The Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris inspired many people who had never heard of the magazine to look online and see for themselves just what had inflamed Muslim jihadists to resort to such violence. A quick perusal of the magazine's back issues would be enough to offend the sentiments of any person of faith. No one and nothing was off-limits to the irreverent pens of the targeted cartoonists. I think it natural that Christians are appalled at their relentless mockery of God, Jesus, scriptures and other people's faith even as we condemn their brutal murders in the name of religion. In the aftermath of the carnage, as heightened emotions give way to more objective analysis, we are left to wonder if there is nothing sacred any more, no place our culture's media and artists won't go. The very existence of boundary lines are interpreted as an invitation to cross them and the most shocking of extremes beg to be explored to their fullest extent.
And yet people of faith should stop and look in the mirror to ask ourselves if we have escaped crossing sacred lines only because we have conveniently moved them. Our precious faith handed down to us is constantly subjected to the barrage of profane culture where freedom is worshiped to the point of callousness to the sentiments of God and everyone else. Growing up, I always thought my Dad was a bit harsh when he enforced a no running or chewing gum policy in church. But now I realize it was just one of the ways he fought in his generation to guard the ever-encroached line, as he saw it, between the sacred and profane. Blasphemy today hides behind the smiling mask of comedy and satire. When society stops only to value one thing at the expense of all others, such as freedom of expression, it becomes imbalanced to the point of spinning out of control. Lack of control eventually leads to a great crash, the only question being how much and how many will become damaged or injured along the wild trajectory. France will be dealing with the fallout for years to come.
When believers reject limits on their own thoughts, what language they use or listen to or what movie they will sit through, all in the name of rejecting "legalism", we are guilty of the same crime of Charlie Hebdo, just of a lesser charge. The keeper of the boundary of profane territory is neither pop culture nor pew culture. God somehow remains unaffected by the ratings of Netflix, Playstation or iTunes as well as the entertainment habits of the majority of today's parishoners. The fact that the Assemblies of God denomination even felt compelled to publish a stance for its adherents on 50 Shades of Grey should be commentary enough on the sad state of affairs at your average seeker friendly church. Prudish has been rejected, yet sadly replaced by permissive. In our zeal to lighten things up, we've rejected myopic Victorian but rushed headlong into Miami Vice. The sacred can often be unpopular and inconvenient. Rearrange the letters and you have what a lot of 21st century Christians are by any mention of accountability and standards - scared.
Liberty and accountability must always remain close friends, otherwise society is doomed to a slow death by moral decay. Charlie Hebdo taught us that absolute, no-holds barred freedom leads to extreme self-absorption and calloused offensiveness. Followers of Christ, even American ones, do not worship freedom. We bow at the throne of our Liberator while responsibly and gratefully enjoying the freedoms He allows and honoring the limits that He imposes knowing that otherwise we end up forfeiting the hard-won spiritual freedom we enjoy today. Freedom as god is a masquerading, cruel despot who promises beauty but eventually delivers only bondage. And the absence of boundaries produces perpetual wanderers who forget their origins while never finding home. As for me, I am content to not color outside the borders and declare to my Master, as David did, "You are my portion and the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places."
