Wednesday, August 16, 2006 · no responses · comments closed

One area of prayer that I know I need to grow in is prayer for the nation, or more broadly, prayer for our culture. I’m a U.S. citizen, but through the Internet I can easily read the blogs of writers in the UK, Africa, Australia, anywhere in the world. And likewise, I can be influenced by thought and materials from anywhere. It’s a given — -almost a cliché — -that we live in a global culture, but it behooves me to consider this influence and extend my prayer to cover all the peoples and nations that can and do impact my life.

Through the kind of confluence that the Holy Spirit is so good at creating, this need for broader prayer was brought into sharp focus this morning. Let’s see if I can bring together the various threads and make it into a whole:

While on campus yesterday, a coworker mentioned that her husband subscribes to a newsletter promoting healthy father/daughter relationships. I made a mental note and thought I would look for the site. I couldn’t remember the exact name, so I typed “daughter dad” in Google. I was not prepared for the results. With Google’s filter set to “moderate” (the default), nine of the first ten links were for explicit sites focused on incest and rape. I was astounded. I tried a few other combinations, and finally, “daughter father activism” got me to DadsandDaughters.org, the site I was looking for.

I started to write a post on this last night but had to leave, which was just as well; this morning, I got a better perspective. In Ezekiel 9, the prophet is given a vision of six executioners and a man with a writing case:

And the Lord said to [the man with the writing case], “Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.” And to the others he said in my hearing, “Pass through the city after him, and strike. Your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity. Kill old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one on whom is the mark. And begin at my sanctuary.”

What abominations prompted this slaughter? In chapter 8, Ezekiel is shown a vision of widespread idolatry in the temple back in Jerusalem. He first sees the “image of jealousy,” which scholars believe was the goddess Asherah, typically associated with fertility and cult prostitution. A little later, Ezekiel sees women morning the death of Tammuz, a fertility god. Ezekiel also sees men turning their backs on the temple to worship the sun, and elders are worshiping Egyptian deities inside the temple. Though I don’t believe the description given of the elders is prophetic of today’s fascination with pornography, the wording here is striking; God says to Ezekiel, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of pictures?” In case you’re wondering how many “elders of the house” are spending time in the dark, “each in his room of pictures,” a 2001 survey of pastors indicates that about a third struggle with pornography, and a 2005 article from the Christian Science Monitor suggests that problems with pornography are rampant within the Christian community.

I didn’t need yesterday’s surprise with Google to tell me that pornography is a problem in the global culture; that, unfortunately, is old news. What I learned yesterday is that this evil has infected what should be among the most pure relationships: a father and his daughter. What lies are men believing when they seek sexual gratification through images of rape and incest — -behaviors that they would undoubtedly repudiate if asked, “Would you actually do this?”

My first response was akin to despair: what can we, can I, do? But God never means for us to despair; He is a God of hope, and the Spirit showed me that this morning as well.

After reading Ezekiel, I thought, “Wow! this is serious. God didn’t send a reprimand; He sent executioners.” But as I took communion and prayed, peace came. As I received the bread, Christ’s body broken for our healing, and the wine, His blood shed for our salvation, I received hope. Christ’s body and blood have healed and saved me; they are meant to heal and save the world. And more to the point, they are powerful enough, sufficient to heal and save the world. To put it another way, God can handle pornography.

And I read also in Matthew 18 this morning; here Jesus reminds us that

if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them. (v. 19–20)

This brought me back to Ezekiel, the part I missed the first time as I focused on the idolatry. Note who isn’t killed: those “who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed.” God saw those who were deeply pained, who lamented the sin around them. I suspect the sighs and groans were more than, “Poor Joe; his wife left him because of pornography. That’s sad.” or “It’s a shame you can hardly watch TV without seeing something sexual.” No, these were people who grieved over the sin in their culture; it stopped them and brought them to their knees.

And so I thought, “Would I have survived that day? Would I have been marked with an X?” What about you?

Regardless of your answer, here’s the thing: we can learn to grieve over the sin in our culture, and we can grow in prayer for its healing. It’s exciting to me to think that Jesus’ words about the power of unified prayer are not bound by location; He is among us when we physically pray with others, and He is among us when we join in prayer for a cause, even though we are in Birmingham, Bogatá, and Berlin. I invite you to join me in praying for a spirit that is moved to sigh and groan for the sin that surrounds us and to move from that grief to intercede for the healing of our culture.

And tomorrow I’ll share some other ways we can take action.