Yet another large christian personality being outed for sexual impropriety this week. Truly my heart goes out to John and his family. I don’t know him personally, but having been on this side of the equation for so long, I can infer quite a bit about how he’s likely feeling right now. The hard reality, is that the church is in crisis. I need to be a little careful here, because I don’t want it to seem like anyone is getting a pass, (although isn’t that what grace is?) but hasn’t the christian worldview around sexuality really perpetuated and really given rise to the environment where sexual sin can thrive in the shadows creating a culture of toxic shame? It’s painful to live, and painful to watch. When will we start to wake up en masse, and begin to live out truly authentic, vulnerable lives? When will we shed the need for carefully crafted and created personas that project and image that we WANT people to see?

When will the church become a safe haven for the broken to encounter a truly loving grace filled God free from judgement and scorn? Truly it breaks my heart to see so many suffering in silence afraid to be the first to speak up. If only we could recognize that our brothers and sisters are suffering right next to us. If we could just summon the courage to be real about the garbage in our lives, how many people do you encounter in one day? How many of those do you think are hurting, like deeply, painfully, struggling? I would bet the number would feel staggering. And maybe that’s why we don’t do it. We don’t want to put ourselves out there for fear of rejection AND for fear of acceptance. Please, for the love of your self, your family, your friends, open up. Find safe communities where you can be yourself, fully and honestly. I feel so sad that this is the state of where we are now. I can’t even summon any more words, just tears.

-Ben