Tuesday, December
12, 2017
It has become agonizingly clearer in recent months just how deeply our
culture is stained with Sodom and Gomorrah’s legacy. Public figures are dropping like raindrops in
a monsoon. Just the tip of the iceberg is a list
of the most well-known:
Politics: Al
Franken, Anita Hill (Clarence Thomas), Anthony Weiner, Roy Moore, and not to be
forgotten, Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump.
Hollywood: Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, Dustin
Hoffman, Bill O’Reilly, Matt Lauer
Education: USC Medical School dean, Rohit Varma
Sports: Mike Tyson, Jerry Sandusky (Penn State assistant coach who was convicted
of molesting 10 boys over 15 years and is now in prison for 30-60 years)
Religion: Jimmy
Swaggert, Jim Bakker, Catholic Church priests, Ted Haggard
In most all of these cases, payoffs for the silence of the victims have
been common. This, unfortunately, turns
a crime into de facto prostitution.
It is without doubt impossible (in the space of a four-minute devotion) to
trace the evolution of a society along the dark path of the powerful exploiting
less-powerful individuals; how we
got here is a long discussion.
And where do we go from here
might be an even longer discussion.
But there is something we can say about this point in time to at least
start the discussion; this is a path to which every generation has opened the
door.
There are many Biblical passages that bear out the proclivity of the
stronger abusing the weaker. One
particularly revealing incident is in 2 Samuel 13 which records the scheming of
Jonadab and Absalom, two of King David’s relatives, so that Absalom could satisfy
his lust and rape his relative Tamar. May
we not forget that David himself, with his lustful desire towards another man’s
wife (Bathsheba) set a clear example for Absalom that he could have whatever he
wanted.
From King David’s palace to Hugh Hefner’s Playboy mansion, God’s purely
wonderful gift of sex has been abused, perverted and exploited. It has also brought down empires and their
rulers.
In my opinion, the (so-called) sexual revolution of the 1960’s was not a
revolution at all; it was merely the revelation, or coming-out of what has been
mankind’s illness since the Garden of Eden.
The book of James describes it well:
Temptation
comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives
birth to death.
James 1:14-15(NLT)
The current flurry of powerful men (in particular) being brought down by
accusations of sexual harassment is the endemic and epidemic harvest we are
reaping from generations of sexuality being misunderstood and abused.
And
who’s to blame?
Men bear responsibility for objectifying women as sexual property, and
women bear responsibility for pandering to the lust of men in order to get what
they want. That, in no way, represents God’s
original intent for the beauty of the mutual giving sexuality affords within
the context of monogamous marriage.
When we go outside of God’s plan the results are always disastrous.
For You
Today
God
never gave lust as a gift; that grows as a result of sin.
No comments:
Post a Comment