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Grace Church
257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105

(262) 763-3021

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Pastor Scott Carson

Secretary Patti Hall

PASTOR'S PENS 2003

Grace Church of Burlington October 5, 2003  “What are your kids learning about relativism?”      A few years ago a team of National Geographic explorers discovered the amazingly well preserved bodies of three Incan children between the ages of 8 and 14. All three were apparently sacrificed to the local mountain gods some 500 years ago. Incan human sacrifices usually involved strangulation or a blow to the head, but experts concluded that these children were buried alive, probably after being forced to drink a mixture of corn liquor and hallucinogenic drugs. The photos of these murdered children were heartrending. Of course, if American parents were to treat their children this way today, the press would be horrified, and rightly so. Yet, few press accounts of the discovery expressed the slightest revulsion against the Incan practice. In fact, the experts cited appear to be going out of their way not to make any moral judgments. For example, "Newsweek" quotes Mario Lazarovich, a director of Argentinean cultural heritage says the children "exude an air of tranquility . . . their death was not violent, and this allows us to see the ritual from an Inca point of view: this was not a time of terror and horror, but of peace and worship." Tell that to the kids who were drugged and then buried alive!      Our world is awash with relativism and subjectivism. Relativism is simply the belief that morality or what is right/wrong, true/false is determined by some group. Subjectivism is the belief that morality or what is right/wrong, true/false is determined by each individual. Relativism and subjectivism are like a cancer eating at the moral foundations of our society. For if we can't make moral judgments about the murder of Incan children five centuries ago, how can we judge the murder of American children today?      As Dorothy Sayers wisely observed, “In the world it is called Tolerance, but in hell it is called Despair. The sin that believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing, and remains alive because there is nothing for which it will die.”      Yet the poisonous danger of relativism and subjectivism is not found for the typical Christian in such moral issues as child murder or abortion. It creeps into our lives on moral issues that are frequently rationalized and overlooked. And rather than modeling Biblical absolutes to our children, we are instead modeling relativism and subjectivism.      For example, Christian parents teach that their children it is morally wrong to lie and are indignant when one of their children lies to them. Yet, how many of those same parents routinely tell “little white lies.” Some will lie to their spouse about an issue to keep “peace” in the home. If they are running late or planned poorly, they will lie about why they are tardy. “There was a train” or “traffic was horrible.” What is really horrible is that they exaggerated their circumstances to make themselves look better.        Christian parents will teach their children that stealing is wrong. They are incensed, and rightly so, if a child shoplifts a candy bar at the store. Yet, these same parents will duplicate copyrighted computer programs, tapes or CDs and think nothing of it. Or, they will allow their children to download music off the Internet. Stealing is stealing whether it is done in public or in the privacy of one’s home. Over the years I have been appalled at how many professing believers would do side jobs and take money under the table. To not pay legitimate taxes is stealing. And while every Wisconsin tax form asks if you have bought out of state merchandise and thus owe sales tax, most believers treat that tax as an option. Stealing from the government is a sin too!      Then, murder is always wrong, but so are murderous attitudes. The Apostle John pulls no punches when he writes, “Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him” (1 John 3:15). The fact is that murder usually begins as an attitude, the thought becomes an action. Clarence Darrow, the famous criminal lawyer, once said, "Everyone is a potential murderer. I have not killed anyone, but I frequently get satisfaction out of obituary notices." Have you ever wished that someone was dead? Then, your heart has known murder. And most of the time our children know that we are “murderers.” They know that there are certain people that we hate. Hatred is the refusal to forgive. It is choosing to remain bitter. To excuse it and not deal with it is relativism and subjectivism.      Relativism and Subjectivism are any fudging of moral absolutes. Our kids are learning relativism and subjectivism out there. Are they also learning them in our homes...by our example?