Welcome

Welcome

Sunday, January 27, 2013

We All Fall Short

Yesterday was a surprising day.  Actually, surprising doesn’t cover the half of it.  I read in the paper that the man that was the worship leader at our Saturday night church services was arrested for sex crimes against a child using text or internet picture swapping.  The newspapers will make a great deal out of this I am sure.  Perhaps this is because bad behavior by believers tends to shock and negate a Christian witness so effectively. 

I’ve been thinking all day how to approach this in writing, and I guess the first thing that needs to be said is that a rush to judgment is not in order here.  In this country we are innocent until proven guilty.  For all we know the girl could have made it all up…or he could be completely guilty.  Only time will tell as the process unfolds.  But I would like to talk about the larger issue of sex in our society.

A man was made to respond to the look of a naked woman.  We like it, and it is probably a good thing or civilization would have died out a long time ago.  Bridling that desire is often difficult in modern society, since we try to motivate the sale of almost everything from soup to automobiles with men and women pictured in advertisements emphasizing and even showing as much of their bodies as we can allow. To a similar extent we dress our women in the same manner in day-to-day life.  Then the ever prevalent internet and the media take it one step further and show even those things that aren’t allowed anywhere else.  We prime the pump so vigorously in our culture that I’m not surprised when someone steps over the line into a forbidden area.  What scares me even more is that as a society, I suspect we are moving toward the eventual acceptance of even those forbidden areas as we release our adherence to traditional morality.  We have told ourselves there is no consequence for these behaviors.  In the last 40 years we have certified that sex outside of or without marriage is perfectly acceptable, that abortion is good, that the gay lifestyle is good, even euthanasia is accepted in some states, so what is to stop the Man Boy Love Society from succeeding in its quest for legalization as well?  What is to stop any other changes or perversions being added to our list of socially OK’d behaviors?

WE are.  We are all that is left to stop further erosion of our moral convictions.  If we don’t, I believe the other alternative is a historical one…the collapse of the society and the country.  These things are not a new phenomenon in world history.  The Greek and Roman empires are but two perfect examples, and for a really “hot one” let’s remember Sodom and Gomorrah.

Sex is a wonderful gift from God--one that is given to be enjoyed in the right manner.  It brings joy, release, and feeling of being valued and loved.  It helps create a connection more mysterious and deep than we can imagine, and it was designed to do all this as part of marriage.  When carried out in any other manner, it tends to be a cheap imitation at best…and seriously destructive at worst.

It’s not going to be easy to keep this from getting worse.  Even in our churches studies we show that many of our women and 65% or more of our men are struggling with pornography and other related sex issues.  Church divorce rates aren’t much different than society as a whole, and infidelity is about as common a cause within the church as outside it. I am convinced that this is something that only God can heal, and as we turn to God for healing and act as the hands and feet of God on this planet, we can change this trend of apathetic acceptance and moral decay.  I truly hope I am overstating my concerns, and that this trend won’t continue…but one just has to look at Denmark (or Las Vegas) to know that anything is possible.

I genuinely feel saddened when someone falls prey to committing child sex crimes.  I really do.  I pray that they can get the help that they need to turn from that.  Whether he is guilty or not, this man’s whole life is going to change as a result of this event, regardless of the outcome., as will the lives of the young women involved and their families. The Bible is clear that the wages of sin is death—this means actual death, certainly, but also metaphorical death in the sense that sin destroys lives.  Whether the sin in question is this man’s poor choice, or a young girl’s misrepresentation, or society’s rejection of Truth, the only hope is claiming God’s promise that all things (yes, even something as horrible as a sex crime) can work together for His good if those called to His purpose will only stand firm.


No comments:

Post a Comment