Men do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger when he is starving.  Yet if he is caught, he must pay sevenfold, though it costs him all the wealth of his house.  But a man who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself.  Blows and disgrace are his lot, and his shame will never be wiped away (Proverbs 6:30-33).

Europeans cannot understand the American preoccupation with sexual sin.  When an American political leader, for instance, becomes embroiled in somd kind of sex scandal, the people of the United States gasp and gawk at wide-scale media coverage of all the sordid details; but the Europeans just scratch their heads and wonder, "What is the big deal?  So the President has a mistress -- why should I care?!?"  Generally speaking, people from Europe don't assign any higher degree of shame or condemnation to sexual sin, as compared to other sins like lying or stealing or disrespecting one's parents.  If anything, they might tend to believe that it's a "lesser" offense because it's a natural desire, an inborn inclination, enacted between two consenting adults.  Consequently, they see the American reaction to sexual sin as being strange, unhealthy, hypocritical, Puritanical, and generally overblown.  It's such a cultural contrast that I genuinely start to wonder what an appropriate response to sexual sin should be.  Do we Americans need to back off and cool down a bit?  Or is there really something to sexual sin that necessarily invokes a stronger response in us?

Honestly, I think there's value in both cultural perspectives.  I can see how it's good to realize that any display of the human body is not necessarily a sexual provocation -- that reducing the secrecy and mystique and hushed hyperventilation around nudity can actually reduce sexual sin and allow for greater freedom... But by the same token, I'm not ready to accept adultery as a "normal" part of life.  I'm not OK with the President -- or any of our society's leaders and role models -- having a mistress.  Because to me, sexual sin is a big deal.  In some ways, it's an even bigger deal than other kinds of sin, at least when it comes to its consequences in the natural realm.  And I've come to believe that such an attitude towards sexual sin is not "just an American thing" -- but actually a biblical thing!

Proverbs 6:30-33, for example, makes it clear that the man who commits adultery summons a disproportionate amount of shame, pain, and destruction -- above and beyond that which is evoked by common thievery.  It's not necessarily that God considers the one sin better or worse than another sin (because James 2:10 points out the fact that whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it).  But there does seem to be something about the natural consequences of sexual sin that puts it in a separate class of immorality.  1 Corinthians 6:18 explains it further:  "Flee from sexual immorality.  All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body."  To me, these biblical references affirm the disproportionate power of our sexuality -- as a human thing, not just an American thing.  We destroy ourselves and the most important relationships around us when we mess around, sexually.  It's serious business that cannot just be waved off.  "Blows and disgrace are [the lot of the adulterer], and his shame will never be wiped away."  Fortunately, Jesus provides us with restitution for all of our sins -- including the sexual ones -- and God's grace is sufficient to cover the most heinious crimes against humanity.  But the natural consequences of our sins haunt us for the course of a lifetime (and often even beyond); so we do well to heed the warning of Proverbs 6:30-33 and steer far clear of the path of adultery.