Who’s Really In The Dark?

State-side I had opportunity to share with various churches about our lives in Mexico. The hope was to convey that while cultural, language and family transitions can be both challenging and frustrating we have been called here to present the fullness of Christ.

From there it was natural to transition to the spiritual and moral needs of Mexico. 2 Corinthians 4:4 was the verse of reference, “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." It’s easy to make a case for this verse applying to Mexico but the question I posed to churches and I pose to us is – Who’s really in the dark?

Five hundred years ago the gods demanded human sacrifice from the Aztecs. We can attest to these times as we have seen the altars used for bloody sacrifices. Barbaric, depraved, evil we might say. Yet, in the U.S. over 40 million abortions have been performed in the last few decades. Now tell me who’s in the dark, the country that took life 500 years ago or the country that continues to take life today?

One image that is becoming more prominent here is the Saint of Death (think grim reaper). Our corner grocery had a candle lit to one such image and I see them as a common occurrence in the market. It is said that to enter into a covenant with the Saint of Death brings greater assurance in receiving your requests albeit with a price to pay. Who would enter such a dark covenant you ask and yet in the U.S. our children are using high technology and digital imagery to enter into the dark world of the occult under the parental approval of “gaming”. So, who needs the light more - blatant evil or veiled evil?

On September the 26th Cuernavaca celebrates the day of the patron saint Michael the Archangel. They twist golden flowers into crosses and place them over their doors with the belief that Michael will protect their home from the Devil entering. Do you know of anyone who would buy into such a belief? Yet, in the U.S. we are being taught by highly trained intellectuals (professing themselves to be wise) to believe that we evolved from lower life forms. So then who has been blinded, the person who believes in unseen spiritual realities as you probably do or those who place their belief in a non-creator, lower life, evolutionary form of existence?

We live in a sensual setting. Our streets and street corners are littered with magazine stands displaying what is at best provocative and at worst down right pornographic. I really don’t like having it flood my mind nor do I like the message it sends to my son and daughters. Thankfully open pornography is not a problem in the U.S. – right? No, we have the private secretive world that any teenage boy can log into when his parents are asleep or a husband can indulge in on a lonely business trip. So, is secretive sensuality less blinding than open public blinding?

The point here isn’t that the god of this age isn’t at work in Mexico. Surely he is. It’s easy enough to see. What we need to come to grips with is that he is just as blinding to the minds of our sophisticated, cultured, technologically savvy U.S. society. The one you and I live in. We have no room to look down our spiritual noses and think we have escaped unscathed, but must honestly ask ourselves, who’s really in the dark?