Yesterday I wrote about questioning authority and cowardly
submissiveness, mostly where spiritual beliefs and religion are
concerned.
Today I want to extend this to include “culture” and “tradition” that
are not necessarily related to faith practices. I see so much out and
out cruelty being excused as “culture” or “tradition” that, frankly, it
disgusts me!
It seems as though we humans learn very slowly when it comes to
making certain changes. As a matter of fact, we often slide backwards
“returning to our own vomit” (Proverbs 26:11 and 2 Peter 2:22). We find
all kinds of excuses for clinging to out-dated, even harmful, ideas.
No sooner have we humans rid ourselves of one abomination than we
adopt another, or we revert to the old one. I sometimes despair
concerning the human condition. Look how long it has taken to stop
cannibalizing each other!
Several years ago I was talking with two “church ladies” (one was a
pastor’s wife). I asked them if they would sign a petition against bull
fighting. The pastor’s wife, in her cowardice, turned her head and
looked out the window, letting the other one excuse this abomination
with a spiel about bull fighting being “cultural.” Of course neither one
of these “ladies” signed the petition. Did they think that humiliation,
torture, and murder are all right in certain cases, for example when the
victims are non-human?
Hopefully, enough people will start thinking for themselves and stop
making excuses for activities indulged in by the hard of heart. Perhaps
when they realize how unpopular they’ve become, they will find better
things to do than to cause suffering in the name of “culture” and
“tradition.”
