Shame! Shame!

Bill Brinkworth

“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.” Ephesians 5:11-12

The Bible clearly commands Christians to keep far away from the luring grasp of sin. We are not only to do our best not to commit sin and avoid those that are involved in it, but we are not even to talk about the iniquities in which others are involved.

This last principle has not only been ignored by most, but the opposite is practiced. Many, instead of obeying God’s command, “educate” the masses about certain behavior. Their hopes are that knowledge of the side-effects of certain socially unacceptable practices, often what the Bible identifies as sin, will help people stay away from them. Unfortunately, education about something one should not do often stimulates an interest in trying to do that very thing.

Programs to educate youth about not doing drugs quite often put the ideas in their minds about doing them and show them how to do something they never would have known about, if they had not been shown how or introduced to it by “education”. The Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D. A. R. E.), a publicly-funded program that uses law enforcement resources to help children resist drugs and gangs, illustrates this fact.

Instead of reducing the number of children involved in those things, it has been found that there has been an increase in their involvement in drugs and gangs. The Family Council of Drug Awareness reported, “Since its curriculum (D. A. R. E.’s) went national, two patterns have emerged: more students now do drugs, and they start using drugs at an earlier age.” Education, about something that should not even be talked about, many times increases the practice, not decreases it.

Billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money have been spent over the decades to give young people a sex education under the guise that knowledge will help them keep from making “mistakes.” Instead, the education about sex has increased and encouraged its practice at an early age before marriage. Birth rates quickly prove this fact. In 1950, when sex outside marriage was not openly talked about, especially in the school curriculum, birth rates for unmarried women were about 30 per 1,000. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported that birthrate has decreased from previous years, but it is now still 450 per 1,000 unmarried women. The CDC also notes that abortions in 1970 were 10 per 1,000 and have increased to over 70 per 1,000, not including the effects done by increasing usage of birth control, including the day-after “emergency” birth control drugs. Again, education about not doing something has become a “how-to” and an invitation to “do.”

Other once unwelcomed behaviors are also on the increase. There was a time when few even knew a divorced couple; now it is difficult to find couples that have not been divorced. Perhaps, the exposure in movies and television about divorce and adultery has made a once feared occurrence to be a ho-hum common one. Homosexuality, imprisonment, poor-parenting, lack of respect for Christianity, crime, and hosts of other once frowned-upon activities are so common in public-school lesson plans and media “entertainment,” that they have lost their social stigma and are now acceptable and even encouraged in some areas. Knowledge of taboo areas again have contaminated society by going against God’s commandment of discussing something that should not even be whispered about.

The world often defends their efforts in “educating” by belittling God’s command and labeling it as making the masses willfully ignorant or “censoring the truth.” The truth, however, is that in most situations, speaking of practices that should not be committed only puts the idea in one’s head, and it does not take much thought to develop the idea to, “I’ll just try it this once”. Once it is experienced, inhibitions are worn-away and more frequent practice is easily accomplished.

The human brain is an amazing organ. It seldom completely forgets something to which it has been exposed to. Conversation about doing improper things often is where the idea to commit them originates. God’s wisdom warns us not even to talk about sin, because it won’t be long until you are neck-deep in it — paraphrased, of course. God’s commands are always the best. If heeded, they will keep you from the hurtful consequences of sin.

“The itch of impertinent and unprofitable knowledge hath been the hereditary disease of the sons of Adam and Eve. How many have perished to know that which hath procured their perishing?” — Hall

This article was featured in the Bible View #350.

It was also posted at www.DevotionsFromTheBible.com.

It can also be read at: http://www.brothergartin.com/shame-shame.html.