Scandals

In my many years on this planet, I have never experienced the media storms coming one after the other, of sex scandals. You can’t have missed them because they are everywhere. The Roman Catholic priests seem to top the list of serial offenders, followed by the nuns. Yes, even the nuns. You might think that a woman who is softer in emotion would be more protective, but it seems that many were in cahoots with some priests. I hasten to add that not all priests and nuns are a threat to children, but we are talking about life in the 1960s through to the 1990s when matters like these were not seen as severe or as serious as they are today. National leaders and Presidents have not avoided this scandal either.

I find the dilemma of life some 50 years ago, compared to now quite remarkable in this important sense. Society recoils in revulsion when we are faced with the abuses of adults and children many years ago, but we are hypocrites. Why do you think that, I hear you ask.

I suggest we have become immune to these wrongs, which is why we react against them when we see the news reports and read the latest newspapers. Hold that thought and feeling, and let your mind swing round to the sex content which is considered as ‘normal’ on TV, together with the quantity of movies which draw box office crowds because of the gratuitous violence and sex scenes portrayed in them. Added to that we have the rising threat of same sex relationships.

So, I see a dichotomy unfolding. On the one hand we are horrified by the reports of sex abuses some 50 years ago, and on the other hand society flocks to see the very movies which show these same scenes as drama. Our consciences are being seared to accept the movie industry, while our courts are rounding up the sex offenders, and rightly so. What a confusing and hypocritical message we are leaving our children and grandchildren? It is no mistake that we are left with this important warning which should be known and understood by church leaders. Especially church leaders!

It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honourable. 1 Thessalonians 4:3,4 NIV