Romans 1:32 (CSB) — 32 Although they know God’s just sentence—that those who practice such things deserve to die—they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them.
Let me say something that I’m sure will infuriate many of my readers: overall I think Twitter is actually worse since Elon’s take over.
I know! Go ahead and light the torches in the comments below!
Although I grant my opinion is entirely subjective, I think Twitter’s overall moral and spiritual environment has deteriorated since Musk’s takeover. I’m not blaming Elon Musk for this personally, instead I think the fault is in the underlying philosophy guiding his thinking. I’ve seen people celebrating the death of public figures with whom they shared political disagreements. I’ve seen people openly calling for both political violence and civil war. And I’ve seen people celebrating as a hero someone who used the sex offender registry to hunt down and beat people. Unfortunately I was foolish enough to stray from my normal “do-not-engage policy” and try to reason with people on this last one, and I got absolutely buried in ridicule, scorn, and laughter. But the point is that the floodgates for “the sins of the right” are now wide open. Even if we grant that the floodgates for the sins of the left were wide open before, objectively Twitter is still worse off now that both floodgates are wide open!
Now to my point: I think Americans have gotten so caught up in the insane narratives that dominate our social and political thinking on both sides that they’ve forgotten an important observation understood by our founders: “an immoral people cannot be free“.
Sin is spiritual bondage. Unrestrained sin allows evil to place people’s lives under an ever increasing weight of spiritual bondage to more and more darkness. Whether that bondage is expressed through authoritarian governments, repressive Big-Tech corporations, or violent social chaos, unbridled sin is destructive and always represses human flourishing. But, somehow, I feel Christians in the West have forgotten this, or, at least, have let it slip from the forefront of their thinking.
Real freedom is understood in respect to either “sin” or “righteousness”:
Romans 6:16–22 (CSB) — 16 Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey—either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? 17 But thank God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were handed over, 18 and having been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. 19 I am using a human analogy because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to impurity, and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness. 21 So what fruit was produced then from the things you are now ashamed of? The outcome of those things is death. 22 But now, since you have been set free from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification—and the outcome is eternal life!
The idea that liberty is some kind of neutral construct completely disassociated from either “right” or “wrong” is both naïve and foolish. One is either free from righteousness and enslaved to sin, or free from sin and enslaved to righteousness. Therefore we prove who our master is by both the things we practice and those we applaud.
So one of the delusions I see on among conservatives is the idea that liberty is an inherent good. The thinking is that even if someone says or does something evil, it’s still “good” that they have the right to do so. This is just as absurd as the left’s delusion that government and corporate mechanisms are an effective means of constraining evil and establishing good. Unbridled sin is never good! And any conception of freedom that celebrates the right to sin is morally bankrupt and in spiritual rebellion to God.
I should be clear because I know some might assume the worst: I reject both government and corporate censorship as effective models for dealing with what I’m talking about because neither posses any moral authority, and both will always abuse their censorship power for their own greedy gain. One need only look as far as the CCP in China and Big Tech in America to see the flaws of both models and understand why we should never look to either as solutions for constraining sin or promoting healthy expressions of liberty!
I should also be clear that I believe in limited autonomous human freewill as God’s design for creation. I can already hear the rebuttal that “the freedom to sin must be good because God gave us the freedom.” But this misunderstands the freedom God gave humanity. He did not give us the kind of freedom to sin that we’re talking about here. That this is true is evidenced by both the anticipated “judgment day” and the coming retribution of “hell”: we’re not free to sin! We’re free to decide for ourselves whether or not we will follow God and accept the kind of life that he’s chosen to bestow on us. Do we want the kind of life that is characterized by “peace”, “faithful love”, and “holiness”? Those who chose for themselves “violence”, “selfish pleasure”, and “wickedness” prove that they have rejected the life that God is offering to bestow. But they are not free to then have the kind of life they want. In this life they will suffer the various consequences of their sin from “strife”, “disunity”, and “sorrow”, followed in the next by the eternal destruction of their being in hell.
So naturally I’m concerned when I see Christians in America behaving as though they were drunk on this delusion! We’re actually celebrating “the right to sin!” We applaud the unbridled use of platforms like Twitter. We should be exposing such darkness, not applauding it!
I fear that the majority are listening to “influential conservative voices” rather than to Christ our King! Our worldview must not be shaped by the likes of Elon Musk, Jordan Peterson, or Ben Shapiro (or anyone else). Only Jesus has the right to rule and order our heart, mind, and life!
I believe we should heed the Revelator’s warning:
Revelation 17:2 (CSB) — 2 The kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her, and those who live on the earth became drunk on the wine of her sexual immorality.
Revelation 18:3 (CSB) — 3 For all the nations have drunk the wine of her sexual immorality, which brings wrath. The kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown wealthy from her sensuality and excess.
Wake up, Christians!
Biblical Reasons 