Some recent threads have made me think that perhaps we are not all on the same page as far as what constitutes worldliness. Hence this little poll. Choose the iconic American location which in your view best illustrates the essence of worldliness.

__________________
Ruben
Moderator
F.P.C.I.
Indiana

Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness. -George Orwell

Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

Calvinistas Conversando - Reformed Discussion Board in Spanish.

Spanish Blog -Teologia en Mexico
English Blog -The Howling Wilderness

I choose the Whole Continent because it seems as sort of the All of the above answer.

Las Vegas, Wall Street, and Washington DC bring to mind Greed, and Money is the root of all kinds of Evil.

Las Vegas, and Hollywood bring to mind Sensuality and the rampant adultary of our fallen man.

They all bring to mind Romans 1 and the created that man chooses to worship rather the Creator.

Golden Corral brings to mind the absolute worst food I've tasted right behind Furs

__________________
Bryan Riddle
1689 London Baptist Confession
Bethel Baptist Church Owasso, Oklahoma

I chose other.

Pre-Katrina New Orleans (French Quarter specifically) always struck me as the epitome of worldliness.

All manners of sinfulness available 24 / 7. And most, it seemed, with the blessings of the RCC.

__________________
Steve Butts - Former SBC-er
Three Forms of Unity - Bradenton CRC - Bradenton, Florida
(A conservative member in a conservative congregation)

"Turning away to false Theology is equal to turning away to false gods" — Francis Schaeffer (Death in the City)

Assuming I had been tough and hadn't placed an "other" category in there, would you have chosen Las Vegas?

Yes.

Except...I've never been to Vegas. I have been to NO many times. Mostly before I was converted.

I voted for the 1st 2.

__________________
~Jay~
Husband of ENS, father of J II. | Indian Trail, NC
Substitute Teacher
Communicant Member, Precentor | Presbyterian Reformed Church of Charlotte, NC | Presbyterian Reformed Church

I choose Wall Street, but I really think of all of New York City. Wall Street only represents one aspect of worldiness. New York City has it all, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life all wrapped up in one place.

__________________
J Baldwin
Keowee Presbyterian Church, PCA
Pickens, SC
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27

Check Out My Blog: http://reflectjoy.blogspot.com/

Pre-Katrina New Orleans:

a...Largest, and most decadent, Mardi Gras celebration in the country.
b...People, partying in the streets year round, celebrating debauchery.
c...Public (street) nudity accepted and sometimes encouraged.
d...Public drunkenness acceptable and drugs everywhere.
e...High level of prostitution.
f...High level of violent crime.
g...High level of false religion - Voodoo and the RCC 'owned' the area.
h...Broken infrastructure. Poor public hygiene.
i....Many, many homeless.
j...Aggressive street cons everywhere.
k...Very corrupt police and politicians.

Every time I go there I remember just how bad this world can be.

The only redeeming qualities in the area were the food (especially crawfish) and the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

I voted for Golden Corral, and Other. Golden Corral is where most of us are encouraged from the time we are little that there should be no restraint on our appetites for anything not inherently wicked (this also promotes a labeling of things that should be done in moderation as inherently wicked, and a worldly way of judging evil and of enjoying good).

I voted other because I think the worst examples of worldliness are those that have crept into the church, when we use God Himself for our earthly ends -- whether as J Baldwin cited, those are the lust of the eyes, the flesh, or the pride of life.

__________________
Heidi
Indianapolis, Indiana

After two days, he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.
Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.

What is Golden Corral?

__________________
Andrew DeShazo, Deacon, Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, Memphis, TN
"All of us stumble in many ways, but if anyone is never at fault in what he says, then he is mature, able to control his whole body."(James 3:2)

It's a toss up between Vegas and Hollywood, but I voted Vegas.

"Sin City" indeed!

__________________
Sterling Harmon
Coventry, CT
PCA
Deacon
________________

"Whatever is laudable in our works proceeds from the grace of God."
-- John Calvin, Institutes III:xv.3.

"Our Lord God must be a good man, to be fond of worthless fellows. I cannot like them, and yet I, myself, am one."
-- Martin Luther, Table Talk

got to be Las Vegas. Las Vegas is where pure hedonism reigns. The other places such as Wall Street, Hollywood etc is where ego and greed reigns.

__________________
~Keon Garraway~ Brooklyn, NY Member of Franklin Square OPC

Love for God demonstrated by the love for our children in giving them a God centered education is the only hope for our country. by David Morrow
Pslam 71:20 [Thou], which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.

Only the second most disgusting buffet I ever forced to eat at as a child.

Shoney's Breakfast Buffet is delicious. Am I in sin?

It's even worse as an adult.

I always think of worldliness as that aspect of the world that is wise in its own eyes. So I would add the US University System.

__________________


http://www.villagecommunitychurch.org/

I've visited Las Vegas, Hollywood, Wall Street and most of the 50 United States, parts of Canada and Mexico and the Caribbean, and...dined at...Golden Corral. And I work five days a week in Washington, DC.

Hard to choose. I've long felt that the 911 tragedy was a judgment upon America and the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon (I was near the latter at the time) seem to represent two of America's primary idols (the love of $$ and confidence in ourselves, and our military strength). Las Vegas and Hollywood also symbolize some of the idolatry to which Americans are given over to.

And I certainly see Katrina-New Orleans in the same light.

America is diverse enough to have many gods, having constitutionally rejected the First and Second Commandments, and the Establishment Principle, enshrining pluralism instead.

As a nation, we have said, we will not have Christ to reign over us, and all the various idols that some locales seem to represent are merely, imo, manifestations of the same sin, rebellion against God, that we turned into a national virtue at Philadelphia in 1787.

__________________
Andrew Myers
Husband of Jessica, Father of Jackson, Katie and Samuel
Member, Presbyterian Reformed Church of Northern Virginia
Warrenton, VA USA
Editor, The Matthew Poole Project

"Let your Morning Thoughts, and your last Evening Thoughts, be what shall become of you to all Eternity." -- Matthew Poole

My home; all the treasures I have stored up on earth (materialism). This is not intended as the self-flagellation that many in our society revel in, simply it is reflection on past decisions made poorly and sincere disappointment and repentance of non Christlike behavior. I may not display the level of worldliness that many of the places on the list demonstrate, but I can never lose sight of the fact that it is there!

__________________
How often have you wondered why Christ should set His heart upon such a one as you! --Octavius Winslow

Lon Wadkins (Jesup, Iowa)
New Covenant Fellowship, OPC
Independence, Iowa

Ohh the sin I was led into by my own pride and self proclaimed wisdom. I consider my dropping out of college to be an action of God's Providence that kept me from the hell I was pridefully heading too.

No, but your soul is in grave danger!

__________________
R. Anthony Coletti
Midway Presbyterian Church (PCA)
Jonesborough, TN
[i]et venite et arguite me dicit Dominus[/i]

This is spot on. I've been to Mardi Gras on numerous occassions as a missionary. The stuff you can see on Bourbon Street at 11 p.m. on Fat Tuesday is the worst of the worst. Public displays of homosexual acts performed in the street. Children paraded through debauchery. Mothers with children and husbands in tow baring their breasts for the crowd. Intense levels of blasphemy, pharmakia, idolatry, etc.

If Mardi Gras had been on the list, I might have chosen it. However, the people who were engrossed in all the degrading acts at Mardi Gras were people from all over the country who showed up there to do things they would never do in their own hometowns. Therefore, I guess my vote for the whole continent is still valid. Mardi Gras is the whole continent in an unrestrained microcosm.

But I do love the crawfish (and the wonderful coffee and beignet at Cafe du Monde).

I voted Las Vegas. I've never been but have a friend whose parents live there and the stories he's told me were just shocking. Between the advertisements for brothels and hookers everywhere and the temples to greed and entertainment all over the place, I think they've got greed and pleasure locked up like nobody's business.

Is it wrong to have enjoyed Golden Corral? I haven't been in at least 10 years but went in college for cheap, large meals. (I did find Furrs a sin against God and man though, especially the one in OKC. ) And Shoney's rocks.

BTW, I am 6'1" and about 250 lbs. - see any connection?

__________________
Kevin
Far East
Deacon, Int'l Church

I chose Follywood.

__________________
Mike Mariotti
Husband and Father
Kaleo Fellowship
San Diego, Ca

www.kaleochurch.com