Separation

So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed. (Ephesians 4:17-19)

                For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images  made to look like mortal human beings and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged th  truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator - who is forever praised. Amen. (Romans 1:21-25)

          Nihilism: the rejection of all religious and moral principles, in the belief that life is meaningless.

          Post-Modernism: a late-20th-century style and concept in the arts, architecture, and criticism that represents a departure from modernism and has at its heart a general distrust of grand theories and ideologies as well as a problematical relationship with any notion of “art.”.

          Relativism: the doctrine that knowledge, truth, and morality exist in relation to culture, society, or historical context, and are not absolute.

          Agnosticism: the belief that nothing is known or can be known of the existence or nature of God or of anything beyond material phenomena; a person who claims neither faith nor disbelief in God.

          Identity Politics: a tendency for people of a particular religion, race, social background, etc., to form exclusive political alliances, moving away from traditional broad-based party politics.

          There are folks who like to point out that sin separates. It separates us from God, and it separates us from people. In today’s passages, Paul writes about people who are separated from God. In the Ephesians verses, they give themselves over. In the Romans verses, God gives them over. If we were to look back in Exodus, we’d find passages in which God hardened the Pharaoh’s heart, and passages in which the Pharaoh hardened his own heart. We have the same going on in today’s passages. Sometimes, it is the person who gives himself over, and sometimes, it is God who does so. In general, I think it’s a mix each time. I don’t recall ever hearing of someone who sought the Lord who was given over by God. He promises that won’t happen. If we seek Him, we will find Him.

          As I read through the definitions and descriptions of the various philosophies, all of which play a significant role in our society, what I notice about them is that they are all separatist. Nihilism rejects all religious and moral principles (and therefore God) and rejects that there is any meaning. Post Modernism rejects what they call grand theories and ideologies (which, by definition, includes God.) Identity Politics, as it is often practiced now, rejects what does not promote a specific narrow identity. They are all ways in which humanity separates itself from God and from one another.

          Paul warns us not to follow worldly philosophies that separate, because ultimately, they will desensitize, and I’ll add dehumanize the person who believes them, and (in the eyes of that person) all the people around them. The other thing it’s useful to note about them is that they are all negative, which does no good for the person who believes them or their society.

          In fact, the dehumanization, demoralization, and negativity are downright depressing. Small wonder so many in our society are dysphoric and seeing extreme solutions to their unhappiness.