As a teenager I remember well the fishing trips to various parts of Port Phillip Bay. We had a boat that required at least two persons to unload and launch. We’d often find a boat ramp somewhere at first light and launch the boat and then gently cruise at 4-5 knots out of the marina to a favourite fishing spot.
On the way, we would pass many other boats bobbing gently at their moorings – not just at anchor but fixed securely to a permanent mooring such as a wharf, jetty, pier, anchor buoy, and so on. A ship is secured to a wharf mooring to prevent any free movement of the ship on the water. Without moorings - fixings that prevent drifting – boats would be carried wherever the currents would take them and, often, that can be far, far away from the fixed, permanent, safe place.
If there is a phrase that could describe what is happening in our nation today it would be that we are adrift from our moorings. Our society is being carried wherever the strongest currents are pushing. Standards, morals, values, customs and conventions have shifted on the currents of wokeism and … as individuals and society have broken free of traditional moorings. There is a sense of profound shift that has left us with deep feelings of uncertainty, distrust, suspicion and perplexity, as once normative, social and political standards, which filtered so much of our toxic thinking and behaviour, have been abandoned. Nothing is solid anymore – anything goes. And this is being experienced across all demographics in all sorts of ways. Social interaction with others, now so often conducted “virtually”, is bereft of respect, consideration, generosity, and grace. We have broken free of the moorings of polite public discourse and the Judaeo-Christian morality that once kept so much intact, reined in, and secure. That rich sense of genuinely tolerant community that buffered us from extremism is disintegrating. Now things are rampant, tribal, and brutal, and fierce currents are taking us so far away from our moorings in a safe harbour. A righteous communal mooring is a solid, fixed place of stabilising wholesome values, and their influence. We have lost so many of these …
One of the critical moorings from which we have broken free, is shame. But, not in the sense of the shame produced by our sense of broken identity because of sin. No, what I speak of is the sense of shamelessness – at the other end of the spectrum - that is so openly and blatantly displayed these days. We have seen so much of this of late – in very public arenas. Take, for instance, the current (and weekly) pro-Palestinian protests in our cities calling for intifada (which means war against Israel), and screaming that evil chant “from the river to the sea etc.”, (and we all know this ONLY refers to the extermination of the Jewish state). There was a time not that long ago when this outrageous behaviour would be unthinkable in our nation. Not anymore. At all levels of government – state and federal – there has been such a loss of outraged decency that there is no meaningful calling to account and only platitudes in response. No one in government is outraged, or pretending to be so – and with barely an arrest being made for very criminal offences.
In January the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment (Prohibited Hate Symbols and Other Measures) Bill 2023 was made federal law. These laws make it illegal for a whole range of hate symbols to be used by anyone, anywhere, any time – and not just Nazi salutes, swastikas, either, but Hamas, ISIS, Islamic State flags and symbols, too. It is now a criminal offence to glorify OR praise acts of terrorism. Yet myriad Hamas and Islamic State flags have been clearly on display at every pro-Palestinian protest since January. Our authorities are so un-outraged by this as to do nothing – we have no shame for this openly displayed racial hatred.
Then there is the shamelessness of the leader of the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union (CFMEU) who has publicly threatened economic pain to the Australian Football League (AFL) unless they cave into their demands to sack an employee they don’t like – and with the foulest of language to boot. Then there is the shameless acceptance of a King’s Birthday accolade – the highest in the nation – by the previous premier of our state. Ten years ago this would be cause for great embarrassment – not anymore. The shame mooring has been broken. Then there is the former US president, Donald Trump, who has just been convicted of falsifying company records to hide a hush money payment to a porn star with whom he was meeting shortly after his wife had just given birth. Just a few years ago this would have been unforgivable, and more than enough to see a candidate for the presidency drop out of the race and retreat into ignominious obscurity for the rest of their life. Not anymore. There is no shame. Now Trump is a martyr with a cause. Of course, in Australia we have our fair share of people in high places doing shameful things in broad daylight, too, and they don’t care that we can see.
There are many other instances of shamelessness at the grassroots of everyday life for many – even Christians. Many shamelessly falsify tax returns, or misuse the internet to anonymously go to places they would never go otherwise. Morality for many believers has also been profoundly compromised, and it is now often blatant because they’re adrift of biblical moorings that once held them secure in righteousness. A lot of immoral behaviour is now even openly justified by Christians, such is the profound shift in thinking and biblical values that has occurred as moorings have been torn away. And, yes, I know, there are many causes for this – anger, disappointment, hurt, loneliness, resentment and so on. But this doesn’t change the fact that we have come adrift, and we’re drifting far from our righteous moorings. Neither is it an excuse. In his book, Dov Seidman states that there is profound societal corrosion “when leaders with formal authority behave without moral authority. Without leaders who, through their example and decisions, safeguard our norms and celebrate them and affirm them and reinforce them, the words on paper — the Bill of Rights, the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence — will never unite us.” He is right. Our state and national leaders are not safeguarding our moorings anymore, they’re ripping them away …
For the sake of the world, Christians cannot afford to drift from their righteous moorings. Drifting is the slow estrangement of ourselves from the presence of God and the fellowship of His people. “It is slow because, at first, drifting doesn’t set off loud alarm bells”, it’s just some drift. Yet, drift is the most common and dangerous way many Christians abandon their faith. There are no real pangs of guilt! That’s why it is so dangerous. Gradual drift.
1 Timothy 1:19 (NLT)
“Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences;
as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked.”
Hebrews 2:1 (NLT)
“So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard,
or we may drift away from it.”
Don’t drift! It is so easy to do. Before you know it, you’ve drifted far, far away … and the danger is shipwreck - and an inability to come back. Stay moored to God, His Word and His people.
Think very carefully on these things. Are you drifting?
Ps Milton
[Sources: Federal Attorney Generals Dept.; Dov Seidman in, “HOW: Why HOW We Do Anything Means Everything”; Bible Talk TV (UK); Thomas Friedman, New York Times, May 28th, 2024; personal SOAP Journal #11]