Idolatry is the worship of a God other than the one and only living God that we should serve. The God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob is the only God we should be serving. Especially if you call yourself a Christian!
God says in Exodus 20:3-5 "You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand [generations] of those who love me and keep my commandments."
He said in the form of ANYTHING! That means an idol can come in any form! I doesn't have to be like a stone built idol from historical times! An idol can be your job! An idol can be your spouse! It can be your fraternity or sorority! It can be material things! It can be the act of shopping! It can be the idea of wanting to be in a relationship! It can be ANYTHING that you dedicate high amounts of time to and put it before God. Something that you're dedicated to, obsessed with, and put before God.
Today I'm going to hone in and focus on the issue of Greek life because being a college student, it's very prevalent among my environment.
I see these kids "pledging", so you call it. That very term is questionable by the way!
And at these "inductions" they're "bowing down" which is a form of submission to their fraternity or sorority even though God said "you shall not bow down to them!" Too many people are getting themselves into mess they don't even understand without doing their research.
Well I've done my research, I've done my observation and I've even spoken to Greek Christians and non-Christians and I would like to share some of this research with you.
I know one girl who explained to me the secret "rituals" that went on behind the whole process and yes there was hazing involved! But the crazy thing is, there was also an aspect of spirituality involved... a laying of hands upon the bible and a speaking of oaths.
Mind you, James 5:12 says: "But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any oath, but let your "yes" be yes and your "no" be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation."
This girl isn't even a bible thumping Christian but she explained her feeling of knowing something was not right!!! That's that inner gut feeling, that's the Holy Spirit!
Then, I spoke to someone who just recently got inducted into a fraternity and his gpa lowered almost one who grade point! I'm not talking bout like a 3.0 to a 2.9. I'm talking about like 4.0 to 3.0 type stuff! That is ridiculous! But that just goes on to show the crazy amount of time and dedication it takes to be apart of these Greek organizations that aren't worth missing church in the morning, lowering your gpa, or nothing at all!
I asked him if it was worth it, he said yes. And my thought was, "oh no he's brainwashed" but naw really, it's not worth it. I study psychology so understand why he thinks it's worth it because in psychology it's proven that the harder you work for something the more valuable it is to you and the more likely you are to claim it and stick with it.
But the truth is. NO IT IS NOT WORTH IT!!
Why?
Well you say,
- "It promotes sisterhood and brotherhood" and I say yea right! In your little circle where you all leave the whole world out and talk about your other brothers and sisters in other organizations or just in the world in general! It promotes division not unity. Who are you kidding!
- "It's a good networking tool" and I say bruh, God is the best networking tool you need! He has acess to every man's heart and a man who is favored by God will suceed over the one favored by a greek organization.
- "We promote scholarship" and I say, no you promote wasting my time and cause me to loose my gpa or compromise my academic integrity with plagersism so that I don't fail out of school. You don't allow me enough time to put the best effort in my work and glorify God in the work that I do.
- "We have christian values" and I say, no you have luke-warm Christian values cause no true Christian serves two Gods.
- "We do community service" and I say, community service doesn't have to be just three times a semester. And I don't need permission from an organization to be a blessing to my community.
These are just a few of the many excuses I've observed people giving to defend their positions and these are my responses to them by the knowledge that God has given me.
I'm going to give you guys some research references to go to but take it upon you self to talk to actual people involved like I did.
And tune back in because soon I'll have a spoken word piece covering this topic. Thank you, NO FEAR!
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Writer Bio: Karolyne Daudin, a freelance photographer and the official founder of IAMImage Photography Company, lives in Tallahassee as a literature and business major at The Florida State University. There, she leads campus ministries and as spoken word poet, her purpose is to encourage and edify a generation by being an example of Christ in speech, lifestyle, love, faith, and purity. You can check out here website at here at http://iamimage.com/ and you can reach her at iamimagephotos@gmail.com.
