So, the recent news about Ravi Zacharias is pretty sad.  I wasn’t really a big fan, but strangely most of the female Christians in my life were.  I read this whole report his ministry put out from their hired law firm.  It’s wonderful that his ministry is so forthcoming in trying to get to the truth.  Something not afforded the victims or the public from similar accusations against Joe Biden.  I find that public comments about this situation on Christianity Today and other places are more disturbing than his actions.  It is easy to attack someone you don’t know at all, it’s difficult to live lives and accomplish things above reproach. It’s even more difficult to build a culture that produces a lot of excellent men.  Ours does not, and we are all responsible for that.

I recently watched this movie The Dig.  It purported to be about an archaeological dig in western England on the eve of WWII.  It wasn’t.  Instead it was a thinly veiled polemic against the sexual repression and class distinctions of 1940’s England.  Only upon looking it up did I realize that this was supposed to be depicting the discovery of the Sutton Hoo site, with which I was familiar, having seen the artifacts in the British Museum.  The archaeological site was merely the stage for a drama about how unfair it is that no one get’s to have sex with the one they truly love.  Don’t get me wrong the writing was excellent, nearly every reference to the dig or ship became a metaphor for subtly relationship issues taking place with all the characters involved.  So as with most contemporary movies the execution is excellent while the message is not.  You can’t go five minutes without a seen of someone pining for someone they aren’t married to.  The few emotionally appropriate moments are spoiled by nudity and absurd scenes of people making out on the street.  Mrs. Piggott, is not fulfilled by her husband who in turn pines for another young male archaeologist.  So she takes the easy train to “being really happy” by jumping in bed with a soon-to-be-killed soldier boy.  And of course the two main protagonists Mrs. Edith Pretty and Mr. Basil Brown can’t  consummate their much ‘deserved’ love because of course Brown is shackled to his common wife and Mrs. Pretty is above his station.  The message is clear.  Those old Fuddy-duddys were boring and maintaining sexual purity was just a lie.  Also aristocracy is bad, because true love.

Yet somehow, in the case of Zacharias, following your heart and carrying on emotional and actual affairs is bad.  And cries against someone with wealth and authority for being wealthy and in authority are shouted above all else.   So which is it America? I often think about the situation like a street fight where the Liberal/Atheist/Anti-God mob drags you down into the mud and then accuses you of being dirty.  While they still mock the 40’s-50’s ethic to this day in all forms of art, media, and their revisionist history classes at elite universities, they want to maintain the right to criticize people today by that ethic.  It wasn’t conservative Christians who started and still perpetuate the sexual revolution.  This is even evident as they destroy their own ranks in the meToo movement. The only people taken down by that movement were the patriarchs of the Liberal Democrats.  Think back to the last real impeachment trial.  It wasn’t conservative Christians redefining sex and cheering that infidelity and lying about it, were now acceptable behaviors for a President.  Yet now it’s our fault that some of our own were caught up in it. While they still mock Mike Pence for taking steps to avoid impropriety.  Hypocrite much?

And the same for aristocracy.  Class distinction is evil, until it comes to criticizing selective people at the top.  But where are the attacks on the women offering themselves up to him? Aren’t we all equal?  While infidelity clearly was always something Christians were against, I think the Christian position of those with more power or authority is more fuzzy for us.  But Christians have always held those with power and authority to a higher standard.  Western rules like those of England being mocked in The Dig, were common. They derive from medieval chivalric code.  Men have more strength they should use it for their lady, English gentlemen have more wealth/education/power they should use it to benefit their fellow men.  And so they stepped up, left their estates, and won two world wars.  They should be held to a higher standard, but they also deserve our respect.  While tribal rules like those of the Montagues and Capulets are ridiculous, being unequally yoked between different cultures is a very real problem.  And “you can take the ________ out of the trailer park but you can’t. . .” is a common phrase we all know well.  Every Christin knows that Bill Clinton was the problem and not Monica Lewinsky.  No Judeo-Christian has ever found fault with Bathsheba, but neither were they foolish enough to replace David with her because she was an abused women. Here again the Christian position is not the one creating this mess.

The solution here isn’t to double down on rejecting Christianity.  Especially by a worldling for successfully making a Christian act like a worldling.  It’s for Christians to act more like the men of the past despite pervasive cultural caricatures.  I wouldn’t recommend reading the report on Zacharias, basically he was getting massages, for back pain, and he often requested happy endings.  But I was shocked at how nude massages in private by one woman for one man became appropriate.  Where one woman said “it is not uncommon for men to become  aroused”.  Really?  What good does it do to get rid of your back pain, if it destroys your whole ministry world. How did this become acceptable or ‘professional’.  It’s even more ironic that I have had this debate with a girl who loved Zacharias more than anyone I know.  She seemed to be fine with nude saunas, and nude massages.  Apparently we were too busy teaching young women to hate the patriarchy to point out the importance of modesty.  Here again the solution is traditional Christianity.  The Puritans were right, modesty is good, and they had the most vibrant sex lives of anyone.  Who are all these women throwing themselves at fill-in-the-celebrity?  They are girls without fathers or without husbands.  We have created a fatherless culture in epidemic proportions.  And we certainly don’t encourage the protection of marriage.  Which leaves a lot of women out there listening to Zacharias, hating their fathers, hating traditional families, and hating the idea of getting married. They are the ones throwing themselves at those in power.   None of this is Zacharias’ fault, but it is a failing in the church, it is the fault of Christianity Today and other lukewarm Christians who perpetuate these lies daily.  They made Joe Biden the President, who has a far worse past and present than Zacharias’.  A search of their site reveals they haven’t had an honest Biblical conversation about modesty for almost ten years.  Current articles are about trying to get along with the world, championing the #metoo movement and other leftist anti-Christian causes.  Shame on you!

We should all take this as a cautionary tale.  We all need accountability, being an adult doesn’t mean anything really, we can’t do it alone.  The safest place for all of us is with our spouse.  We need to encourage marriage and strong marriages, because the days are evil.  We need to stop being jealous of those with power and authority and instead hold them to a higher standard, or just stop creating them.  Playing footsie with the world and it’s sin doesn’t end well and is not anything loving Christians who have been saved from their sins should get near.