The last time we talked, I shared the concept of honor through creation. My point was God honored us in, through, and by the act of His creative power. Every person—no matter their prestige, power, position, or lack of—is valuable and deserving of honor. I believe this to be a divine principle on which we as a culture will rise or fall—and we are fast tumbling into the bottomless abyss of relativism and an aberrant brand of social re-engineering at the moment.

This divine concept of honor stands in direct opposition to the voice of a so-called empirical science, or modern entertainment, or hip social morays, or a decadent culture clamoring for the right to rule supremely with the sole intent of smothering the voice of right and reason. Let me show you what I mean with some simple illustrations of a few “isms” whose time has come to be “was-em’s.”

The religion of evolution devalues human beings by placing them on the same level as any other plant or animal. It insidiously destroys the honor we are to have for one another. At its root it teaches what has popularly become known as the “law of the jungle”—the belief that only the strongest survive, and thus, the weak are necessarily expendable on Darwin’s altar of species.

The problem (there are more than I can deal with) is when this “ism” is translated into our cultural experience we tend to forget about our brothers and sisters who are struggling—who don’t have it all together—who are drowning in the black water of despair, or poverty, or sickness, or a hundred other things that destroy the fabric of humanity. We turn away and ignore them—leaving them on their own. Instead we celebrate the strong, the successful, the beautiful, and the powerful. These are the esteemed and the most often imitated. What we honor in culture is what our culture becomes. Evolution tells us to honor the strongest and bid adieu to the weak. In doing so, we bid goodbye to our own selves should we become injured, sick, lose a job, endure the death of a spouse…you name it. Everything can change in a moment and if only the strong survive—humanity without God will surely become extinct.

Racism is a religion as well whose worshippers deify their own selves. In essence they have become their own gods.  Racism is narcissistic dishonor run wild. This deadly “ism” declares its particular brand of participant to be superior and all others inferior. Racism is a cancer in any culture—no matter the flavor of those who imbibe its deadly smoke—religious or social. Every person is valuable—no matter the color of their skin or the beliefs they hold in their heart.

I could go on and on but I think you catch my drift. There are innumerable beliefs, systems, and doctrines at work with only one desire—to destroy the belief that there is a God who has revealed Himself through the very creation we are all a part of, and nowhere plainer than in every man, woman, boy, and girl.

Jesus declared that the greatest commandment was to love God and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Loving ourselves is not the problem—loving God and proving we do by loving our neighbor is the crux of the issue. Everything is at war with this commandment.

Honor fleshes out the Great Commandment of love—all the other “isms” have scarred the landscape of creation with a trail of death carved out in what we call human history. Read a page or two and see what conclusion you come to.