I just finished reading a book "A Voice in the Wind" by Francine Rivers. It's about a slave girl who is a Christian and the people in her life. As I read it reminded me of what's happening in our world today and especially at some other "marriage" sites on the web.

This poor slave girl tries so hard to live her life as a Christian but has to be quiet about it or face death. She helps everyone that crosses her path, particularly her young master, a very selfish and entitled young woman.

The family that the slave girl serves come to depend on her for her kindness, compassion and strength in the face of adversity.

Throughout the book her young master is continually looking for ways to "escape" her family and be allowed to do whatever makes her happy. This slave girl has great influence over her but eventually evil wins out (over the Master, but not overall).

The young master woman hooks up with a group of people who "validate" her entitlement. They "whisper" to her throughout the book that she is not selfish, she should do what makes her happy, that the people who may have any hope of influencing her to wake up and see how she is living are zealots who have their own agenda.

They basically tell her that there is more than one way to think about things and appear to have very valid arguments against anyone who stands for what is right. They attack anyone who dares to challenge them. They encourage this young woman that her goal in life should be not to feel guilty about pleasuring herself or hurting anyone who gets in the way of that pleasure. (Sound familiar?)

You can literally see her mindset change in the book from the influence of these vipers. She goes from feeling guilty about some of her actions (disobeying her family, ignoring her husband's needs, having an abortion, murdering her new (second) husband) to believing that she has done nothing wrong and her happiness is all that matters. She separated herself from the good, began to take the counsel of the ungodly and eventually destroyed anyone and everything that got in her path to "be happy". Her new-found friends have logical "answers" for all her questions. Her morality is quashed. In the end, she is a bitter, cruel and angry young woman who has been convinced by her "friends" to marry a homosexual man that will not question what she does with her life. In other words, she becomes them. You can almost see (read) the glee in their eyes. Her guilt is gone. She is finally "free". It's an empty victory as she discovers.

There is more to the story but I don't want to totally give it away in case anyone else wants to read it.

It makes me sad to see the same things happening at other places although not to the extreme in the book. I fear for the lives and souls of those being influenced this way. Some go willingly and some wander in innocently. I just have to remember that this verse, and pray.

Ephesians 6:12
New International Version (NIV)

12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

I am so grateful for MB and other sites like it that as a whole, stand for right and speak out against wrong. I am grateful for the posters on MB (both Christians and non-believers) who show no fear and who are willing to speak up, even knowing that they could be (and are in some cases) mocked and vilified elsewhere.

P.S. The story is set in Rome and I never knew or fully understood about the "games" that the Romans considered their "entertainment" (gladiators, feeding Christians to the lions, crucifixions, etc). The blood lust of the Roman people back then as a "group" was barbaric and insatiable. Parts of the book made me weep.