Woe To Men...

Has anyone else noticed that it seems like almost everything these days either has a sex appeal or sexual undertones? I mean in our culture, throughout the world. It's like all of a sudden, you can't even check your e-mail without a popup ad with a girl in a bikini (or less), you can't watch Sportscenter without an anchor revealing all clevage, you can't watch a TV show without sexual innuendos, undertones, or even scenes, you can't go into a mall without seeing numerous ads for scandolous lingerie that only married people should see, you can't watch a PG-13 (and sometimes even PG) movie without a "too close for comfort" sex scene, you can't walk into a movie theatre without seeing a display with a scandalously-dressed actress, you can barely have a blog without popups, and worst of all...Hollywood and retailers are pushing a sexy, scandolous, model-shaped figure for girls to compare to (not that all girls submit to this).

Sometimes when I hear Jesus saying, "If you look at a woman with lust, you have already committed adultery with her in your heart...", I want to say back, "Well I'm sure that wasn't real hard back in the day in the Middle East where most the Jewish women were all covered up!! Not the case these days. Nevertheless, the command remains. I'm not excusing myself from this, I'm just saying it's getting harder and harder to protect yourself from these things. They're everywhere.

So why woe to men? Because I don't think this is going to get any better? As a man pursuing for marriage, this is something I know that I'm never going to be able to let my guard down on. I'm going to have to make decisions that are uncomfortable and unnatural. I'm going to have to have strict accountability and limitations. And I'm going to have to stay on my knees in prayer. Wouldn't it be like Satan to make it worse?

Ben Moseley

Adam and I went to visit our dear friend Ben Moseley at the Shelby County Jail tonight. For those of you who don't know, Ben was one of the 3 responsible for the 9 church burnings that took place this past spring. He was a student at Birmingham-Southern College and in the Theatre department. Unfortunately, the only time that Ben can have visitors is from 8:45 p.m. - 9:15 p.m. on Thursday nights. We had to talk to him on a telephone and watch him on a TV screen. He was in another building somewhere on campus. You could see other inmates coming and going behind him as they were being led to their television screens.

When they brought him in, he was wearing an orange jumpsuit, just like everyone else. They shaved his head, and he had a slight growth from not shaving. Across the collar of his undershirt was written the word "Cash". Ben has made a name for himself in the prison because of his musical abilities, and many nights will sing through the venting system as the inmates go to bed. He has selections from Johnny Cash, Tom Petty and other greats. The main reason he wrote this on his shirt was so he wouldn't get his laundry confused with the other guys.

From the minute he sat down, he was nothing but upbeat. The first comment he made was a joke, as if we had never skipped a beat. There was lots of laughter to go around. He's really set on loving the guys in the prison and sharing his gifts with them. I have reason to think that Ben has truly been saved (before college even), but I cannot say for sure. It's been a few years since I've seen him, and he had just begun to take interest in Christ by the time Adam and I graduated. It's still hard for me to imagine that this would happen to him. All he told us (because he had much to say) was that his decisions were aided by alcohol. It makes me feel better to know that he didn't do what he did while sober. I don't know how long he's supposed to be in. I think his sentencing is late this Fall. I'll keep it posted.