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Virginity and Judgment by Carrie Francis I was surfing news reports recently when I came across an article from CNN. It was about a college student from California who was planning to auction off her virginity to the highest bidder to pay for graduate school. If that last sentence made your stomach turn upside down a few times, walk away from the computer and come back in a few minutes (or hours or days) when that has sunken in, your stomach has stopped doing somersaults, and you can see straight again. Has the gravity of that situation sunken in yet? Good. So my next question is what does this tell us? That this generation is morally bankrupt? Maybe. That she is breaking God’s law? True enough. That she’s going to hell? Most evangelical commentators have probably already condemned her to that fate. So as I’m sitting here trying to make sense of this situation and what it means, I am reminded once again of Jesus. Not to throw you back into memories of the cheesy WWJD? Bracelets of junior high, but seriously What Would Jesus Do with this situation? How would he react? Open up your Bible and read John 8:3-11. If you don’t have a Bible you can look up the verses at http://unbound.biola.edu/. There are a couple of things to notice about this passage. One is that while the scribes and Pharisees claim the woman was caught in the act of adultery, she is the only one brought in front of Jesus... last I checked adultery took two people. Some scholars think that perhaps the man involved was one of the scribes or Pharisees. So, they overlooked it, even though the law of Moses demands the same punishment for both partners. The second thing to notice is that Jesus is the only one in the story who has any right to condemn this woman to death. He is the only one among them who is sinless and the only one with a right to cast a stone at her. But does he do it? No. Why not? Does he condone sinful behavior? No, that’s not it, he tells her to go and sin no more. Jesus sees the woman, the daughter of Eve, the creation of God the Father. He sees the beloved child of God and knows that she is separate from the sin she has committed. How often are we like the Pharisees waiting to pounce on the first sinner we see with a stone meant to kill? How un-gracious has the Christian community at large become as we condemn adulterers, homosexuals, women who get abortions, pregnant teenagers, homeless people, alcoholics, drug addicts, etc.? As much as it hurts to say, most American Christians are no better than the Pharisees Jesus criticized for their hypocrisy. We place so much value on morality and following God’s laws that we can only see others through the lens of the law. But if we were really following Christ’s example, we would realize that we’re free of that law. Whoa, wait a minute, Carrie, are you saying we can do whatever we want? Of course not! What I’m saying is that if we are freed from the law, then we are free to see other people as God sees them; not as sinners but as beloved creations of our Father. Check out Romans 3 for more. All too often, Christians condemn the world and try to separate themselves from it instead of following Jesus into the messes of everyday life. We worry about being contaminated by the sin around us, but that’s about as logical as refusing to hug someone we just played mud volleyball with because they’re too dirty! The mud and gross sin is on us too. It’s easy for us to forget that we’re just as sinful and messed up as the rest of the world. No matter how hard we try or how long we’ve been walking with Christ, we still have sin in our lives. "But Carrie, I haven’t killed anyone or committed adultery or stolen anything!" Ok, but have you been perfectly submitted to God in all areas of your life? Have you lusted? Have you been jealous of your friend? Have you been too proud and insecure to associate with those "low-life sinners?" Let’s face it, most of us are hypocrites. We’re the Pharisees Jesus called tombs. And to be honest, the world has a very good reason to despise the Church. Sure part of it is what the media covers, but it’s the hypocrisy in all of us that makes people despise us. Don’t start with the, "But Jesus said that if we were following him, people would hate us." It’s true that Jesus said that, and it’s true that if we are truly following him that the world will hate us. They’ll just have a different reason to do so. Jesus also said that people would know that we are Christians by our love. When’s the last time you just loved someone who is different from you? Would the people in your classes, on your sports teams, or in your student groups be able to see a difference in you? Do they know that you’re a Christian by your love? So to bring this back around, how do we react to the girl selling her virginity and the thousands of other students who are "not following God’s laws" about sex? Well, we can start by NOT condemning them to hell. We don’t have the authority to do that, so just stop already. We can remember that we’re just as sinful as they are; our sins just may not be as obvious. We can offer a kind word and friendship. We can follow Jesus into the mess of other people’s lives instead of running to our safe Christian groups all the time. We can love the person behind the sin because we know that they are just as precious to God as we are. Perhaps one day they will understand that too. Let’s redeem and restore instead of condemn. "Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance." Luke 15:7