Last week some lurid details came to light about a certain right-leaning journalist, Glenn Greenwald. Videos were leaked (although he reshared them initially himself) of him participating in the sort of kink that gay men are fond of participating in. There were fishnets, there was degradation, there was all the creep that is common in that degenerate world. But as the video came to light, Glenn sought to soothe the conservative conscience by telling us that the acts in the video were between consenting adults and the real scandal is that these videos came out because he spoke out against Israel. But conservative influencers, from Candace Owen to Charlie Kirk, came to his defense. “He’s done incredible work, and though I don’t agree with what he did in private, it shouldn’t be leaked.” Some even continued the trope…this was blackmail from the joooos!
As an aside from the main point I’d like to make, imagine filming consensual kink, and then when it gets leaked to social media complaining that you’re being blackmailed. Either it is blackmail or it was consensual and nothing to be ashamed of. Which is it?
But this brings us to see that we live in a moment where our attempt to keep “the political” safely away from “the spiritual” is reaching its inevitable impossibility. You can’t carry around radioactive waste in your backpack and then wonder why everyone around you starts growing tumors, and the babies start having extra limbs. Sin cannot be siloed off. Sin really does seep into everything.
I’d been planning to comment on this, and then, as if to help me underscore my point, NT Wright records this interview where he comes out in support of the sad necessity to kill unborn babies in certain cases. Wright thinks that everyone should feel a bit ashamed at having to abort a baby conceived from rape, but it is for the best. See for yourself how he argues his position.
This after a barrage of other scandals in conservative evangelicalism involving sexual failure (Lawson, Brown), ethical failure (Webbon, Buice, Chappell). What all this should cause us to remember is that one sin doesn’t sit politely in its naughty little corner, minding its own business. Sin, ungodliness, and error affect the whole man.
Thus, whether it be a journalist who at times has been a co-belligerent for conservatives causes, or whether it be a well-respected theologian, you can’t treat significant degeneracy (in the case of Greenwald) or serious moral blindness (in the case of Wright) as if it was a matter of indifference. Should we plant tulips or peonies in the flower bed? No, this really is more like asking should we have raw sewage run down Main St. or should we rather invest in a sewage treatment plant? So-called private sin has a pernicious quality of becoming public. What’s done in the dark will be brought to the light. That’s Bible truth. But in addition to this it should also be remembered that, in this sickly age of unyielding commitment to tolerance, degenerate sin in private weighs the individual down with a load of guilt, shame, and fear of the coming wrath of God.
This is why Solomon often cautions his sons and students in this way:
A violent man enticeth his neighbour, and leadeth him into the way that is not good.
Proverbs 16:29 KJV
Evildoers feel guilt for their sins and crimes. But there is a funny quirk found in the sinful mind. It believes that if it can convince and entice others to go along with their error, the guilt will be diffused. This is why criminals run in gangs. This is also why criminals hang out in the halls of Congress. We justify ourselves in our own sin if we can convince others to either join us in our sin or gloss over our sin. But neither “everyone does it” or “everyone was cool with it” is not a blockade which will stop the righteous judgement of God. As the Psalmist says, “The LORD is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands (Psa 9:16).”
All of this to say, those who call upon the name of the Lord ought to not treat their own sin lightly. Don’t tolerate it. It blinds you. It entices you to entice others to join you in your sin. It clouds your moral clarity. It causes you to live in fear, and this means you are easily manipulated and easily duped. Kill your sin.
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