On the Removal of Limitations

Some people reject the Christian faith without ever giving it a proper hearing. The distractions of the world keep them from ever getting around to it. Some reject the faith because the way it is presented to them makes it unappealing. Others understand what they are hearing, and even see the appeal, but refuse to give up a besetting sin to which they are in thrall and so come to Christ.

These are reasons I understand, though I don’t agree with them.

Later, Maybe

The unbeliever who totally confuses me is not actually indulging in any great, momentous sin when presented with the gospel and has no concrete plans to do so, but puts off accepting Christ because submitting their will to God may limit their options at some point in the future. He or she lives in the worst of both worlds, possessing and fully enjoying neither.

I don’t suppose there are large numbers of these folks out there, but I have met a few. They concede, intellectually at least, that there probably is a God, and if so, there is probably also a future judgment of the world. They concede it is something they need to look further into. They may appear interested in the faith and will talk about it with animation so long as the subject remains purely in the abstract. However, the moment of personal acceptance never comes because the unbeliever associates increased options with freedom, and freedom with goodness of some intangible, unnamable sort.

Unlimited Freedom of Choice

The idea of unlimited freedom of choice is a thoroughly modern concept. For most of history, the vast majority of the human race had its fate more or less decided before birth. The rare exceptions to this unwritten rule became the subjects of myth and legend, while 99% of the planet’s population grew to adulthood in the certainty that racial background, wealth, sex, caste, war, favorable weather or other circumstances would determine the magnitude of their servitude to and dependence upon the choices of others. In many cases, their very survival depended on accepting the limited options on offer, and the notion of total freedom of choice was never remotely on the table.

Our individualistic age has made unprecedented freedom of choice not only an occasional possibility but even an expectation. Nations that make cradle-to-grave social insurance available to their citizens permit all kinds of abuses that sustainable social models do not.

Options and More Options

Clean needles to indulge your drug habit and law enforcement that conveniently looks the other way when you do. Disability stipends for those not truly disabled. No-fault divorce that invariably favors women who initiate it. Guilt-free, disease-free sex whenever you care to engage in it, and if you don’t fancy conjugal relations with the opposite sex, you can have them with your own, with the gender-ambivalent and, if you’re reasonably careful, even with children. Heavily subsidized health care no matter how egregiously you have abused your body and, in Canada at least, the option of checking out of this life whenever you get bored with it on the taxpayer’s dime. Moral whitewash for the sin of disposing of unwanted children and a well-financed political lobby to defend your most destructive personal preferences at law. A fully paid hotel room and ongoing financial support for anyone willing to wander illegally across the border. Paychecks for residents unwilling to work, with a premium available to unwed mothers willing to push out more babies for a bigger monthly bank account balance. A system that rewards both mothers and fathers for multiplying homes with only one parent, and a public school propaganda machine that will teach the next generation to replicate their parents’ errors to the letter.

An Endless Menu of Agreeable Options

If you don’t want to follow the beaten path in life, there are now half a dozen taxpayer-subsidized ways around it. With Big Daddy Government to fall back on, family integrity and duty have become artefacts of the past in all but the most deeply religious communities.

So then, why would an endless menu of agreeable options not apply to the spiritual world as well? Who would condescend to bow the knee to a God who actually demands something of his servants when you’ve never in your life met a demand you couldn’t finagle, renegotiate or successfully ignore?