Self versus God

As is true of most pastors, I have preached about the spiritual dangers inherent in our modern preoccupation with materialism, consumerism, and wealth. But until the environmental, social, and economic sea change (pun intended) that is now occurring in the Gulf of Mexico, I don't think I fully realized the extent of our modern arrogance. It has taken the utter lack of a "back up plan" from BP -- despite the enormous depth at which that and other oil companies are drilling for oil -- to finally give me a wake up call.

BP is hardly alone in its corporate myopia and preoccupation with itself. Consider the enormous experiments our society is embarking upon, with little or no reflection on the consequences for our civilization. It's pretty easy to name just a very few other experiments, in addition to drilling on the continental shelf. How about: research on human cloning, dramatic changes in our definition of the family, dramatic changes in our acceptance of alternative sexualities, a decline in concern for the welfare of human beings in the context of financial concerns for corporations. And for many Christian denominations, another sea change in the deterioration of the primacy of scripture and tradition as over against the organizationally useful, and ethically and morally worthless, notion of "bound conscience."

Is anybody else fed up with our societal, ecclesiastical, corporate, and individual hubris?

Grrr.

Pastor Garry