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WINNING WITH THE WORD “Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God’s principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God’s manual for life. An invitation for you: To subscribe to this blog, click here.  To subscribe to this podcast, click here. If this blog and podcast have blessed you, please encourage your family and friends to subscribe as well. Thank you! Be sure to check out our Featured Book of the Week at the end of this post. ______________________________________   Do you prefer listening instead of reading? Then click below to listen to today’s blog post on podcast. https://media.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/content.blubrry.com/winning_with_the_word/The_Subtle_Lure_of_Cultural_Pressure.mp3 ___________________________________________________________________________ Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, May 16, 2022, and this is Episode #20 of Series 2022. This episode is titled "The Subtle Lure of Cultural Pressure". ___________________________________________ We've all heard of peer pressure. Our parents warned us against it. If we heeded our parents' warnings, we avoided a lot of suffering. If we did not heed our parents' warnings, we paid dire consequences, many of which may still be operative in our lives today.  Well, peer pressure isn't just something young people need to guard against. Peer pressure is a tactic that Satan uses throughout our lives. And, if we are not aware of it, we will end up in some serious trouble. Peer pressure has a lot of different names. One of the most common today is "political correctness."  To be politically correct is to go along with a culture's political and social agenda. Just look around. So many people--even so-called Christians--have caved in to the anti-Biblical, political and social agenda that is being blatantly and brazenly proclaimed throughout our country and throughout the world. We are witnessing active and arrogant rebellion against God and His Word. Opposition to God's commandments has run wild, with the result that lawlessness prevails and deception runs rampant.  The Bible calls peer pressure and political correctness "the fear of man." Take a look at Proverbs 29: 25: "The fear of man brings a snare, But whoever trusts in the LORD shall be safe."  A snare is a trap. So, the Bible is saying that when we fear man --in other words, when we worry about what people think--we fall into a trap. What kind of trap? A trap that leads to death and destruction. Isn't that what we're seeing around us?  Death in the form of abortion, infanticide, increase in homicides and suicides? And destruction in the form of drug addiction, alcoholism, domestic abuse, and child abuse? Are we not seeing looting, shoplifting, vandalism, attacks against our law enforcement officers? Indeed, we are. Our country has gone crazy because we have allowed ourselves to be taken captive by social and cultural pressure. We have caved in as a nation to putting more stock in what others think than in what God thinks. Are you giving in to the peer pressure of societal lies? Are you sliding down the slippery slope that leads to death and destruction? Are you opposing God and exalting yourself? Yes, that's what peer pressure ultimately does. It exalts the Self over God. And, bottom line, that's what's wrong with our culture today. We have become a society of mini-gods, each one doing his own thing, each one deciding for himself what's true and not true. Each one establishing his own rule of moral conduct. Relativism is the name of the game these days. My truth is my truth, and your truth is your truth.  Well, how far has that gotten us? It has led only to mass confusion, societal and family division, and a people who can no longer think straight.