Sex. Society. And the Secret Service.

“Prostitution scandal ricochets through Washington”

 This was Tuesday’s headline from many newspapers and internet news sources.

By now, I’m sure you’ve read or heard about the eleven Secret Service agents and ten military personnel who were sent to Cartagena, Columbia, to protect the President and were caught with twenty-one women in their hotel.

ABC News reports, “The Secret Service personnel relieved of duty for alleged misconduct in Colombia were partying at a Cartagena brothel called the Pley Club.”

The men were drinking heavily during their night out and enlisted the services of the club’s prostitutes, according to a bouncer at the club and a police source.”

“Prostitution is legal in Colombia and the women who work at the Pley Club, located in the Bosque neighborhood of Cartagena, live on the site of the club.”

Interestingly much of the uproar in the media has focused on either the misuse of public funds or the concern for national security.  Today I heard on Fox News that “ lawmakers have questioned what the incident reveals about the ‘culture’ at the Secret Service.”  President Obama is said to be “outraged” and would be “angry” if the allegations are true.

Culture?  I have a concern about culture.  But not the same as our leaders, lawmakers and news media.  When our greatest worry about such behavior is the misuse of public funds, or national security, then we have a cultural problem that’s spiritual.

One “talking head” even suggested they didn’t do anything “illegal” in Columbia.  Yes, but what about in the eyes of God?  Sadly, many in our land care little for the moral injunctions of the Bible.

The wise man warned, ”For the lips of an immoral woman drip honey, And her mouth is smoother than oil; But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death, Her steps lay hold of hell” (Prov 5:3-5).

He describes the young man who consorts with her as devoid of understanding,” “entrapped,” and “foolish.”  Solomon calls such women, “rebellious,” “a seductress,” and “immoral.”  And those who are seduced by her guile run the risk of bodily disease, and the sin that stains the soul.

Does this mean that God is a cosmic killjoy and who says sex is bad.  Dirty.  Evil.  No, on the contrary.  Listen to this!

“Let your fountain be blessed, And rejoice with the wife of your youth.  As a loving deer and a graceful doe, Let her breasts satisfy you at all times;  And always be enraptured with her love.

Then he adds this rhetorical question, “For why should you, my son, be enraptured by an immoral woman, And be embraced in the arms of a seductress?” (Prov 5:18-20)

Now, I don’t really expect the news media to cite these passages.  Yet, the moral climate in America has declined in the past 50 years.  In fact, I think public acceptance of such, has increased since  the Clinton tryst with Monica Lewinsky when James Carvell and others dismissed it lightly saying,  “It’s just sex!”

In a world gone mad with lust and license, Christians are called to a higher standard.  A nobler morality. A purer culture.   Wasting public funds is bad.  Lax security of our President could be fatal.  But these actions have eternal implications.  “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous”  (Heb 13:4).

–Ken Weliever, The Preacherman