Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Matthew 7:13-14

I find that I am often confused when I listen to or read modern day attitudes and notions, and maybe the reason for this is that they are… well, confusing.

During my secular education and training, there was the appearance of great academic freedom; all the teachers preached it, all the professors demanded it. Listening to the popular media, freedom of expression and freedom of thought are touted as the right paths. I was always taught that to be broad-minded was good, and that to be narrow-minded was bad; free-thinkers were to be lauded, if not always copied…

Yet I was a curious child and an observant youth; as a child I suspected they really didn’t mean it, and as a youth I came to recognize that it was all a complete and total lie. As an adult, I shrug my shoulders; there is nothing more hilarious than a politician talking about free and open discussion while following the “party line”.

You see, as a child, I quickly came to see that freedom of expression didn’t apply to my views, only those of the teacher. As a youth I came to see that “academic freedom” meant that we must all conform to one view, and now?

My wife’s views on controversial social issues were contained in a policy directive from her employer. Even in church I have been criticized for saying things that aren’t “politically correct”! “Tone it down Don or you’ll offend someone.”

Seriously?

Can you think of anything that is more politically incorrect that openly being a Christian and a follower of Jesus Christ?

Maybe you can, but I can’t.

Yet how many times have I been told that being a Christian is “narrow-minded”?

I never really kept a tally, but I sure would like to have a dollar for each one…

That broad road that Jesus mentioned in verse 13…?

It’s a lie.

The narrow gate? That, dear reader, is the only way to the Father.