The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.” Proverbs 27:12

The incredibly tragic events of New Year’s Eve which took place in a Swiss ski resort should evoke grief in all of us and engender much prayer for the victims. It may take several weeks or even months before a full assessment of the disaster is made, but disturbing glimpses of what transpired at the event are already in the public domain.

It seems to me to be a metaphor for the times in which we live, and perhaps also, a warning to the culture at large. Newly released videos show that as the fire was starting in the nightclub, the young people continued to dance to the throbbing beat of music while filming the flames[i]. Instead of taking heed of the danger and fleeing for their lives, they took out their phones and continued dancing and streaming the unfolding event to social media sites.

In a culture in which the most important thing is to be seen and to display one’s life experiences across X and Instagram in a fantasy construct, the construct overtakes reality. They seemed so obsessed with recording and streaming what was happening, they failed to appreciate the danger that they were in until it was too late, and 40 people perished in the fire.

Captivity to cultural currents is an ever-present danger – in this case it resulted in death. There are other examples to which this metaphor may point. One is the insane captivity to gender ideology which has no basis in science or biology, yet health professionals seemingly gripped by a thirst for who knows what, embark on a crusade of ‘transgender affirmation’, surgically mutilating young boys and girls, and twisting what God created and called ‘very good’ into some imaginary new creation.

This is symptomatic of an almost irrational desire for control over one’s life, seen also in the current push for assisted suicide. Some people even record their own deaths by this method[ii]

In the political realm, we have governments who, seeing civil society fractured and angry, attempt to assert control, without admitting and addressing the root causes of the civil unrest. Captive to their own ideology, they double down on unproductive and self-defeating strategies, blaming everyone but themselves. We see this playing out in places like Iran, which we might have expected, but it is also true closer to home.

We are reminded by the pre-literary prophets that the state can also be subject to ideological capture. This is illustrated in the contest between Elijah and the state sponsored prophets of Baal, where the prophets of Baal were forced to resort to a frenzy of irrational and destructive behaviour – resulting in self -mutilation and material loss[iii].

Paul urges his congregation in Galatia not to return to the principles and concepts that belonged to their former lives, and which had enslaved them. Behind these ideologies were spiritual realities, malevolent in intent[iv].  It was, however, possible to be set free –

“For freedom Christ has set us free, stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1

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[i] https://twitter.com/i/status/2007178362314461546,  https://twitter.com/i/status/2007180563682340945 , https://rumble.com/v73so7q–watch-swiss-ski-resort-catches-fire-40-die-while-trying-to-film-in-for-ins.html

[ii] https://www.unilad.com/news/health/first-person-suicide-pod-explaining-why-748281-20240927

[iii] 1 Kings 18:20-29.

[iv] Galatians 4:3,8-10.