Hollywood recently awarded Sean Penn with an Academy Award for his portrayal of Harvey Milk, the first openly homosexual man to be elected to public office in California. Milk ultimately became an icon for the homosexual movement soon after he was assassinated in November 1978. Several thoughts immediately come to mind about honoring a man and a movie that represents such an anti-biblical lifestyle.

First, the nation continues slouching towards Gomorrah, as Judge Robert Bork might say. This is not just being done figuratively but literally. Of course, the end result of this movement of social and cultural suicidal madness will be the same as it was for the inhabitants of the ancient city for the God of righteousness is eternally the same. It is only a matter of time. The longsuffering of God will some day end and judgment will begin in earnest. There is historical precedent for such a dire prediction. No nation has ever survived the influx of the moral decay when it turns in this direction. The Greeks, Romans, and Nazi Germany all could not survive the tolerance of behavior that is contrary to nature, and in similar manner, America too cannot survive.

Second, evil (injurious behavior) is militant. The homosexual community has not grown to such prominence by being silent. There was war in heaven when Lucifer said he would be like God and there is now war on earth because individuals say they will be like others—accepted and respected and not on the merit of morality but by demand.

A third thought that comes to mind is that the church is unable to stem the tide of the nation slouching its way towards Gomorrah. The church is unable to arrest the militancy of an evil social movement. There is a reason for this ineffectiveness. In part, I believe the powerlessness of the church is because individuals have not yet done what Christ has told Christians to do in Matthew 7:3-5. In context Jesus asked a question:

"And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?"

The question of the Lord is convicting. We Christians stand in judgment on the moral decadence of others—and rightly so—but have failed to judge ourselves. No wonder Jesus calls us hypocrites. "Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." When Christians live with secret sin, when Christians devour one another in the local assembly, when people hold secret home meetings to destroy individual’s character, when church leaders turn on their pastors and then justify their attitude and actions, and when Christians are morally outraged at selective acts of evil outwardly but fail to deal with personal flaws inwardly, there will be no ability to help others be better. Protecting decadence in self will promote the honoring of decadence in others. When we as Christians begin to judge ourselves then, and only then, will we be in a position to help others.