Moral outrage is a strange thing.
In a recently released email we see a picture of the strange reality of moral outrage. The email, in part, is related to the October 2016 furor over Donald Trump’s ‘Access Hollywood’ interview in which he admitted to some pretty serious sexual misconduct. I am not interested in rehashing that story, nor am I a Trump apologist. However, this recently released email offers a picture into what might be our condition.
The author of the email stated that he was originally not going to vote against Trump but was changing his mind and was going to give Trump his support and a sympathy vote. The author found the treatment of Trump to be hypocritical. He was convinced that Bill Clinton said worse. For the author, the hypocrisy of outrage mustered up against Trump was just too much. Apparently the great moral evil of hypocrisy was something to not be tolerated. We all have those hot buttons that, when pushed, cause us to respond with a sense of righteous indignation.
But there is a certain irony associated with this email’s subject, author, and recipient. While we are all familiar with Donald Trump, we may not be as familiar with the author Andres Serrano. Serrano is an artist who specializes in what is called ‘transgressive art.’ Transgressive art attempts to offend and cause revulsion on the part of the observer. At the same time that Serrano was having this email conversation, he was doing exhibitions of his show, “Torture.” In this exhibition Serrano, a photographer, presented a series of pictures depicting horrible scenes of human torture. Serrano was also noted for his exhibition “The History of Sex,” which we might call “A History of Depravity.” His most famous work was called “Piss Christ,” a photograph of a crucifix submerged in a container of human urine. Which, by the way, you paid for as a U.S. taxpayer to the tune of $15,000.
While you may have never heard of Andres Serrano, you have no doubt heard of his friend with whom he was corresponding, Jeffery Epstein. While all the details are not available, it appears that Epstein shared Serrano’s moral outrage over the hypocrisy regarding Donald Trump’s comments. Please don’t allow your mental software to crash as you think about Serrano and Epstein having moral outrage over anything.
But before we condemn them too vigorously, we need to check and see if perhaps we have the capacity to be vigorously opposed to some moral behaviors while condoning others. I once upset some people by something I said in a sermon: “I wonder if perhaps we would be better off engaging in homosexual escapades than in gossip. At least with a homosexual tryst there might be a sense of guilt and remorse, which is almost entirely absent from gossip in a church.” We all, like Serrano and Epstein, have a list of unacceptables and a list of acceptables as far as behavior is concerned.
A trip to Epstein Island would disqualify a person from any role in ministry. The sins of the flesh have no place anywhere near the church. But what about worldliness? The desire to have, to own, to call it ‘mine’ is not absent in the church and among its leaders. Of course the sin of pride is completely absent from preachers and church workers, said no one who has ever worked with churches. I have met some ministry leaders who were so unbelievably prideful I was gobsmacked.
We sometimes call this moral compromise a ‘blind spot’. That is not a very good term. Blindness is almost never willfully self-induced. A better term, and a more biblical one, is to call it hard-heartedness. The night before His murder and betrayal, Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would convict the world "about sin, righteousness, and judgment." Would we dare ask the Holy Spirit to bring on us and on our hearts conviction about our sins, lack of righteousness, and the coming judgment? I need His conviction because I lack the ability to have moral outrage for my sins. I am left only to condemn what I find repugnant in others and not be repulsed by my greed, lust, and pride. The echo chambers in which we live will be so loud in the condemnation of the things we hate that we will become deaf to any voice that would call us to holiness and virtue. We all need help.
“Lord, by Your Holy Spirit, bring Your judgment on me. AMEN
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