Dennis Abernathy

There’s an old saying that says, “A rose by any other name is still a rose.” Well, that may be true but many people still try to add a little pretentious dignity to common things. For example, shoes are now called “Footwear.” A magazine sounds superior if it is called a “Journal.” Customers seem more sophisticated if they are called “clientele.” Prison guards, undertakers, and garbage-men sound more professional if they are called “Security Officers,” “morticians,” and “sanitation engineers.” I even heard about someone fired from his job who said he had been “de-hired.” Well, there’s probably not much harm in all this if we just didn’t try to give dignifying names to sinful practices. The problem is that some people are trying to dignify, lessen the stigma, or put a pretty face on sin!

For example, some try to make adultery seem less serious by calling it “an affair.” Some minimize the seriousness of drunkenness and drug addiction by describing it as merely “getting high” and a “good time.” Pornography is often dignified by calling it “adult entertainment.” Some types of fornication are whitewashed by calling them “trial marriage arrangement,” and the fornicators are depicted as merely being “sexually active.” The slaughter of the unborn through abortion is called a good thing because it gives the woman “freedom of choice.” And who can forget how homosexuality has been sanitized and legitimized by calling it “gay” and referring to it as an “alternate lifestyle.” On and on we could go but you get the point. Sin is made to look good, or at least palatable to a gullible society.

The devil has some ingenious PR men. But calling sin something else doesn’t really change it. Remember the riddle, “How many legs does a dog have if you call his tail a leg?” Of course, the answer is “four,” not “five,” because calling a dog’s tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg. And giving high-sounding new names to sinful practices doesn’t change the nature of those sinful practices!

Please remember, in Isaiah 5: 20, God’s Word says, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.” When God’s Word is rejected as the norm, all values are turned upside down and people gradually become unable to discern between good and evil. Think on these things.