5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Burning the American flag is considered a major offense. Congress has even considered making it a crime. We don't even like it when people burn their own American flag that they paid for with their own money. Why do we take flag burning so seriously?
Is it not because of the wonderful meaning behind the American flag? In our day it stands for freedom. (In the past it used to fly over and support holding innocent people against their will in a lifetime of forced bondage and hard labor.) To most Americans today, however, our flag represents the high ideals of "liberty and justice for all". To burn the American flag, even if a person bought it himself, is to disrespect and mock our country and our freedom.
Human sexuality also represents high ideals. It is a God given means of expressing deep love and lifetime commitment between a man and a woman. It is the means by which new human beings are created. Human sexuality is also a representation and a symbol of the love, intimacy, and commitment between God and His people. In the Bible God's people are called "the bride of Christ".
That is why sexual sin is like flag burning. To misuse human sexuality is disrespect and mock the intimate relationship between God and His people. Sexual sin shows a disdain for the gift of reproducing human life and for human life in general. Since sexual sin involves using another human being for personal pleasure, it disrespects the high ideal of genuine love, which gives more than takes.
So what if flag burning was shown or referred to regularly on the vast majority of television shows? What if "Desperate Housewives" burned several American flags on each episode? What if each episode of the reruns of "Friends" not only burned several American flags, but made constant jokes about flag burning? Would that not be offensive to just about all Americans?
So what is the difference? Many Americans still love God and His high ideals. Yet many of the things we value and treasure are being publicly and continually smeared in the mud. If people in our society are going to be forbidden to burn flags, why do we freely alow them to mock morality?
Personally, I don't think we should support and encourage public flag burning. The same with sexual sin. What people do in private is their own business. But why do we take the mockery and disrespect shown by sexual sin and plaster it all over our culture. If we did that with flag burning, somebody would get mad. Do we have a double standard here? |
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