I Want to Be a Sheep (Part 1 of 5)

That title sounds odd. I admit it. But I think it is the end point of an internal discussion I have been having with myself for a few months. It started with the election. People were gung ho for the democratic candidate. (I can’t say his name. It is one of the rules of this blog. No politics.) It was like they viewed him as a savior who had the power and intellect to fix everything broken in this country and in their lives. I watched from a distance thinking, “What’s going on? Why are people singing the praises of a man? Sure he might do some good, but he’s going to mess up too, just like the rest of us.” While trying to understand the fervor of his supporters, I happened across one of his quotes from the campaign trail. He was speaking to a church congregation when he said, “I’m confident we can create a Kingdom right here.”

Hmmmm?

Wait a minute. We can create a Kingdom right here? We? Here?

Okay, this isn’t about the president-elect. Not entirely. I wish him all the best and hope he is a great leader, for the sake of our nation. But the political debate did allow me to enter into fruitful discussions with others on topics such as politics, abortion, gay marriage, and faith. A common theme emerged from those conversations. Here are a few paraphrases:

“I’m not saying you’re wrong, but that’s not what I believe.”
“What’s right for you isn’t necessarily right for someone else.”
“If it works for you that’s great, but—”

Here’s the thing. I’m not a moral relativist. I believe in absolute truth. But, I think I am pretty open-minded. After the discussions, I thought, “Maybe I’m wrong. What if absolute truth does not exist?” This was not a crisis of faith or philosophy, more of a pondering and a realization that perhaps I needed to take a closer look at this relative truth versus absolute truth debate.

To that end, I went to Google and typed in “moral relativism”. I read some articles, flipped thru some cyber pages, and eventually happened upon an article about the New Age religion. New Agers are moral relativists, i.e. they believe truth is individual and subjective. They also believe in monism and pantheism, i.e., everything is one, and all things are God. The New Age God is a “force” or “energy”. Everything is made of this energy, therefore everything is divine. In contrast, the Christian God is an entity of His own, separate from His creation. In other words, God is divine, and while his creation is divinely inspired, it is not divine.

What does this have to do with me wanting to be a sheep? Hold on for Part 2, I’m getting there.