The Idolatry of Choice

The church at large, especially in the United States, has become very much like the culture in which it finds itself. Our greatest virtue, so it seems, is our right and ability to choose. Self autonomy is the golden calf of the 21st century American church.

We hear it everywhere. Make good choices. Every person has a right to choose for themselves. People are the result of their choices. And so on. We see this everywhere in the culture around us, and without fail, it has trickled right into the theology of many churches; especially mainline evangelical ones.

Not only do we like to morally exhort our children to make good choices (which I am not saying is a bad thing), but many churches have also allowed this choice mentality to creep into everything in their theology. Make a decision for Christ is the rallying cry of numerous revivalist evangelical preachers. These techniques, needless to say, are anything but biblical. Regardless of the official theology held on paper or the involvement of the Holy Spirit prior to conversion, it is still an idolization of the choice of the will, not to mention a soft form of works righteousness.

We see this all around us in our society, particularly regarding sexual choices. The sexual revolution has succeeded far beyond its original beginnings. Not only must we now accept persons for the sexual choices they make, but to dissent and argue against those choices is the ultimate form of hatred. Or so our society tells us.

Not only this, but the biggest example of the idolatry of choice in our society is the whole brouhaha surrounding abortion. Pro-aborts biggest argument is that abortion is the woman's right to choose. Moreover, they have also adopted much of the same language as the sexual revolution. For instance, if you don't have a uterus (that is, if you're a male) you are unqualified to make any statement in the negative against abortion.

Pro-aborts go to great lengths to justify this as well. Many of them also argue that the infant in the womb is just a fetus, not a person or human. They then fall back on "science" to support their argument. But this just seems to me yet another attempt to justify a political pandering to the culture.

From where I stand, it's awfully simple. If the infant in the womb is not a human person, pardon my French, but what the hell is it? Instead of pandering to the culture and the pro-choice folks, we ought to simply call a spade a spade. This is a human person and they justify murdering them, all in the name of choice. Roman Catholic philosopher Dr. Peter Kreeft has written a very apropos article regarding this topic. It can be found here:

Apple Argument Against Abortion

So instead of dropping theology to an idolatrous level where freedom to choose is its greatest virtue and using many of the same tactics as the sexual revolutionaries and pro-choice murder crowd, give them something better. In fact, give them something that is biblical and Christian.

Give them the Christ, proclaimed in Word and Sacrament. A Savior who doesn't need our sneaky cultural works to save people from their sins. He does so without our freedom to choose. He did it at Calvary on the cross apart from an altar call given by the Apostle John or His Mother the Blessed Virgin Mary. And He continues to do it by His life giving Word, in the preaching of the Gospel, Holy Baptism, and His body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins.

Good thing that Christ is not bound to our idolatrous theology that puts us and our choices as paramount.

+Pax+