Fart Jokes ...

George Carlin once did a hilarious routine centered around one of the oldest sources of humor known to man, the fart joke. George had a unique ability to take human weakness or uncomfortable situations and by meticulously examining the strange behavior humans do, he could make humor from it. It is not so much that expelling gas is funny (though infants seem to find this the height of humor), it is the commonality all humans share when it comes to uncomfortable situations. What to do in a crowded office party when the urge suddenly strikes and there is no bathroom available. George postulated the idea of omitting what he called “a test fart”, just a small sample of what was to come, you know, to see how bad it might be, and judge whether allowing more would be acceptable or would melt the wall paper and cause permanent chemical damage to the folks standing nearby.

One of the chief ploys of our enemy is another tactic he likes called desensitizing the effects of evil. By making light of evil, we can sometimes gloss over the pain it causes. We can treat it less, like the chemical warfare agent it is, and more like simply an understandable social faux-paux [sp]. Much like finding the humor in something that is otherwise disgusting, we can elect to change our reactions to evil and begin to treat it on more a scaled system. Murder would top the evil severity list, Rape just under it, theft under that, perhaps gossip or lieing under that, and at the bottom of the list – George’s test fart; after all the impact of evil on us personally is scaled in this way. Our justice system treats offenses in this way, and is supposed to meter out punishments – to fit the crime. This is our sense of fair play at work. This is our sense of eye-for-an-eye that leads us to believe punishments should fit the severity of the crime. Only in backwards, third world countries, do they mete out the most severe punishments for least offensive crimes, right?

So why does our God see every evil on the same scale? Why is His punishment for evil always death, no matter what the severity of the crime committed? How can we call Him a fair and loving God, when only the slightest sin results in the penalty of death – even one – even something seemingly innocuous – if test farts were a sin, they would merit the death penalty the same as genocide does. How can this be?

The truth is, our justice system and God have very different ideas and agenda’s when it comes to “crime prevention”. Our justice system looks to insure compliance with the laws by widely publishing the punishments that will occur if the laws are broken. Yet despite the threat of these punishments, men and women still break the laws with regularity. Some believe they will not be caught. Some are not. Some believe that even if caught, they may get off on a technicality, or through the mercy of a judge, or through the overcrowding of our prison system. Some do. But some get punished anyway, they “do the time”, serve their sentence, return home – and many fall right back into criminal activity once again. How effective is a penal system in reforming the nature of a person? At best, the threat of punishment, is enough to deter the timid, and the satisfied.

Once could argue that God’s death penalty for every crime might do better at deterring crime. But states with death penalty laws seem to have per capita as many murders as those without them. In fact, in order to insure the guilt of those condemned to die, we often spend more money on death row inmates than on those sentenced to life in prison without parole; so even the threat of death does not seem to stop the determined murderer. Although one could argue, it might put a real dent in say shoplifting. And let’s be honest, having an executioner standing at the door of the Walmart, might give even the bravest and most skilled thief a reason to stay honest.

But there is a problem with looking at the penalty of sin as being something God instigated. God Himself is life. He is love. He is the source of all that is good. To deviate away from that can only lead to what is opposite of God. It is more like this, imagine sticking your tongue into the place you would normally put a light bulb inside a lamp, with the lamp turned on, and power cord plugged in. You would be electrocuted would you not? Is that the “punishment” for putting your tongue in a socket, or is that merely “the result.” When your toddler reaches for the hot stove burner, and you remind him that he will hurt himself if he continues on his present course, are you threatening him with punishment, or revealing to him the impending nature of his actions, and the results that will occur if he continues?

So in essence does every sin result in death? Yes. But the process must be understood a little better first. Take something we might call merely annoying on our scale of sin, say “pride” for example. A proud or arrogant person is at worst obnoxious right. We tend to avoid them if we can, put up with them if we have to. But they are generally not well liked, and have few true friends, as no-one really wants to spend time with someone who always reminds them how much better he is than them. How does pride result in death? Look deeper. In an effort to maintain the illusion of superiority over others, the proud person must take steps to prove his point. Ever been usurped at work for a promotion by that guy that only thinks he works harder than you? Ever been targeted by the “cool kids” in school and put down for being “less” than they were in some way? Ever been discriminated against because you belong to minority group, or hold a minority opinion? Wonder why? Because superiority or pride is only an illusion at best, so to be proven, actions that hurt others ensue. Sometimes those actions make enemies of those who are belittled, or robbed of their due. Sometimes the proud are the enemies, say Hitler for instance.

It does not take long for sin to escalate. It does not take long for the innocuous sins in our scale to move up to the next steps, all of them eventually leading to murder, and ironically enough eventually to suicide. Ever wonder why after a life of getting away with it, some serial murders are finally brought to justice? Most cops will tell you that they “wanted” to get caught. At some point they realize the monsters they have become and with that realization know they need outside help to be stopped. So while they will not surrender, they begin to make subconscious “mistakes”. And to reinforce the point of where pride can lead – Satan’s first sin was pride – it led him all the way to the cross of Christ putting our God on a tree of torture and death. That could not have been the first thought Satan had, when he turned from serving others and began to serve himself. But it is where those thoughts eventually led him to commit a murder of God Himself.

The biggest problem with poo, is that we are never really done producing it. The problem with sin, is that once we embark on it, no matter how seemingly small, it leads us down the scale of escalation until murder itself seems reasonable, and suicide as our only hope to end the pain. When tortured enough, every human will begin to crave death over pain. Most rational people never believe they would ask someone else to kill them, let alone beg for death. But those people have not endured torture without mercy, or without end. When hope leaves, the goal of death itself becomes plausible. And how funny is that? Where is the humor in our desire to cease to exist? The only one laughing is Satan himself, who alone finds joy in our demise.

This is the truth he wishes to cover up. He does not want you to know, that ALL sin results in death. He does not want you to see, that ALL sin is addictive and destructive and is only a mile marker on the way to the grave. He does not want you to believe that death is a RESULT but rather only a punishment by an angry God. So he lies about everything. He makes what seems disgusting look funny. He covers up the effects of our evil, and tries to mask the pain we cause, so we will feel freer to spread even more of it. The nature of evil is pain and death – having deviated away from God it had nowhere else to go but that.

This is why our hope is based on a Savior God who does the work of saving us from the monsters we have become. This is why allowing Christ to change our nature is so important. It is not just our deeds that need alteration – it is our thinking, our motives, and our desires that must be reformed. We must become new creations, of a creator God. We must die to what we are, and be reborn to what He intends. In order for this to happen, we must let go the illusions of superiority, and self-control. We must abandon the idea that we are capable of helping. We must learn to be still, and KNOW that He is our God, and our Savior. That His will alone can live in us, and that our will must die, if we are truly to be saved from slavery of evil. Our hope and our salvation rest in our Savior Jesus Christ. This is why only our religion and our God offer a plausible way of escaping pain and death. It is not a threat, but a singular ray of hope, that anyone is free to grasp and realize.