was it rousing?  She spoke against wrongs.

But may we speak frankly?  In order to know "wrong", we must know "right".

"Right and wrong" have been missing from the national discourse, replaced by whatever looked right in each man's eyes.  That led to many ills, including the death of self-restraint.

Dan Menninger wrote a great piece in the Wall Street Journal about the death of self-restraint.  LINK

At the Golden Globes, the CONTRIBUTORS TO THE COARSENING OF THE CULTURE sought high ground as they roared their assent to Oprah's call for truth, for being empowered,  for hope on the horizon, and...never again would there be "me, too".

Well...sure.  Who's not for that?  So what's the problem?  It's only rhetoric if there's no power to accomplish it.  "Wretched man that I am; I do not practice what I wish, but do the very thing that I loathe."

Can we move past the fluffy words of the moment to think how moral restraint might actually be accomplished?

Oprah spoke of the media in the quest for "coarse" correction.  The media has the power to expose  someone, but not the power to help someone employ self-restraint.

Surely the fear of being outed might work for some, but most people pursing the love of self aren't swayed by the threat of exposure because they think they'll get away with it...or they'll pay for silence.

Of course moral restraint is found by moving toward THE Source of power.  But do any in that room full of influencers help others by using their work to do such a thing?

THEY'VE SPENT THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS TRYING TO CONVINCE US MORAL RESTRAINTS ARE RIDICULOUS...AND EVERYTHING'S KOSHER UNDER THE SUN.  And if you disagree?  You're the problem.  And you're weird.

Want proof of that assertion?  Know what was awarded BEST TELEVISION SERIES?  The award went to a vicious attack on Christianity called "The Handmaid's Tale".

Dovetailing with the popular theme  "women are stripped of their rights", the Golden Globes lifted high a show about a post-nuclear America run by evangelicals.

Scripture is read while a mean woman in charge zaps an uncooperative handmaid in the face with a cattle prod.  They sing a precious hymn "Onward Christian Soldiers" while impregnating handmaidens to "allow the women to experience God's plan for all women, the bearing of children".

That is unbelievable that it would even be on the air, much less be honored! Wouldn't it be unthinkable to write such a show about Islamic scripture or songs?
   
Bottom line, what would you say was the message from the Globes?  Speak truth to power?  Oprah said there would be no more turning a blind eye to injustice because the abusers' "time is up".   But as long as the entertainment industry honors what is evil, the industry's boat is not headed for the right harbor.

I was thinking about Harvey Weinstein's judgment and how lickety split the timing was.  For years he was boss hog...and the next minute, he's a bum.  That's how the timing of Jesus' return will seem to those who aren't expecting Him.

It would be nice to think that we could get rid of Weinsteinism, and right now the pendulum has swung toward that direction with abusers dropping off like fleas off a dog with a new flea collar.  But it won't last.  Why?  Human nature.

Self love will remain until a heart circumcision is performed and the individual begins to love God more than self.  Even after that, the love of self keeps popping up like that maniac Glenn Close played in "Fatal Attraction".

Sanctification begins when Christ enters a life, but then our part in the process is to cooperate daily to die to self.  We would be lost in that process without the power that God the Father sends us in the person of God the Holy Spirit.

As appealing as Oprah's words were, without a source of power her words are just wishful thinking.  God is the only real source of Empowerment, Truth, and of Hope.