For generations, Christian groups calling for “separated living” have been dismissed as legalists. And sometimes, this has been fair—separating from “the world” according to arbitrary standards of some small portion of the ecclesiastical world is legalism. But the fact remains that the Bible does say that we are to not touch the unclean thing, and that we are supposed to do this so that the Lord might receive us.
A major way in which we are stumbling can be found in our lax approach to entertainment standards. We are regularly entertained in our homes by people we wouldn’t have in our homes.
As we have exhorted Christians to do better in the arts, and have lamented the cheesiness of so many of our artistic efforts, our young people have embraced the censure of cheesiness, and have used this as a reason for embracing worldly entertainments, which are every bit as cheesy and ten times dirtier. To extend the metaphor of cheese, we have been urging Christians to abandon the use of cheese out of a can, and opt for an aged gouda instead. This has resulted in people continuing to get their cheese out of a can, but with that cheese all mixed up with dryer lint. But at least it is not evangelical cheesy.
Part of the reason we are so gullible in this is that we insist that we have a right to be entertained. We need it. But as Pascal put it, all of mankind’s troubles come from our inability to sit quietly in an empty room.