THE PINK BUNNY SUIT
"Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now I keep thy word."
There's a memorable scene in A Christmas Story, in which Ralphie, who longs for a BB gun for Christmas, opens a parcel from his dotty maiden aunt. The aunt makes clothing for Christmas presents, and is under the delusion that Ralphie is a girl, and remains about three years old. When the lad comes downstairs in the garb, we see that it is a pink rabbit sleeper with floppy ears. The dad says he looks like a demented Easter bunny. The critical line is from mom--"You'll only wear it when she visits."
The constant temptation to the individual and to the Church, when we are under such pressure by the secular culture, is to think of the Church as our dotty maiden aunt, and her interpretation of the Gospel, and the law of Christ, as a pink bunny suit we don't want to wear. Let us wear what we want, we plead in our disobedient spirit. Those who tell us to accept some meretricious compromise with evil are like the mom telling us we only have to obey when the maiden aunt visits--give lip service to the law of Christ when Rome is watching, but do what we want or what the culture wants the rest of the time. Now we must pray, and pray constantly, that our church leaders understand how they are being coopted by modern Pharisees both inside and outside the Christian community, and pray that they stand firm for the Truth of the Gospel of Life.