In seasons of pestilence, some of us will have a secret attraction to the disease—a terrible passing inclination to die of it. And all of us have like wonders hidden in our breasts, only needing circumstances to evoke them.

~Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)

Dickens has put his finger on a condition that is common among we humans. It’s the strange curiosity, as we motor down the road, about accidents and disasters that we pass on the way. It is an odd magnetism to the perverse and abnormal — an inclination that surprises us when it happens. 

Perhaps that is what calls society away from the gospel message and toward the expression of the disease that has crushed so many other cultures. Our freedom permits so much attractive license. We are fascinated by American Greed and toddlers in tiaras. A million voyeurs are curious about how the rich have fun or how the Kardasians express their liberated lifestyles. 

In a season of pestilence, how close can we move toward the disease without catching it? Or is it already too late?