WHEN DOES INDIVIDUALISM BECOME A PROBLEM?

In Deuteronomy 12:8, Moses issues a stern warning to the people of Israel: "You shall not at all do as we are doing here today—every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes.”

In this verse, and many others like it, God is speaking out against individualism. It's not that individual men and women have no choices, nor that they are somehow not valued as individuals. The problem arises when everyone in a given community does “whatever is right in his own eyes”. In other words, there is no accepted community standard of right and wrong.

Most of the great moral issues of our time can be traced back to the same attitudes that foster individualism. Do what you feel is right. Don’t let anyone tell you what you should do. It’s your life, so do whatever makes you happy. There’s no such thing as sin.

Hence we have people declaring that homosexuality is right in their own eyes, women insisting that an abortion is right for them at this time of their lives, and paedophiles finding ways to convince themselves that, for them, sex with minors is quite acceptable.

I used three examples in that last paragraph but some readers may consider the third to be in a totally different category. They may argue that paedophilia is universally recognised as unquestionably wrong, a terribly bad thing to do. Some might even be offended that I mentioned paedophilia in the same paragraph as homosexuality and abortion.

But the link is clear. In each of these examples, and countless others that I could have used, people are making choices based on what is right “in their own eyes”. Their choice. God, as our Creator, has the only legitimate right to explain what is right or wrong and, in a way, this is what the whole Bible is about. But mankind stubbornly says to God: “No way! We don’t believe in you and we’re not going to accept your definition of right and wrong.”

So, paradoxically, we see individualism working en masse, like when teenagers used to express their individuality by all wearing the same sort of jeans, haircuts, etc.

The verse I quoted at the beginning of this blog actually comes in a context of worship. Moses was saying that it’s not right, in the sight of God, for everyone to worship according to whatever is right in “their own eyes”. Multiculturalism says exactly the opposite but I’m not sure this is a message that too many Australians are willing to hear at this point of time.

As for me, and as for our local Christian communities, otherwise known as churches, we can (and indeed must) put aside whatever is right “in our own eyes” in order that we might do the will of God.