"Woe to those who call evil good"

In a recent published prayer by Billy Graham.  He states Gods words were, "Woe to those who call evil good."  Mr Graham brings up many points, stating "we have lost our equilibrium and reversed our values." He addresses subjects such as exploitation, abuse of power, gambling, profanity, abortions, welfare, etc.  

All of these behaviors he mentions, are ancient in origin.  None are new.  Nothing has been reversed.  The moral fabric of humans remains the same, if not worse.  Never in history have humans behaved better.  Abuse of power by those in control dates all the way, way back to Jesus being tortured and executed, in public!  

Exploitation of the poor?  Yeah, history books chronicle that ancient practice from the time there was any form of distinction of wealth.  Gambling?  Men have made wagers since the beginning of time.  The lottery is an updated form of an ancient concept, not new.  

Profanity?  Do you really believe your generation, no matter which you hail from came up with swearing or pornography?  What about that little place where people lost their minds and did all kinds of crazy stuff.  You might recognize the name, Saddam and Gomorrah?  Ancient images of nakedness and orgy's carved in stone walls, unearthed by archeologist's?  And let's not forget the most famous of all, Mary of Magdalen...she sure had a righteous career with patrons to support it.  Jesus loved her anyway, and did not judge her.  

Abortions.  Women have used herbs and all kinds of terrible ways to cease pregnancies since we were able to breed as a species.  The difference today, is thankfully, they have safe ways to do that without bleeding to death in an alley, dying from infection, or their doctor being thrown in jail for taking care of them.  

Welfare.  What are we to do with people who have been born, raised and saturated in a way of life where self reliance is a foreign concept to them?  Let them starve?  Turn our backs?  How terribly Christian of us.  Why don't we just go back to that all too common scene of beggars lining the streets of the ancient cities...The same beggars that Jesus healed in all of those stories.  There are those who are not capable of changing the life they are dealt with the tools they have been given, by birth.  It is.  Welfare is a crippling cycle many people are born into.  A cycle so strong, we have to give assistance to those who have not the strength or belief in themselves to break it.  To say welfare is promoting laziness, is a heartless, loveless, ill-spoken statement.

"Woe to those who call evil good?"  It is true.  What you put out, by your own actions, will come back to you.  Karma is real.  Karma is misunderstood mostly, but it is simple.  "Do unto others, as you would have them do to you."  If you cheat someone, expect to be cheated.  Lie and you will be lied to.  Harm others in anyway, and you will be harmed.  It is the law of the universe.  It is the law of God.  Spirituality means personal responsibility.  What you do to yourself and others, will and does affect you directly.  Negative energy attracts negative energy.  Have you ever seen a truly good natured drug dealer?  Of course not, when he turns his back, to count the dollars you gave him, the fake smile fades and he targets his next mark. Then, by the hand of karma, someone target's him.  By the way, drugs are not a new concept either...opium dens were rampant a long, long time ago.  

I whole heartily agree our view on life, our value system is in need of self reform.  I also realize we learn through our mistakes.  Without mistakes, there will be no growth.  We have to live a life of turmoil to appreciate the learning opportunities it allows us to experience.  We all do it, it is the evolution process of a soul.  True, some of us are farther along that process than other's.  Knowing this, we will never have a world without negativity, it is the learning ground for better behavior.  People typically do not learn much life experience when everything is going well for them.  People learn when their hearts are breaking, when they have lost precious things and realize finally that they were precious.  People learn by being in other's shoes.  It might not happen in this lifetime, but you will wear the shoes of those you do not understand, and those that you ridicule, judge, and discriminate against.

As for the line in Mr Grahams prayer..."We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment."  I am not sure what he is alluding to.  Interesting to me his statements prior to this line would be so direct, yet this is so broad of a statement.  We cannot learn or grow and stay the same.  Tis,  an oxymoron.  Evolution means change.  Our society is not the society that our fore father's knew.  Our awareness spiritually, is not the same as it was then, nor is our value system.  We allow women to vote.  We do not own people.  Segregation is finally a horrible thing of our less than stellar past.  And by the way,  when are forefather's wrote our constitution, all of these time-honored practices  were perfectly acceptable.  So, my question is, have we in fact, "reversed our values" as Mr. Graham says, or have we evolved as a whole, despite the already prevalent short comings of us all?

It is getting increasingly harder to ignore the fact that people are seeking God, whatever way they see him, or call him, through their own way.  We are evolving spiritually, not turning evil...man as a whole, mastered that ages ago.

And by the way, our fore fathers had a vision of a unified democratic system that gave equality to all man...it seems to me, with our last election, man took a giant step to actually fulfilling that vision.  By electing a black President.  (FYI: Our fore father's would never have elected a man they owned.)  

Obama, being the first President,  Mr. Graham has ever declined to council.  Who is ridiculing who?

We could all learn by living life to the highest good of all, with harm to no one...including ourselves.  Living this way, narrows down your choices and makes life decision's a whole lot easier.