Prodigal Magazine

All of a sudden, it was all that everyone was talking about.  Images from the video had made the cover of the New York Post.  Every sports talk radio station in America was fielding calls and providing commentary on this video of ESPN sportscaster Erin Andrews.  It became a craze on the internet and one of the most searched topics on internet search engines this year.  There were those who could not resist looking up the video to see what they could of Erin.  There were others who talked about how terrible of an act that this is and chastised the person who made the video.

I agree with those who chastised the individual who made the video.  What he did to Erin Andrews is despicable at best.  That individual deserves the punishment that is coming their way and will hopefully see the light of the mistake made, never to repeat it.  For Erin Andrews, we must pray for her that God can heal the hurt that she feels over this video and that God will give her a feeling of security, something that she probably does not feel after being violated in this manner.

There is a larger problem that is at stake here in this incident, but one that will get little television coverage due to the nature of the television industry today.  The problem that we have is that our society is too sex-driven today.  With every commercial break, there are advertisements for medications solely intended for increasing sex drive, sexual stamina, etc.  Movies are more sexually driven than they were before and television shows are filled with innuendos and sexual scenes.  Our society thinks about sex ninety percent more than they think about anything else and the result is that it is killing our society, intruding on people’s privacy, and leading people to make more and more mistakes because their minds are stuck on the wrong things.

We would like to think that this is just the world’s problem and that Christians are far removed from it, but in all reality, we are caught up in the midst of it ourselves.  I can remember a time when I was serving as a youth pastor at my first church.  The preacher had to preach a message about how to dress reverently because the women in our church continuously dressed provocatively.  Even the church has fallen prey to this idea that thinking about sex all of the time is not such a bad thing.  That is the common belief, but when something like this happens to someone like Ms. Andrews, who did nothing to provoke it, we get all up in arms about how something like this can happen.

We have become our own worst enemy.  Sexual predators are everywhere and the more sexual-based our society becomes, the higher the number will grow.  In my past, I can see how the influence of sexual material affected decisions that I made.  None of those decisions were good and I praise God that He forgives us when we make mistakes.  I had to stop watching television and movies with racy scenes in them, keeping my mind focused more on God and off of the world.  It wasn’t fixed overnight, but through time and after meeting my wife, God has helped to control it.

Jesus, in Matthew 22:37, said that the greatest commandment is that we should, “Love the Lord your God with all heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”  If we can strive to do that, the lust and the sexual temptation that is so prevalent will be pushed aside because our entire being will be focused on pleasing and loving God.  With that lifestyle, we will be able to battle the temptations in a better manner, turning our minds back to the glory of God rather than allowing the temptation to grow within our hearts and minds.

Why does this matter?  It matters because the longer that Christians continue to conform to the world, the worse things will become because the only moral voice that exists is that of a Christian who acts upon the Word of God.  It matters because we are called to serve God with every area of our lives and to do so at all times.  It matters because one day, it may be our wives or our daughters, ourselves or our sons that are taking advantage of in the same manner that Erin Andrews was taken advantage of in this video.  Finally, it matters because we are called to point a lost world to the way that leads to Jesus, which we cannot do if we are joining in with the world and its’ sexual obsessions.

Let’s all take a moment to pray for Erin, as well as the person who did this to her.  May God heal the hurt that Erin is experiencing and may God help the person who committed the crime to see that there is more to life that what he/she is experiencing.  Let’s also pray for protection of our minds, protection for our families, and a turn in the mindset of our society.