This is an exegesis of Acts 26, Paul’s hearing before Governor Festus and King Agrippa II that I wrote for a class. If you’re preaching, teaching or researching about what happened here (or just happened to be interested in what was going on in that chapter), read on…

Passage

Read Acts 26:1-32 on BibleGateway for free here…

Historical Context

King Agrippa II’s father, Agrippa I, was a native to Judea, born there in 10 BC while Herod was king. Yet for most of his life and education, he was raised in Rome, and very well connected, having among his contemporaries Tiberius, Caligula and Claudius, all future emperors, (Schwartz, 90).

Agrippa I was antagonistic toward the early church, executing James and imprisoning Peter, and Luke records his death as a judgment from God. It was his son, Agrippa II, whom Paul addresses in this passage. No doubt due in part to his heritage, Agrippa was indeed an expert on Jewish affairs. Growing up in the home of Agrippa I, seeing and hearing about his father’s interactions with the local Jewish culture, Agrippa II would have been highly familiar with Jewish beliefs, culture and politics. Even Rome acknowledged this when they appointed him as a “Curator” of the Jewish temple, giving him authority to appoint high priests and even manage the temple funds (Mathew, II), in addition to the scattered “kingdom” of cities which he would be granted rule over by Emperor Claudius (Niswonger, 244). His knowledge of Jewish custom, however, ought not to be mistaken for piety; the presence of Bernice, his Queen, is testimony enough that Agrippa had already begun his incestuous relationship with her (Bernice was his sister) after the death of her husband, her Uncle Herod of Chalcis. › Continue reading

So by now it’s obvious that postings here are few and far between. What can I say, I’m a busy guy

More “up-to-the-minute” stuff can usually be found on our youth ministry website www.livethechange.ca which gets way more of my time.

Anyways, today I added a new category for “academic stuff” - not going to lie…. I’ve been unsettled about adding that category for a while (mostly because I didn’t think anyone wanted to read anything academic), but I figured since my primary reason for NOT posting to my own website is that I’m too busy with academic pursuits, maybe I could kill two birds with one stone.

So it’s up.

I’ve had 3 conversations in the last 2 hours that have cemented something that I’ve long suspected: talking about “rethinking youth ministry” is not enough. No where near enough. The smug academic analysis of postmodern trends hasn’t produced better youth ministries (ironically, it has produced more relevant youth ministries, but if we measure success by disciples made…) and the alarmist outcries to parents of teens hasn’t resulted in them being any more involved in the lives of their teens than before (ironically, it has produced more informed parents, but informed doesn’t equal involved…)

And it just so happens that all of this is brewing in my head when I’ve already been asking the question, “What do we do when youth ministry is a huge embarassing failure?”

While this post is naturally geared to youth workers, I think its something that we all ought to consider.

Let me preface by saying this: I love youth ministry. I love the students I work with, and the people that I do ministry with. I’ve even got great encouraging stories about amazing and good things that have happened and are happening even right now.

But more than that, I have story after story of heartbreaking, wheels-falling-off-the-wagon, “another one bites the dust” failure. And then I have these 3 conversations that all basically say the same thing…

Teenagers are still getting the message from their pastors and churches that the most important thing is how they perform.

And what I’m trying to figure out is how on earth that’s still possible if we’ve been talking about “rethinking youth ministry” for the last decade.

What I’m even more upset about are the times that I know that I’ve fed into that mentality. It’s enough to make me nauseas. Clothed with genuine and good intentions, I’m pretty sure that I’ve made students think that their value is somehow attached to their “Christian performance” on more than one occasion - as unintentional as that has been.

The irony is that somehow, in the middle of reading books about “relational ministry” we forgot how to really care about people.

Don’t get me wrong - I understand how we got here. Churches are full of consumeristic Christians who whine a lot, contribute very little and somehow expect spiritual life to be done for them by someone else and then spoon-fed onto their delicate palates by a pastor, elder or guest speaker. In other words, their performance sucks.

I mean, if we’re going to be really honest about it, they’re pretty much the worst christians ever.

And so as leaders, we want to kick their butts. And we probably should kick their butts (in love… of course… right?!?) And in all honesty, some of us HAVE kicked some butts…

… but in our zeal to do some good butt kicking, we might have actually forgotten how to care. And we might have accidentally sent the message that performance (or “looking” like a good christian) was the only thing that mattered.

Holy crap, we’ve actually missed the point.

Jesus called people. Rough-around-the-edges people. I-kind-of-suck-at-performing people. And people are not projects. They aren’t products to perfect so that they can perform properly. They’re people. They are intrinsically valuable.

And good old backwards Jesus had a strange way of dealing with poorly performing people. He loved them. In fact, he created a safe environment of love and accountability where they could know that they were loved and accepted, unconditionally, despite their poor performance while at the same point challenging them to go further.

In the words of John Burke, Jesus created a “No Perfect People Allowed” culture where people were loved for who they were, and inspired to become more like Him.

So my question is this: “Why can’t we build youth ministries like that?”

Because let’s face it: the sad reality is that “youth ministry” isn’t doing so well on the whole. In fact, 2 out of the 3 conversations that got me writing this post had something to do with a failing youth ministry (and by failing, I mean teens are saying, “this place sucks, I’m out of here…” at mass proportions).

My friend Mark told me that we lose about 90% of our teens within 4 years of their graduating high school. I believe him, because I’ve seen those kinds of numbers before.

So if that’s what’s going on, then we’ve got to be honest: all of the books, all of the conferences, all of the fancy talk about “rethinking youth ministry” … while it’s been insightful and fun, it hasn’t necessarily produced and real change: we’re all still losing 90%, so it could definitely be argued that youth ministry (or maybe the blame circle is larger than youth ministry??? sorry… that’s another post) has been a huge embarassing failure…

I’m not proposing that there’s one simple answer to a really complex problem, but the more I look at it I wonder if one of the reasons we’re in this predicament is that we have valued and celebrated “christian performance” instead of the gospel story, which is that God really loves and accepts us, and in doing so, empowers us to become everything we can be.

Two years ago, I think I may have been a wiser man than I am now. A friend just starting out in his youth ministry asked me what he needed to do to make things work.

I just asked, “Do you love your kids?”

“Yeah,” he replied, kind of confused.

“Do they know that you love them?” I asked.

“I think so…”

“Make sure they do. You’ll do just fine.”

The world we live in does a pretty impressive job at attaching the self-worth of people to their ability to perform.

When we’re worried that perhaps our youth ministry would be considered a huge embarassing failure to those worldly value-accountants, I think it’s time we also cut ourselves a break, and get back to what’s important:

God values character more than performance. He passionately loves people, and doesn’t write them off when they make a bad decision. He’s genuinely interested in us as people, and not just what we can do for him.

What would happen if we did the same?

3 Questions that Will Reveal a LOT about where you stand in this:

1) When was the last time you had a conversation with a student that WASN’T motivated by a desire to mold their performance (correct their behaviour, sign them up for something, etc.)… are your students projects to complete or people to get close to?

2) What do your celebrations celebrate? Would looking at the things you applaud demonstrate that you value character over performance?

3) Are you modeling an approach to Christian living that is performance-driven? Or are you comfortable leading in a place of authenticity about your own brokenness, creating an environment where others can be honest and do the same?

Let me know what you think.

If you know me at all, then you know that my capacity to blog regularly is about equal with my capacity to hit the gym on a regular basis.

And since I’m trying to fix both areas, I thought I’d shift the role of my blog in my life. I’m not catholic, and I’ve never been, but the confessional has always been a thing of fascination for me.  The idea that you can go into a little room and bare your soul to another human being, without being judged (or, at least without feeling like you’re being judged) just seems like a too-good-to-be-true thing. Maybe that’s why there are so many catholics out there (of course, it could also be that no condom rule…)*

*sorry - does that cross the line? I can never tell if I’m being funny or rude…

So at least for now, I think I’ll use my blog as a confessional of sorts (and yes, there’s a sort of strange cultural irony to bearing your soul to an audience of billions over the internet… please withold the lectures on the sanctity of privacy)… what I mean is that I think I need a place to really process out loud some of the things that I think but don’t say.

Keep in mind that this isn’t an unrealistic commitment to blog everyday, because I’m lucky if I pull this off a few times a year (although I’m REALLY going to try to work on it this time… honest).

Anyways, just wanted to you to know where I’m coming from….

Since the #1 “hottest” google-video right now is “I kissed a Girl” by Katy Perry… I thought I kind of have some cultural responsibility to say SOMETHING.

If you haven’t already seen or heard this, I’m not endorsing it…. just providing a link so we’re all talking about the same thing.

So, what is there to say? I mean, the bright minds have already chimed in… in particular, I really appreciate Walt Mueller’s breakdown of what’s going on here:

Perry [justifies] the kiss by describing “us girls” in purely physical terms as “so magical, soft skin, red lips, so kissable, hard to resist so touchable, too good to deny it, ain’t no big deal, it’s innocent.”… Feelings are the guide for life. Girls are taught to assume the role of objectified boy toys.

http://learningmylines.blogspot.com/2008/06/girls-kissing-girls.html

And I think that’s what’s really bugging me here. I don’t have any interest in getting into some debate about “being gay”, or the acceptance of people’s “right to alternative lifestyle choices”… or whatever. (Is anyone else tired of that conversation?!? Maybe it’s just me…) - what’s really bothering me is the exploitation factor. And I know it when I see it.

Having hung out in the church for a long time, I get what it’s like to get so frustrated with hypocrisy and inconsistancies that I’m willing to do anything to break out of the box. “Christian’s don’t dance” causes me to dance with more passion. “Christian’s don’t go there” makes me go there more often. “Christian’s don’t drink” makes me bring wine to my table. “Christian’s don’t look like that” makes me shave my head, pierce my ears and get tattooed.

You get the idea.

When we see arbitrary boundaries… meaningless prisons that are imposed onto our lives, our natural desire is to destroy them, rebel, and run far away. And if, for hypothetical example, I were to see my “Christian” parents enforce some external holiness code, but miss the point of Jesus and live as judgemental, closed-minded biggots, it wouldn’t matter if they were right or wrong (if they were telling me not to lie or not to kill) - the boundaries they’ve created will be destroyed.

I’m driven to destroy them in my attempt to break free from an inauthenticity that is haunting my soul.

Katy Perry (real name Katheryn Hudson) grew up in a conservative pastor’s home… I can only think that if she saw half of what I’ve seen, then there would definately be some boxes that she would want to break. I’m not pointing the finger at her parents either… my point is that the longer you hang out in church, the more you’re going to see incongruence between the way people live and the way people talk.

They make you angry. And the boxes they’ve created make you angry. And so you need to break them.

So MAYBE, just maybe that’s what this is really about.

It feels good to say, “Screw the boundaries - I kissed a girl and I liked it…” - it becomes your therapy. But when you sing that song to millions of impressionable 14-year olds, and champion the idea that girls are nothing if they’re not sexualized, I’m sorry, but now you are a part of the problem.

Telling an entire generation of women that their value is in their sex appeal, telling them to publicly experiment with sexuality because “it’s hot” robs us of our humanity. It cheapens the God-given gift of sexuality by reducing it down to some animalistic experiment. It’s hollow. It’s cheap. It’s definately not about love.

People are more than their sex appeal. We’re more than our “parts” or our ability to “turn people on”. God created us to live in the reality of ultimate life - the security of a truly safe and intimate loving relationship with Him and with other people. A place where we matter and we’re loved… regardless of if we’ll “kiss a girl… and like it”. I guess some people (usually the people who feel the need to justify something) would say Katy is “liberated”… I’d say she’s stuck. I think she’s caving into some cultural sexual fantasy, and making it a part of her life for all the wrong reasons. And so to Katy, I’d say:

We get it. Yes, you can do whatever you want. But just because you can do a thing does not mean you should. It doesn’t mean it’s good for you. You’re more than a piece of meat. You’re more than shallow passion or cherry chapstick… and who cares who thinks it’s “hot” - don’t throw your soul away for other people’s fantasies.

Well, that’s my two-cents… Closing Thoughts?

• Listen to music critically. Evaluate evaluate evaluate! Not every message is as valid as you think.
• Musicians are people too. Don’t be too judgemental on them… listen to their stories and try to figure out what got off the rails (if it did). Be gracious.
• Just because you can put a catchy tune to something doesn’t make it true… read your bible and let it inform and evaluate your life and your thinking.

People are wise and understanding when they think about the way they live. But people are foolish when their foolish ways trick them. Foolish people laugh at making things right when they sin. But honest people try to do the right thing. Each heart knows its own sadness. And no one else can share its joy. The houses of sinners will be destroyed. But the tents of honest people will stand firm. There is a way that may seem right to a man. But in the end it leads to death. Even when you laugh, your heart can be hurting. And your joy can end in sadness…. A childish person believes anything. But a wise person thinks about how he lives. A wise person has respect for the Lord and avoids evil. But a foolish person gets mad and is thoughtless.
Proverbs 14:8-14,16 (NIrV)

Comments?

I was doing devotions this morning and Eugene Peterson said something that caught my attention:

“When we need wisdom, it isn’t that we need another book, but we need to read the book we already have…”

I thought that was worth mentioning….

So here’s a random thought that peaks my interest…

We’ve been talking quite a bit lately about consumer-spirituality (coming to church with the same mindset as coming to a shopping mall: “What can I get?” “Is it a good bargain?” “Can I get something better somewhere else?” “What’s the return policy?” “That is SOOOOO 2005….” etc.)

The “What’s-in-it-for-me?” brand of spirituality actually has a long-line of tradition in the scriptures, probably coming out the clearest in the episode of Moses, Aaron, the Israelite people, and the “Golden Calf”.

When the people realized that Moses was taking forever in coming down off the mountain, they rallied around Aaron and said, “Do something. Make gods for us who will lead us. That Moses, the man who got us out of Egypt—who knows what’s happened to him?” (Exodus 32:1 - The Message)

Essentially, the people at this point were saying “This just isn’t working for me… make me a god that suits my desire, because right now Yaweh just ain’t cutting it!”

It looks like Golden-Calf Spirituality has made a pretty good come-back in 2008. Eugene Peterson makes a great point:

“Mostly, people want to be their own god and stay in control.”
“People don’t want a ‘jealous God’… [they just want enough of] God to help them get through the tough things.”
(Living the Message)

So what does Golden-Calf, “What’s-in-it-for-me?”, Consumerism Spirituality look like right now?

It looks like me wanting things my way, refusing to give up control in order to follow and obey Christ in all fullness.

… and in that respect, we’ve all got some Golden-Calf in us.

Until we kill the golden calf, we’ll always be a slave to it. I think the reason that we put off killing the golden calf is probably because killing it involves our own dying as well - dying to the “me-first” message of our culture and our human instinct.

Of course, if we DON’T kill the golden-calf, it becomes the plague of our churches… we become a selfish people, and our gatherings become simply another place to seek entertainment. Most of us at some point or another have felt frustration at the lack of connection at church, or at youth-group, or whatever… when we stop to examine the cause (people looking for entertainment and just enough spirituality to feel good and avoid any life-altering complications), we realize that we’re all part of the problem on some level, and the only solution is to stop going to church, and start being the church. (And for those of you who were there when Gerry Michalski brought out a T-Shirt to that liking, you especially know what I’m saying).

How do we wrap it all up?

Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for? Don’t be in such a hurry to go into business for yourself”
(Matthew 16:24-27 - The Message)

I’m curious to hear your thoughts… how will you kill the golden calf?

Every now and then, words come out of your mouth that challenge you. And the thing is, since YOU said them, it’s not like you can pretend that you didn’t understand what you meant, or that what was said “doesn’t apply” to you… like I said, the words just came out of YOUR MOUTH… nobody elses.

When that happens, you are stuck.

Change or forever be branded a hypocrite in your own mind.

Ouch.

That’s what happened at The Uprising tonight… talking about a “Connection Revolution”, I told a story I’ve told a hundred times about the total revolution that the followers of Christ caused in Rome in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD (FYI, Rodney Stark does a stunning job painting the picture of this reality in Cities of God… get it from Amazon for cheap and enjoy - a great read!).

Essentially, Roman Christians did something no other group had been able to do: they gave Rome its humanity. They sat down slaves and nobles, together, at the table. They lived a genuine change - treating people as real children of God, regardless of their social status.

As I listened to myself, I became convinced of something on a fundamental level: we’ve lost something in the church. I’ve lost something.

I’ll be honest… our churches feel very program oriented (and I think that’s more of the reality of running a large organization than anything else), so if we’re going to effectively make the transition from GOING TO CHURCH to BEING THE CHURCH, we need to focus on just this - treating people as real children of God. Seeing them the way that God sees them. Believing in them the way He does.

In fact, when we read through key scripture passages on the Holy Spirit (i.e.: Romans 5-8), what we realize is that the real essence of Pentecost - living as people of The Spirit - is manifested in the way that we treat other human beings, (image-bearers of God).

So how does this wind-down?

1) Getting Glocal (watch the video at the bottom of this post if you have no idea what that means) is quite possibly one of the most authentic expressions of faith we have as a church.

2) No matter how big the program gets, or how structured the organization becomes, if we don’t take a step back and recognize the value of the peopel around us, as fellow image-bearers, we’ve missed the point, and the program and organization are just a big waste of time.

3) Jesus wasn’t kidding when he told us to love people. So just love them. Really, extravagantly love them, the way Jesus loves us.

Comment after the video…

First, let me just say thanks to all of you who have been praying for our family over the Easter Weekend…

If you weren’t aware, our little girl, Kyleigh (age 2) has a condition called Hydrocephalus… and she’s been treated through a programmable valve attached to a shunt that makes sure the pressure and fluid in the ventricals of her brain don’t get too excessive.

On Easter Sunday, while we were having lunch, her shunt failed, and we had to rush her to Sick Kids. She was coming in and out of consciousness, and at midnight they took her in for surgery and found out what we suspected: the shunt was completely blocked, and the pressure was REALLY high. They replaced the entire shunt (both the brain and abdominal catheters, plus the valve) and we’re hoping she doesn’t block again… but as of right now, the risk is fairly high.

The good news is that she pulled through the surgery like a champ, and was noticeably better within 12 hours… (they even let us go home yesterday) in fact, she’s doing so well right now it’s hard to believe that only 3 days ago she was unconscious and we were answering questions about her reactions to anaesthesia.

So God has answered our prayers once again and taken care of our little girl.

(Kyleigh yesterday, before we went home…)

I’ve also got to be honest and admit that I’ve been bothered by the whispers echoing through the hallways of our lives and social circles of “Well… wouldn’t an answer to prayer mean that she didn’t get a blocked shunt to begin with?” … after 6 brain surgeries, those whispers were bound to come.

… to which my answer would be, “Uh… I guess so??” Because in all honesty, every time that this happens (rushing Kyleigh to the hospital for what we know will end in surgery), my heart sinks just a little lower, and my hope dissolves just a little bit more.

On the other hand, I just can’t seem to use the existance of this tragedy to be mad at God. In fact, if anything, his fingerprints are all over everything from the moment we get into it.

On Sunday night, one of the neurosurgeon-residents at Sick Kids was debating whether we should simply dial-down Kyleigh’s shunt, (non-surgically change the pressure setting) with the hope it’d solve the problem VS going into surgery… Then one of the Fellows (for those of you who don’t watch E.R., Grey’s Anatomy, or another hospital drama, a “Fellow” is a more senior, higher ranking and more experienced doctor than a resident) walked into the room.

He wasn’t scheduled to work - after all, it was Easter Weekend - but he heard that Kyleigh had come into the ER and remembered her from Christmas (He was really involved in Kyleigh’s treatment last December), and decided to come in to assess her himself, being familiar with her and her history. Within 2 hours she was in surgery, and the timing ended up being critical - He told us the next day that if we had waited even 12 more hours we would have been looking at a VERY sick girl and the risk of further complications.

Little things like this - preferred doctors (for instance, the Chief of Neurosurgery at Sick Kids is Kyleigh’s actual attending physician), timing-critical surgeries, and exceptionally light traffic on the drive in - all of these things remind me that God is really faithful to us. And I suppose he’d still be faithful even if things didn’t work out like this, but I feel much better knowing that God isn’t just “God” - he’s someone that I can trust with the life of my 2-year old when I’m scared out of my mind for the hundredth time.

Which brings me to the article I read by Pete Grieg today… (if you remember, Pete wrote an aptly title book called “God on Mute” about Unanswered Prayers - we covered it last January at KALOS)

It’s time to come out of the closet. At the risk of losing all credibility amongst the Alternative worship shoe gazers and the pomo-pogo arty crowd, can I just say that I think the church is actually really WONDERFUL! I’m tired of being tired of her. I’m bored of being bored. I’m willing to admit that she is me and I am part of the mess and part of the blessing too.

The church is BEAUTIFUL. I mean, where else do you get people behaving with such outrageous generosity, such counter-cultural thoughtfulness, such unstoppable and irresponsible gentleness towards one another on a regular basis?

You can hate the music, flatten the structures, moan about the meetings, disappear into a prophetic black hole but I’ll still be one of them - One of those screwed up, down-trodden, out-of-touch, utterly underwhelming bunch of misfits and maniacs known as the church…

Right now, the church seems to have a corporate identity crisis. She puts herself down, apologises for herself, laughs at her own peculiarities. A little too loud. If she was a 14 year old girl she’d be starving herself or cutting herself or sleeping around. But the bible says that God loves the church. He believes in her – even when she’s a slut in the gutter (check out Hosea). He is passionate about her. Revelation says she’s his bride to be. Song of Songs describes a divine romance between Christ and his people.

… so you can make church a place of smells and bells with free-range monks and polystyrene communion wafers or you can make it a happy clappy bless-me club with facial hair and non-alcoholic wine, you can shout in tongues or chant in Latin, you can read the King James or the Eugene Peterson versions of Scripture. But if the gathering is in the name of Jesus, I know that he’ll be there. I know that love will be there. And yes, I guess I’ll be there as well.

From “Coming Out…“

While we were driving to Toronto (averaging about 150 km/h, I’d like to say) our church was praying. And not just “Faith Tabernacle”… I mean the church. Because from Florida to Calgary, from Minnesota to Michigan, from Arkansas to Welland, Kitchener, Mississauga, Milton, Burlington, Toronto, and places I’ve never visited, the church was praying for our little girl.

And I agree with Pete - while I’ll lose my cred with the pomos and the alt.worshippers, I’m glad. I’m glad that the church is completely irresponsible and irrational with the level of faith that it prays with - people who I’ve never met were making bold declarations of God’s provision in our lives. I’m glad that I’m a part of a church that is entirely upsidedown and inefficient… the number of phone-calls and emails and facebook messages that we recieved were overwhelming in the most positive of ways. I’m glad that I’m a part of a church that is unscrupulous and token, because flowers, gift-baskets, Dora-the-Explorer paraphanelia and pre-cooked dinners, while small and trivial, remind us that we aren’t alone, we aren’t disconnected, and we’ve got people in our corner. So I’m glad that I’m a part of that people… the ones that Christ has this most divine, passionate and completely inappropriate romance with.

And while the church certainly has its pimples, blemishes and overbites, I’m glad that I’m a part of it. Because sometimes this un-beautiful, irresponsible, inefficient, irrational, un-cool, rag-tag group of ecclectic dreamers has the heart of Jesus… and I’m continually amazed by His faithfullness to us, despite every reason we can think of that He shouldn’t be.

So thank you everyone for praying… and thank you for being a part of the church with us. Going through this was a lot easier with you than it would have been without you.

OK, so my LITTLE blog hiatus turned into a MASSIVE blog hiatus. Like, a 4-month absence of blogging. Yikes! I’m bad! So let me officially take this moment in cyberspace to apologize. I dropped the ball. I let the blog get away. And I am so sorry. (Especially to everyone who’s been nagging).

But, I am thoroughly committed to coming right back with it.

And, just to get the ball rolling, let’s talk about one of the videos we recently put up… “Rethink the labels”

The inspiration for this video came while I was writing the message for Part 1 of our “SexGod” series (which should be available on our podcast quite soon… sorry for the delay!!!)

In Matthew 5:27-29, Jesus condemns anti-human behaviour - that is, the kinds of things that we can do that strip someone of their value - even the kind that nobody else notices…

You know the next commandment pretty well, too: ‘Don’t go to bed with another’s spouse.’ But don’t think you’ve preserved your virtue simply by staying out of bed. Your heart can be corrupted by lust even quicker than your body. Those leering looks you think nobody notices—they also corrupt.

(Matthew 5:27-29 - The Message)

Which of course begs the question: Why does Jesus care whether we lust or not? I mean, if the person doesn’t notice, no harm done, right?

Maybe not.

When we take this thing called gender, or sexuality, and we don’t give it the respect it deserves, it does two things:

1) It takes apart the victim.
2) It takes apart the victimizer.

And lust is about reducing someone from a person to a thing. We dehumanize them. And because we’re all connected, and when we dehumanize someone, it dehumanizes us as well. It makes us a little less than human, a little less in God’s image, and a little less sexual, because it actually replaces sexuality – something inherently good - with selfishness. And maybe anti-human behaviour is actually anti-creator behaviour.

If it is, then all of this means that when it comes to sexual being, it’s not some “moral code” that we need to worry about… it’s our souls. Our identity. Being whole people. That’s what’s at stake.

And all of a sudden it all comes together: lust, porn, casual sex… they’re not just vices, they’re unraveling our world, person by person, one soul at a time. Sound harsh? Maybe, but it makes sense - sexuality really comes down to being the way we treat each other in the most intimate moments… when we’re most vulnerable.

So what do you think? Agree? Disagree?

Does porn affect more than the consumer? Are the labels we apply to those around us indicative of the way we feel about our Creator? Just to inspire even more back & forth, check out J Medeiros video “Constance”, and then weigh in on the big picture.

Leave a comment!