The Idol of Self

    Remember the days when news outlets actually reported the news that was relevant to our lives? Yeah, those were good times. However, the media has now become a propaganda machine for Marxist politics and perverse ideologies (which go hand in hand btw). Yet here I find myself reporting on this very "news". The difference is that the mainstream media for the most part provides nothing but a monologue. They exist in an echo chamber, and even a basic dialogue with reason and truth will expose the lunacy of their position.

    The latest media darling is Pop singer, Demi Lovato. Did she make the news for winning a Nobel Peace prize or discovering a cure for cancer? Of course not. Instead, she recently made headlines for telling the world that she now identifies as pansexual. I know that we will sleep better tonight knowing this information. If you're unfamiliar with what a pansexual is, it's someone who is sexually attracted to people regardless of their gender identity. It used to be called bi-sexual. However, this term no longer works because in our 21st century brilliance we have discovered dozens of other genders. Lovato recently told Joe Rogan on his podcast that she is "so fluid (sexually) now." She also took a shot at her Christian upbringing by claiming that she was "like, super closeted off." The truth is that absolutely nobody cares about whether or not Lovato is a pansexual. If the headlines were honest they would read, “Pop Singer joins resistance, shakes her fist at God”, that’s really what this is about. However, the most disturbing thing that she said, which is really the catalyst for this blog is, "I love accepting myself." As if this is some kind of human virtue. 

    Let's take a moment and examine her statement about self acceptance. Is accepting ourselves a virtue? Would it ever be proper to not accept ourselves. What if a child molester proudly shared with the world that he is a pedophile? He admits that he has struggled with guilt for years, but now he is finally free from the restraint of conscience and has now accepted himself for who he really is (it will happen soon enough). What sane person would applaud such a thing? Some might argue that I am comparing apples and oranges when it comes to pansexuality and pedophilia. However, once someone abandons God's objective standard for what love and marriage are (one man, one woman, one lifetime), then they effectively lose any objective standard by which to define what love and marriage are not. 

    To further investigate this point, let's look at another extreme example. What about Adolf Hitler, the Nazi dictator that ordered the extermination of over 6 million Jews? What he did was not only legal at that time, but it was also socially acceptable. Hitler was proud of what he did. Even a rudimentary study of his writings, or the accounts of those closest to him would attest to this fact. Was Hitler right for accepting himself? We all know the answer to that question. Some might ask how I could possibly compare Lovato's pansexuality with Hitler's genocide. Most would say that these two things are beyond comparison. While I won't attempt to argue that point, that's not the point that I'm trying to make. The issue here is found in one word, standard. Lovato find's herself acceptable by her own standard, and Hitler found himself acceptable by his own standard. In other words, both Lovato and Hitler are/were law unto themselves, the producers of their own standard of righteousness and truth, and essentially their own god. By abandoning God's objective standard (The Scriptures), Lovato would have absolutely no standard by which to condemn Hitler or anyone else for anything. She can't plead consensus or legality because it was the legal consensus in Nazi Germany that Jews were less than human and deserved death. This is why the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Living our lives without the foundation of the knowledge of God and his created order reduces a person's worldview to absurdity. 

    While these ideas certainly seem more prevalent in our day, they are as old as Eden. The very first lie that Satan ever told was in Genesis 3 when he told Eve that she could become her own god by disobeying the true God. This modern day form of relativism is know as "existentialism". The most well known proponent of existentialism was French Philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre. One of his most popular sayings was that "existence precedes essence". Sartre wrote, 

"What do we mean by saying that existence precedes essence? We mean that man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world—and defines himself afterwards. If man as the existentialist conceives him is not definable, it is because to begin with he is nothing. He will not be anything until later, and then he will be what he makes of himself."1

    In other words, Sartre taught that people are in control of their own destiny. The pen is in their hand as they write and create the story of their life. If Lovato claims to be a pansexual, or an alien from the rainbow planet, nobody can argue with her. The danger of this worldview is that is devalues human life, because if someone doesn't have the capacity to produce an essence (i.e. those with a mental handicap, downs syndrome, babies in the womb, etc.) then they are just an existence, or as Hitler referred to them in his T4 project, "life unworthy of life". Human value comes from the fact that we are all created in the image of God. Once a society abandons the reality of God, then human life is devalued.  This has always led to horrific consequences historically. 

    Another danger of this self-accepting existentialism is that it sees absolutely no need for repentance. After all, it was the Pharisees that bragged about their own self-righteous superiority (they were the ones that plotted the killing of Christ). This world view is a breeding ground for narcissism and entitlement. This is the exact opposite of the gospel message, that all people are wicked and sinful in the sight of a holy God, and that God calls all people everywhere to repent and believe the gospel. 

    In conclusion, many times it's easy to applaud those that the world applauds. It's easy to get caught up in the emotions or fads of the day. It seems all too natural at times to get caught up in the causes that are championed by the world. I mean, it just sounds so good that someone would "accept themselves". Who could argue with that? Just remember that Satan made the only thing that would bring death to Adam and Eve more desirable than the perfect life that they had. This sexual rebellion is Satanic and needs to be exposed. None of us need to cast off the restraint of conscience and accept ourselves for the sinners that we are. We need to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. When we do this we can accept who we are in Him. We become accepted in the beloved, children of God and the bride of Christ. Any other self-acceptance is idolatry, a worship of the creature more than the Creator. The gospel of grace sets men and women free from the penalty and power of their sin, it does not affirm them in their slavery.

1. Jean-Paul Sartre, “Existentialism is a Humanism,” trans. Philip Mairet, in Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre, Revised and Expanded Edition, ed. Walter Kaufmann (1956; New York: Penguin Group, 1975), 360. . Sartre, “Existentialism is a Humanism,” 369.