Does culture send subliminal message about what’s important?


I love to ask the question, “Do you believe it is possible to love pigs more than Jesus Christ?”

The answer is, of course not. Why do you ask such a foolish question?

Well, I often wonder why those people, in the Gospel, would ask Jesus Christ to leave their town just after He cast out a legion of demons into a herd of swine. They have seen His love of mankind.

Does our culture set before us subliminal messages to set our actions throughout our lifetime? I think so.

When a couple has a newborn, they spend time playing with the infant by lightly pinching the toes and saying, this little piggy went to the market, and this little piggy stayed home, and so on.

Then they tell the toddler a story about the three little pigs and the big bad wolf, huffing and puffing and blowing two houses down but the brick house withstood the mighty wind.

As the child grows older, there’s Porky Pig and a story about Babe from “Charlotte’s Web” fame.

As the child grows up, he eats bacon and eggs or sausage and waffles for breakfast, ham and cheese between two slices of bread for lunch and pigs in a blanket for supper.

It all tastes so good.

On the first day of the year, the family follows tradition and has a pork roast and/or kolbasi with sauerkraut to welcome in the new year.

And let’s not forget about the football games and seasonal parades. The games are played with a football called a pigskin.

Again, do you love pigs more than Jesus Christ? Think it over.

Let’s make sure that we keep worldly things like piggy banks on the back burner and put the holy things of God first as we go through life.

The Very Rev. Andrew Gall is pastor of St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Sharon, Pa.

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