Covenant Church

Professors still engage students in the philosophical question of whether the egg came first, or did the chicken come first to lay the egg. Since no one knows, the debate is eternal. Only God knows.

Here is a question that has a more certain answer: Which is more important: the economy or the values by which we live?

If we say the economy is more important, then whatever it takes to get the economy up and running is justifiable. Ethics do not enter into the discussion. A little twist and bend, gray areas, fudging accounting does not matter if the numbers work, if good times return, if jobs restart, and if we get to do what we want to do. If the economy is first, then so long as we have money and things we should be happy.

If we say values are more important, the level of discussion is changed. If values are a predicate for action, then everything we do must be based on conscience. Conscience then must be formed not on the basis of existential selfishness, but upon principles that are eternal.

Laila and I served two years as house parents for teenage boys in a home for children. Some were orphans, many were not. We lived under the same roof with two children of our own and 12 boys age 13 to 18. It was a dramatic and revolutionary experience in our lives. One thing happened during that time that changed my mind forever about what ”conscience" is. Are we born with a conscience, or do we develop a conscience?

Donnie was age 17. From time to time the boys would pour out some of the poison bitterness about their past lives. Donnie's mother had apparently been horribly promiscuous. His father was an intolerable alcoholic, absent, except when he might have an old car and pocket of dollar bills and change.

Donnie shared that at the age of 13 his responsibility was to steal food for his family. If he did not steal food his brothers and sisters went to bed hungry. He was cursed and beaten by parent(s). On one occasion I overheard him boast to other boys about stealing chickens.

"Donnie," I said, "You knew that stealing was wrong. Your conscience had to bother you."

"No!" he replied emphatically. "I did not know stealing was wrong. I knew that if I did not steal I would be beaten. I felt good when I stole. My brothers and sisters were happy."

Donnie and I talked about the subject of conscience for a long while. He convinced me that his conscience allowed stealing. I came to understand that conscience is not instilled at birth. Conscience is not DNA. Conscience is formed. People around us, our desires, our lusts, what we read, what we see, what we hear and the work of God or the devil all make a package to shape our conscience into a comfort zone.

An attractive young lady became a close friend to Laila and me. She is today a Methodist bishop. In our early friendship we talked many hours about church work, values and conscience. She was and is a most modestly dressed woman. In showing pictures of her family to us one photo was of her in very short-shorts. For those of the current generation, short-shorts of the 1970's were too short to be called shorts.

"Suzanne," I said, "You told me you were a Christian as a teenager."

"I was." She said evenly.

"What about the short-shorts?" I responded.

"Harold, I did not know it was tempting to boys. I had no idea. I just liked the clothes," she said.

Conscience. Then I taught a sociology course at Virginia Tech. Readings included Joe Banano, leader of a major mafia family in the United States. In our studies we came to understand that "hit-men" in the mafia are paid assassins. They can sit down to family dinner, say prayers with their family, take a phone call, leave, go assassinate a person (unknown to them), return home, finish dinner, and go to church on Sunday. It is said that 90% of the mafia in the United States attend a nominal church.

To the "hit-man," assassinating a person is simply earning a salary to support their family.

Conscience. To those who favor abortion, the chicken and egg (or economy and values) question is already settled. They want the right to do with their bodies what they want to do. They are interested in momentary physical pleasure. They have shaped their conscience to accept that a baby in a mother's womb is an irritant, an infection, a sickness, a cancer that needs to be ridded out of the body. To purge a woman's body of a baby is to liberate the woman to again have momentary pleasure for the sake of momentary pleasure.

To accomplish this absurd warping of the conscience requires denial of medical evidence of the physical and psychological damage done to the woman's body and mind. It requires a denial of a moment when a man and woman spent physical time together creating life. It requires denial of fatherhood. It requires denial that the baby in a mother's womb has a mind or feelings. It requires denial that life is a gift of God. It requires denial of all the cultures that have aborted fetuses and sacrificed babies only to lose their place in history.

Conscience is shaped to be like Christ only when time is spent with Christ. I have never had a conversation with a pro-abortion person who was willing to engage in honest conversation about the deity of Christ, His shedding of blood and death for our sins, His Resurrection, and His promise to us of eternal life. Abortion-minded folks want to get off the train and talk about "individual rights."

When I see mothers who are pro-abortion, I stagger at their devotion to their children while still arguing for the right to kill babies. Do they think that their living children cannot see the hypocrisy? I have counseled many women who have had abortions. None of them rejoiced for the experience.

For any man to advocate abortion is a travesty of justice. He is saying: "Men ought to have the right to enjoy women's bodies without having to worry about the possible result of a baby to be taken care of." The man does not live with the physical pain of an abortion. The man does not have to live the rest of his life with the knowledge that murder was performed inside his body.

Of this I am certain. A nation that wants to get on track needs to fashion its conscience in study of the Bible and life of Christ. Conscience must be shaped by godly effort. Prayer and wise counsel chisel away at our carnal weaknesses shaping us into vessels of honor.

Of this I am certain: Values come first. If we want to turn the economy around we must be willing to do what is right. We must respect life. We must respect the unborn. Aborting the unborn is only a step from euthanasia. In another generation we will shape our consciences to speed the elderly along to the land of "NO CONSCIENCE" where life is no more.

Those who shape a Christ conscience know that there is a God on both ends of our mortal life. He is a God to whom we will answer for what we have done in this life and where we will spend eternity.

Now, My Friend, take a good look at your conscience. Make sure that what you believe is according to God's Word. Change your dead conscience to a live one as you take up your cross and follow Christ.

With love—

Pastor Bare