BEHAVIOR AFFECTS OUR POLITICAL AND MORAL WORLDVIEW

LifeSiteNews.com reports that researchers from Northeastern University, Colorado College, and Texas Christian University have issued a report entitled "Identifying Effective Counter-Trafficking Programs and Practices in the U.S.:

·       One of their conclusions was that "[s]ex-related behaviors affect beliefs about human trafficking." Viewing pornography, strip bar attendance, and engaging in prostitution all contributed to a more laissez-faire attitude toward the practice of such "human slavery."

·       The study states, "Respondents who consumed pornography within the last year have more knowledge of human trafficking, but they think that it should be less of a government priority."

·       Also, men who attended strip clubs considered human trafficking less problematic. The study concluded, "Respondents visiting a strip club within the last year reported lower levels of concern about human trafficking and thought that human trafficking should be less of a government priority than those respondents not visiting a strip club within the last year."

Lifestyle impacts our beliefs – political, moral, and religious. If we are practicing porn, adultery, or pedophilia, the church is the last place we want to be. We would rather be with our own kind where we’ll feel accepted instead of judged. Rather than thinking that church-goers are honest and moral, we’ll convince ourselves that they are just narrow-minded hypocrites. This will tend to alleviate our own sense of being judged and condemned for our behavior.

Consequently, the more that our lifestyles diverge from biblical morality, the more disdained the Bible and Christians are! The Apostle Paul warned about this very thing:

·       But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

Consequently, they will no longer have any tolerance for the Good News of Jesus:

·       For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

Let’s pray that the Lord would revive His Church! That’s where revival must begin.