According to Christianity Today writer Ed Stetzer, the fallout from the Ashley Madison leak may affect many Christian leaders. He has estimated that as many as 400 pastors may be resigning soon. We have already seen a tragic suicide of a Christian leader (see our earlier posting). More stories will be coming to light, possibly even in a church near you. You may read Mr. Stetzer’s article at Christianity Today.

Just a day or two ago, a friend alerted me to this letter, relayed by Glenn Greenwald, which is from a distraught female who pours out her reasons for using the service, and how she now faces loss of a job, a job ironically that involves promoting marriage: “I expect to be ridiculed by colleagues, to lose my job, and to be publicly shamed, especially as a hypocrite.”

This exposes what is a clear Achilles heel for Christians, and really also for anyone else who tries to live up to a higher standard. We are imperfect and fallen. If we set our standards high, we will fail, and thereby open ourselves up to condemnation as hypocrites. This seems to be a poison that differentially destroys the lives, reputations, and witness of the “good guys”. Those who have no high moral profile can shrug and say, “so what? At least I am not a hypocrite.”

There are few delights as intensely and loudly expressed as the orgasmic glee that the world shows when a Christian leader or other paragon of morality is exposed as a hypocrite, and is silenced. Mr Greenwald opines: As I acknowledged, there is an arguably valid case for such outing: namely, where someone with public influence is hypocritically crusading for legally enforced morality, holding themselves out as beacons of virtues they in fact violate, and harming others through that advocacy. It’s possible this emailer falls within that category: She says her past work involved “encouraging traditional marriage for the good of children.”.

Public shame and guilt are, of course, only possible when there is a high standard in place. In a situation where there is no such standard, wrongdoers may be–and are–shameless.

The flip side of the Christians’ hypocrisy issue is the basic problem of moral darkness for everyone. We are all sinners, and this includes Christians and non-Christians alike. We are impure, smudged by sins big and small. Injustice, suffering, addiction, lechery, and malicious deeds engulf our lives or the lives of those we love. Evil seems to reign everywhere. Ours is often a bleak and dark world. Even the torch bearers can succumb to the lure of darkness. Does that mean there is no light? The question for the fallen (and the falling) is this: Should we all just wallow in sin, shrug when lives are ruined, and turn a blind eye to injustice and evil? (In a similar vein, should you ignore the advice of a doctor who is fat or smokes, even if that advice is good?)

Or should we strive for something better and nobler? We Christians may not perfectly live up to our ideals, but at least we have have them. We recognize a a higher good toward which we are striving. Our own darkness has been pierced by a flickering light–the light of God’s love–and we wish to share that light with others, in order to make this dark world brighter.

Though I agree with the overall gist of his essay, that we should not judge too harshly the private lives of others, I take issue with that statement by Mr Greenwald which I quoted above. Perhaps it was not fully thought out, but at best it is just plain silly, at worst, beastly. I have met thousands of people and I am waiting still to meet someone who has been harmed by “advocacy for morality”. On the other hand, every day I meet people who have been deeply harmed by the rotten and despicable immorality of others. In fact, just this week I have spoken with a woman who had a terrible childhood, because her single mother was engaged in the “worlds oldest profession”, and decided to “sell” her own daughter to abusive men starting at the age of 13. She is still emotionally scarred many decades later, and is requiring ongoing psychotherapy. It was not moral advocacy that ripped into her young life, tortured her mind, and sexually invaded her body.

Anecdotally, and statistically, great harm has been done in the past half century to the children of divorce, and to those conceived in illegitimacy (or, as we used to say, “in sin”). Immorality, not morality, is what has created rape victims. Immorality is what causes young girls to be kidnapped for the sex trade–They aren’t being harmed by moral crusaders. I wonder how many lives would be more whole and happy if not for the immorality of our age, the immorality that is reflected in the very existence of such a service as Ashley Madison.

Sadly, as I observed a moment ago, even the bearers of the light of Christ cannot avoid being touched by the darkness that surrounds them. But we are all called, by Jesus himself no less, to do our part to spread the light. When we fall, there will be consequences; repentance is called for. That doesn’t mean, however, that we all just embrace darkness. Though we may stumble and fail, we should hold aloft that torch anyway.