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As always, any Christian blogger is invited to participate in the Word for Wednesday.  See the WFW tab at the top of the page.

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I posted a while ago about New York city’s grand new taxpayer-funded handbook that guides addicts in the proper use of heroin.

This past week I heard another one that baffles the mind:  Albany, through Catholic Charities and the AIDS Council, funded of course by a state grant (i.e. taxpayers), now has a Needle Wagon.   If you bring your dirty, used needles to the van – anonymously, so no one’s privacy is violated, and you can’t be arrested – they will give you fresh, clean needles.

I’ve always looked at the people who dream these things up as misguided, but well-motivated.  They want to stop heroin addicts from sharing dirty needles, so they teach them to  be cleaner, healthier addicts.

They want to stop the spread of AIDS in the homosexual community, so  they pass out condoms.

They want to reduce teenage pregnancy rates, so they pass out condoms.  (Condoms must be very useful items.)

They want to curb the “obesity epidemic,” so our grocery stores are full of sugar-less, low calorie junk food. (The danger of sugar substitutes is a subject for another time.)

They want to help people get out of paralyzing debt, so we have multiple government plans to relieve them of their debt.  They can re-finance their mortgage, file for bankruptcy, and now Obama wants to put a limit on the number of years student loans have to be repaid.

No matter the problem people face, someone will try to devise a way to let them have their cake and eat it, too.

After chewing on this all week, I’ve come to believe that the “helping” community who devise these plans are not really compassionate – they’re ignorant and rebellious.  Harsh, I know, but let me try to explain this with a less politically-charged analogy.

Suppose someone has a gas leak in their house.  The gas causes a fire.  The neighbors see the fire and call 911.  Then they help the people get out of the house.  The fire department shows up and turns on their hoses.  But nobody ever investigates to find the source of the fire, so the gas is still leaking.  The fire still rages.  The house burns to the ground.

This, I believe, is what is happening all across America.  While the analogy is not perfect, it does highlight the fact that to solve a problem, you need to get to the root of the problem, not just treat the symptoms.

And the root of a heroin addict’s problem is heroin addiction.

The root of a homosexual’s problem is homosexuality.

The root of the teen pregnancy problem is fornication.

The root of the obesity problem is gluttony.

The root of a debtor’s problem is spending more than they make.

All of these “problems” are rooted in sin.

But Americans no longer talk about sin.  It’s not politically correct.  People are not at fault for the self-induced problems they face.  And people who are not at fault have no reason to repent.  They have no reason to look to God for help.  They have no reason to reach out to Jesus and say, “I’m a sinner.”  Thus, they never find the only real solution to their problems.

And that, I believe, is the root of the problem of the “helping” community.  Whether they know it or not, they are in rebellion against God’s truth.  They refuse to acknowledge the difference between right and wrong.  They refuse to hold people accountable for their actions, which are clearly spelled out in the Bible.

Speaking lies to make people feel better is not compassion.  It’s rebellion.  It’s the serpent in the garden saying, “You can be like God.”  You can decide what is sin, and you can mitigate the God-ordained consequences for that sin.  You can declare peace when there is no peace.  And you can lead countless people into hell for all eternity.

The more immediate result of this rebellion, of playing God, is that a fire rages out of control in America.  Unless we repent and turn to the cross for forgiveness and help, America will be consumed by a wall of fiery lies.

As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Therefore, laying aside falsehood, SPEAK TRUTH EACH ONE of you WITH HIS NEIGHBOR, for we are members of one another.  (Ephesians 4:14-25)