“For God so loved the world He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” John chapter 3 verse 16, The Bible
Octopus’s Garden - the poisonous fruit of the permissive society
“We would be so happy you and me…no one there to tell us what to do.”
It was one of the Beatles’ simpler songs, but “Octopus’s Garden” from the Abbey Road album, neatly sums up what motivated the revolution that we know as the Permissive Society, during the Sixties. There were major evils at the time that did need righting. The appalling injustices against black people in the United States or the slaughter of the Vietnam War, were both issues that the youth of the Sixties were right to protest against. But the poisoned legacy left by the Permissive Society was its rejection of Christian-based values and laws. This was the atmosphere in which I grew up in the Sixties.
Removing all restraints on our sexual behaviour was seen as morally equivalent to the Civil Rights Movement removing the unjust restraints on black people. Both were equally about justice and freedom from repression. But the rejection of Christian-based morals really wasn’t motivated by the same sorts of ideals that motivated the rejection of racism. As the song says, it was actually no more than the dislike of having anyone “tell us what to do”- God included. It was led by people who thought the only route to happiness was to be allowed absolute licence.
Over 40 years on, the state of the Octopus’s garden proves how immature and childish such views were. Far from being a place where we can be “warm below the storm”, any fair-minded observer can now see the poisoned fruits in the garden- family breakdown, insecure and unhappy children, huge levels of drink and drug abuse, and the resultant massive costs to the health and social security systems.
However Christians are often misunderstood, when we comment on, or criticise trends like this in society. The common misconception is that we’re judgmental killjoys, who want to force everyone to live according to our own outmoded Victorian values. But when Christians protest about the erosion of Christian values in society, it’s (hopefully) because we seek to protect people from the consequences. A society governed by Christian values, as, once again, any fair-minded observer knows, will generally be more caring, more civilised and more enlightened (in the true sense). It will also be more God-honouring, and so may expect to know more of God’s blessing.
However, whilst God is interested in blessing whole societies, the main message of the New Testament is His blessing to individuals in society. Each one of us must come to see we’re sinners, and repent. That means we must individually come to agree with God’s verdict about our sin, and seek God’s solution to it- the forgiveness found in Jesus Christ alone. And then God will empower the repentant sinner to begin living according to His values, and bless us with eternal life. So Christians should not be surprised when unrepentant people reject Christian values- because non-Christians can’t actually live according to them. In fact they don’t even want to live according to them, they don’t agree with God’s verdict about sin, and want to continue in it. And the Bible shows us that the most significant consequence of sin is far worse than the poisoned fruits listed above- it’s God’s condemnation of sinners who won’t repent to eternal punishment. The poisoned garden ought to wake us up to this far more terrible consequence for all who continue in sin, and reject Jesus Christ as their Saviour.
So, when I protest about the Octopus’s poisoned garden, I’m not urging that we start repealing or reinstating particular laws, in order to try and restore society to the position it was in before the 1960’s, (or the 1860’s). Repealing is not the real solution, but repentance. My aim is that you might see that living as if God had no right to tell us what to do won’t bring happiness, only disaster. My aim is to point you to Jesus Christ, Who died to save sinners who will repent.
My aim is also to ask Christians if we too might have imbibed some of the Octopus’s poison, growing up in the Permissive Society. Does living in the Octopus’s Garden make us resent God’s right to tell us what to do? We’re certainly living in an age, and at a time, when many preachers and hearers have rejected God’s rights as our Creator. Many of God’s people seem to want to ignore His warnings in Scripture, and to believe in an undemanding God of their own making, who no-one needs to fear. But there really is “Someone there to tell us what to do”. He tells us for our own protection, and for our own eternal happiness.
23/2/2012