Over the weekend i read Terry Goodkind's 'Naked Empire'. Anyone into sci fi will know of the series 'Legend of the Seeker' and this is one of the later books that this series is based on.
The book really struggles with defining good & evil and when punishment is fitting, with a whole people group refusing to acknowledge wrong as wrong.
Rather they describe it as being a cry for help from a troubled soul. Even when 'The Imperial Order' invades their land, enslaves, rapes, tortures & murders, they give concessions in hope that they'll win these 'trouble souls' over.
There's alot more to it than that, but it reminded me of the 'post-modern' way our society views sin. Rather than calling sin 'sin', we opt to blame upbringing, chemical imbalances and many other 'disorders. Even punishment for crime in our country is often very lenient (just look at the news recently about the Lockerby bomber).
Back to the fiction & a Lesson for us
Into the lives of this race who have refused to set moral grounds, described in everything but name as relativists, walks Richard Rahl, 'The Seeker of Truth' with a *profound lesson for both them and us in the real world. And is especially something worth chewing over as Christians in an age when God's Word is denied as being relevant, or trustworthy.
"If something is wrong, it matters not if a thousand other men are for it; you must still oppose it. If something is just, no amount of popular outcry should stay you from your course."
The book really struggles with defining good & evil and when punishment is fitting, with a whole people group refusing to acknowledge wrong as wrong.
Rather they describe it as being a cry for help from a troubled soul. Even when 'The Imperial Order' invades their land, enslaves, rapes, tortures & murders, they give concessions in hope that they'll win these 'trouble souls' over.
There's alot more to it than that, but it reminded me of the 'post-modern' way our society views sin. Rather than calling sin 'sin', we opt to blame upbringing, chemical imbalances and many other 'disorders. Even punishment for crime in our country is often very lenient (just look at the news recently about the Lockerby bomber).
Back to the fiction & a Lesson for us
Into the lives of this race who have refused to set moral grounds, described in everything but name as relativists, walks Richard Rahl, 'The Seeker of Truth' with a *profound lesson for both them and us in the real world. And is especially something worth chewing over as Christians in an age when God's Word is denied as being relevant, or trustworthy.
"If something is wrong, it matters not if a thousand other men are for it; you must still oppose it. If something is just, no amount of popular outcry should stay you from your course."
Richard Rahl (fictional character by Terry Goodkind).
*I'm not going to make a habit of quoting from fiction, but i figured this deserved further attention.
