Building Barriers in an Immoral Society

BUILDING BARRIERS IN AN IMMORAL SOCIETY
PRINCIPLES TO PROTECT YOU AND YOUR CHILDREN FROM IMMORAL HARM
by: Allen Domelle

Unless your head has been buried in the sand, or you have been living under a rock somewhere, there is no doubt that you have heard or seen the sad stories coming out of the Penn State sex abuse accusations. It seems that the alleged atrocities keep coming out to the point that one wonders how anyone could not see it. Then you have the stories coming from Syracuse University about another assistant coach who allegedly abused young children for many years. When these stories first broke, I believe that most people were shocked that such terrible things were happening at state universities.

During the time of these scandals, we also had the accusations coming out about one of the men running for president. When the story of impropriety first hit the news, it seemed like it was a feeding frenzy to see if there were other accusations out there as well. It didn’t take long for more women to start alleging that this man had been inappropriate with them. It finally came to the point that he had to suspend his campaign because he felt he could not keep people focused on his message. Though this man adamantly denied any of the accusations, the fact that these unproven accusations could destroy a person’s dream is alarming.

As these stories continued to unfold, I told my wife that one of the problems in the secular world is that they have built no barriers to protect themselves from accusations or improper actions. When preachers set standards for their church, these standards are not to make people miserable, but they are there as barriers to keep rumors of immorality and immoral actions from destroying you, your family or the church. Anybody who has not built barriers for themselves and their children are setting themselves up to be part of a tragic story like those mentioned above.

Song of Solomon 2:15 says, “Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.” In the Scriptures, it was common for a man who had a vineyard to build a hedge about it to keep the wild animals from destroying it. This hedge was normally a bush with thistles that worked like barbed wire. Whenever a wild animal tried to get through the hedge, they would be poked by the thorns, which kept the animals from coming in.

However, God warns us about the “...little foxes, that spoil the vines:…” Too often we are concerned about the big fox, when it is the little fox who finds a way through the hedge. Many times the animals would constantly gnaw at the hedge to form a little hole so the little foxes could get in. Once these little foxes got in, they would destroy the whole vineyard. As little and insignificant as these little foxes seemed to be, they were the greatest danger to the husbandman’s vineyard.

This is why the husbandman would have to periodically inspect his vineyard to make sure that there were no holes forming in his hedge where the little foxes could get through. The husbandman didn’t want to allow the little foxes to destroy his investment in that vineyard. He knew that one little fox could do much damage to a vineyard that he worked so hard to maintain.