I will not trust the sweetest frame

I was studying the photo of a woman holding a pro-gay marriage sign in Alaska and I was noticing that she looks like a sweet little old lady, the kind who would give neighborhood children milk and cookies and show them her collection of paperweights.

This is very disturbing. What it means for us Christians is that in the coming years we will have to be all the more firmly rooted in the Word and what exactly it says. Sweet little old ladies have a lot of clout in society in getting social practices to pass from fringy to normal. It is one thing if a bunch of pink-haired, tongue-pierced, sleeved up Gen-Y types say they support same-sex marriage, but if Andy Taylor’s Aunt Bee supports it, you have much bigger trouble on your hands.

Never have I appreciated more the hymn of Edward Mote (1797–1874), The Solid Rock:

My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

For while we tend to think that our ideas about God and right and wrong come from the Bible, the truth is that we are much influenced by the people around us, even the sweet little old ladies who may not have it all right. It is a far greater challenge for me to put the Word of God above the word of a sweet little old lady than to put the Word of God above the word of a Unitarian pastor.

God knows how persuasive kindly little old ladies are in cultural morality. Therefore He warns:

“… Satan disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14, ESV).

And the Apostle Paul warned:

“… even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8, ESV).

There is a political theory called the “Overton Window” that posits that moral and political ideas in a culture move from being extreme and unthinkable to being mainstream and thinkable over time. The dynamics of this migration in the popular imagination no doubt have to do with many factors. But beware of the factor of the sweet little old lady who has been captured by the devil to do his propaganda. She is as formidable a force as there is in the world.

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