Today’s media witch-hunt for any public figure who made inappropriate sexual comments or advances in the past ignores the culture they helped to create, pretending that the most rampant perpetrators of moral depravity (Hollywood, media persons, etc.) have all played by the rules, except for a growing number of deplorable figures who’s past mistakes make them disposable.

Were any person recorded in every comment or insinuation he made over the course of his adolescent & adult life, then every one of us would blush, shy-away, and be ashamed of something we said or did.

The open-secret about men is that we all are fallen. (This applies to women too.) We all disobey the Creator in our daily lives. And even though the world does not want to accept this fact, it is the crux of humanity’s problem, even extending to the unwritten 2017 definition of sexual harassment.

This does not excuse past behavior. But it should help explain it to a vastly hypocritical media-obsessed-culture demanding old-world-standards on the one hand, while boasting and flaunting their flaky & ever-changing rules of morality on the other. Look no further than the movies they make, to the books they herald and to the way they party when shown by tabloid TV and newsstand gossip publications.

When a male politician-actor-musician-celebrity says, “I apologize for my behavior. It does not represent who I am,” he is wrong, lying to himself. It DOES represent who he is, just as it represents who I am! That is the open secret – we are ALL conflicted. We ALL struggle with internal battles of right/wrong, good/evil, acceptable societal behavior versus the thinking of ‘what can I get away with?’

Just as it is improper to judge a historical figure by current cultural & societal standards, it is unfair to bring up a past incident or comment of someone who allegedly “sexually harassed” someone and force the accused to resign based on allegations alone.

Let me be clear, I am talking here about words said and mild suggestive behavior, not rape! Those who raped are guilty of a legal & moral felony and should be punished for this egregious violation to the full extent of the law.

We all want to live what is today considered to be an upstanding, respectable, playing-by-the-rules life. However, this is a partial facade for so many, even many who attend religious services each week. It is not overtly hypocritical, though. It stems from a genuine desire to do right. But just as a pure thought hits a person’s conscience, so does the other fallen one, the one that pulls to the depth of human depravity, the one calling out to be carnal and primal, to take, to use and go forth, with no care. This is fallen mankind. This is the Truth the world does not want to acknowledge. But it is our reality.

Many learn to quiet this fleshly voice. But most struggle with it for a lifetime.

The most famous theologian to ever live, the eminent Apostle Paul, who was once fiercely anti-Christian as a Jewish leader until he saw the light and converted, wrote about his struggle (though not necessarily sexual struggles), saying that at times he wanted to do one thing but he did not or could not.  Conversely, he expresses that the behavior which he did not want to do, he did! ¹

Think how Paul would be judged in light of modern society if all his past words and behaviors were actually known when he wrote those words. Ironically, it is partially because of what he wrote that our post-Judeo-Christian society understands forgiveness as it does. But not a faux forgiveness springing from disgrace, rather a forgiveness by a heart-change given to those who call on the Name of the Lord.

Though I do not understand it thoroughly, a man’s sex drive is somehow related to his desire to walk with the Creator, the Lord Almighty, in the “cool of the day,” just as Adam did in the Garden of Eden.

And despite what today’s hollow standards are, the reality of man’s emptiness can only be satisfied with the acceptance of Jesus Christ. He is the second-member of the Triune God, our Creator, as described throughout the Jewish and Christian holy book. He is the way to peace with the Lord.

But becoming a Christian does not quiet those impulsive, carnal desires. Controlling it is a learned behavior that is tempered when the Lord teaches an individual how he should treat others. But it never fully goes away and can flair up at any time. (See above where Paul’s writing is referenced.)

My over-arching point is NOT to excuse modern celebrities/politicians/athletes/etc, for what they may have said or suggested in the past. Rather it is that we all behave in different ways, in different circumstances, in different times. We are all striving to do what we know to be correct, to live by the standards our Creator instilled in our core. But until our individual death OR His return, this conflicting behavior will continue. It will go on no matter how mainstream society pretends to have ‘higher standards’ today.

Our hope is Him and in voluntarily being in friendship with other like-minded people who hold us accountable for our actions.

Merry Christmas — a day truly unlike any other day celebrated on the calendar.

Maranatha,

jrw

.
.

FOOTNOTES

1. Romans 7:14-25

.
.
.