A SIGN OF THE TIMES
by Mike Robinson
It was just a photo in an everyday magazine but it sent a chill up my spine. It wasn't that the photo depicted anything grizzly or grotesque. In fact, it was nothing more than a man holding a sign. It was the location and the words on the sign that stunned me.
The location was at the funeral of a homosexual man. The dead man had been tied to a fence and bashed to death by two men who despise homosexuals. They acted as judge, jury and executioner. The words on the sign were these: "freedom of choice is the right to hate". The sign was held by an elderly man - one of about 12 people - who stood outside the funeral home to protest against homosexuals.
I can't begin to grasp the mentality that can justify hatred that leads to murder. Such mentality is right up there with people who say they are so committed to the preservation of life that they will murder abortionists! Tell me how that makes sense! "Freedom of choice is the right to hate". In the light of that execution, it is obviously a very small step to another sign which would read, "Freedom of choice is the right to murder".
In all the claims about freedom of choice, there is part of the equation that is largely being ignored in our world. Freedom involves responsibility. And the greater the freedom, the greater the responsibility. Personal rights and liberties are big on the social agenda these days. Part of the reason why our moral & ethical infrastructure is collapsing is that those rights are often not accompanied by responsibility and accountability. We want to do whatever we choose but we don't want to be responsible and accountable. Or, when called to account, we want to blame everyone and everything else. But there is a day of accountability coming for us all.
The Bible speaks of the end of the age and a day of judgment when we will all be held accountability for the freedom of choice that God has permitted us to have during our life here on earth. Here's another sign: "Freedom of choice now involves accountability then".
