It's a dark bulletin today, and I apologize for the uneasiness you may feel in reading it right up front. I don't however apologize for the message. I don't write serious bulletins very often, so bear with me just this once.

I have to laugh a bit at some folks in the news and at work. When summer started, they were grumbling about how the gas prices just kept going up. A few considered canceling vacations because of the cost, but most just grumbled.

Then a hurricane named Katrina hit and gas prices soared! Some people went crazy, buying out the supply of gas containers at our local hardware store and apparently hoarding up. A few were trying desperately to sell off SUV's, and Dave and I noticed prices of little gas-saving used cars like Geo Metro's on Ebay ratcheted up $300-$600 overnight. Hybrids were all in the news, and a couple dealers in the hardest hit areas reported record sales of the things as consumers were scrambling for solutions. Everyone became fuel-conscience about stuff, and some of my co-workers tried to top each other by telling stories of how they combined 10 trips out into one run of the family car. The most envied vehicles in the parking lot were the ones with the highest mileage, and the owner of the Insight (which can get 60+ MPG) that parks at my work likely got a lot of strangers asking about his car. And this is a place where about a third of these engineers drive to work in Porsches, Lexus', etc.!

But then, a funny thing happened. The prices eased off a little, just a little. And everyone was OK again. Oh, some still grumbled about the cost but it was back to business as usual. I even heard at least one person making fun of someone who bought a hybrid, saying he was, to paraphrase, "weak in giving in to all the hype about high gas prices." Now, I see the prices have crept back up again, but no one is really whining and fussing like they did when it first shot up. In fact, it seems very tolerable, and "not so bad."

Huh. There are a lot of biblical comparisons here, one being sin. We get something sinful jammed in our face, in all its ugliness. Like blatant homosexuality on TV. Then, though, it backs off a little and becomes instead of the main character in a sitcom just a bit part, a hapless funny supporting character. People who were outraged before are OK with this! The ugly part is hidden from view and is joked about, is made light of, and the perversion (and that's what it is!) is made to seem “normal”, at least the pretty people on that show treat it that way. Eventually it becomes the co-star, etc.. Movies are made where this person is cast as an oppressed hero. In the end, it's worse than it was in the beginning! Everyone embraces this, and YOU are the bad person for not accepting it. Say what?

If there was a TV show where the adult main character blatantly has sexual relations with a minor, people would be outraged! But let it become a funny supporting character on a different show, where the molestation (and that's what it is!) is considered to be a "normal" way of life, joked about but the ugly part hidden out of view, and it will become acceptable. I know this sounds incredible, but you haven't been subjected to this - yet. Soon it's just another lifestyle choice - once you become "conditioned" to think that way. You'll be expected to tolerate it, and while it's not for everyone it will be "not so had."

I know, you may be reading this today and thinking Randy has flipped his lid. Well, sorry, you just wait a decade and read this again, and you may wonder what all the fuss is about. Today you likely think this will never happen, yet I submit that is exactly the same way people thought about homosexuality, too. There's also this little thing called abortion that seemed outrageous once upon a time. Satan isn't just sitting around helpless you know, he's plenty powerful in the world around us!

Randy