61 Percent Wrong
Doug Wright
Winchester Star, May 24, 2013 – “The Boy Scouts of America threw open its ranks Thursday to gay Scouts but not gay Scout leaders . . . Of the roughly 1,400 voting members of the BSA’s National Council who cast ballots, 61 percent supported the proposal drafted by the governing Executive Committee.”
Those were the opening lines in the top, front page article, and have obviously evoked heated debate across the country. I was never involved in the Boy Scouts, but I have always appreciated their practical and character driven curriculum. On several occasions I have had Scouts do some sort of project in order to achieve a certain badge. It is – or was – a good program.
Unfortunately, the Scouts have fallen prey to the very thing that our forefathers tried to stay away from – democracy. That sounds funny, but it is true. Many of you are aware that our country was not formed as a democracy. It is, instead, a republic. I will not take the time to give a detailed explanation, but it boils down to majority opinion or established principles as the governing rule.
That is the root of the battle over putting “in God we trust” on our currency. We should be trusting in God, and letting Him establish the principles that guide our country. It is often the battle in our churches. When a church abandons Scriptural principles and seeks to please its congregants, it ceases to be a center of biblical worship. We are pleasing (worshipping) the creature rather than the Creator.
The popular idea is that whatever the majority opinion is, that must be right. The Boy Scout vote is a good example. There is no logical reason to promote homosexuality. It is unnatural; you can’t procreate, and even sociologist struggle to promote it as a “healthy” lifestyle. The arguments are all “feeling” oriented. Nevertheless, if the majority “feels” positive about it, we have fallen prey to the mindset that we should allow it. Our thought process is corrupt.
The Scripture consistently cautions us about those “feeling oriented” decisions. Our “heart” is completely untrustworthy (Jer. 17:9, Prov. 28:16), and the propensity to demand our “own way” (Prov. 3:7, 12:5) is often contrary to the guidelines of the Creator. During the time of the Judges in the OT “every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6). The NT warns us that “men shall be lovers of their own selves (II Tim. 3:2). This “own way” mind-set is destroying our country, our churches, and, most recently, the Boy Scouts.
Until we return to principle-driven decision-making, we are doomed to a continuing barrage of destructive choices.
Doug Wright is pastor of Keystone Baptist Church, Berryville, VA.