Aust reaction raises issue of sin
In the wake of the Australian cricket drama, Stu Crosson asks if we should save our outrage for real crimes.
TWO news stories coming out of Australia have been making the headlines in recent weeks. One relatively trivial matter, and one with deeply disturbing consequences.
The trivial story is the one which has made all the headlines, with prime ministers on both sides of the Tasman weighing in with their perspective.
This is the small matter of the Australian cricket team being caught out deliberately cheating in the third test against South Africa by ball tampering.
Prime Minister Turnbull said it was a ‘‘shocking disgrace’’ and a ‘‘shocking affront to Australia’’. I actually think that on this side of the Tasman we are not quite so shocked by the whole sorry saga.
The level of flak that Steve Smith and David Warner have copped for a practice that many international cricket teams have been found guilty of over the years is a little more surprising. Social media has a way of creating a tidal wave of offence against something or someone who is perceived as hypocritical.
The more disturbing news item, which also involved an Australian politician, is of much more significance to our culture than a few Aussies roughing up a cricket ball.
This involved the Australian conservative politician Rachel Carling Jenkins disclosing the conviction of her husband for the possession of child pornography. The significance of this story is that it represents a littletalkedabout cancerous epidemic which has infected our culture.
In my vocation as a church pastor, I am consistently dealing with young men who wrestle with the addiction of pornography. More pervasive than any opiate epidemic, and just as destructive, it is destroying individual lives and families across our country.
Rachel CarlingJenkins recently went public about the day she and her son returned home to find pornographic images on her thenhusband’s computer.
‘‘I saw a number of icons on the screen, and I could see small images . . . some were photos and some were videos, and I started to click on them to see what it was’’, she said. ‘‘They were all of children and all of little girls. I saw child rape.’’
What causes a man to live such a sordid existence as to have secret images on his computer of children being raped?
I commend Mrs CarlingJenkins for her courage, as I have seen firsthand what this type of secrecy can do to families and its cost, especially on the wives of men ensnared in pornography.
Recently, I came across a quote from Kevin DeYoung which sums up the significance of Easter: ‘‘Sin is worse than you think. The good news is better than you imagine.’’
We live in an age when traditional JudeoChristian concepts of sin have been ignored, but when a sporting star breaks a code of conduct and is labelled a cheat, the moral outrage is fierce. Sin as a word and concept has lost currency as our Western culture has tried to exclude God from public life. Yet we still seem to know right from wrong when it suits us.
Over the past 50 years, a civic religion of humanism has emerged in Western cultures which denies a relationship with our Creator and seeks to find meaning apart from God. This means that any sense of accountability to a transcendent moral law is removed, and living well is reduced to a code of conduct that says ‘‘all is fair until I get caught’’. The idol of our age is my right to choose my truth.
God, our loving judge, convicts us of sin because He knows that ultimately it will not only destroy individuals and families, but also whole nations and cultures. But the good news is better than we can imagine. It is a grand vision where God came among us, paid the price for all sin by the death of His Son, Jesus Christ, on a cross. Then raised him to life, so that we might live freely without sin. Is it possible? Of course! When, and only when, we relinquish control, admit our absolute need of His help and say ‘‘yes’’ to God.
It would seem the guilt of the Australian cricketers is not in the same league as a man who would support an industry that rapes children for sick entertainment. Yet God is quite clear: ‘‘we all fall short’’ and within each of us lives the potential to exploit, bully, lie, cheat and even kill if the right (or wrong) circumstances emerge. Education won’t fix us, willpower and laws won’t stop us and medicine won’t heal us. We need help, and the good news is help is available. That is the story of Easter.