A few years ago I made a conscious decision on my social media accounts to diversify. As the Holy Spirit continued to convict me about a political idolatry that was damaging both me and those with whom I exerted any kind of influence, I knew that I had to eliminate the echo chamber I had created for myself by intentionally hearing voices that challenged my thinking and convenient conclusions.
It was, in many ways, the best thing I've done since establishing a social media presence. In other ways, it's maddening to witness the staggering similarities between political tribes, observing a willingness to exempt our own teams and allies from the ethical condemnation we are so quick to heap on others. I shudder to think how often I have been guilty of such hypocrisy, debilitating my witness as a servant of the Truth by granting moral clemency from perversion and evil to someone simply because they "vote the right way."
For instance, here is what I've seen for the last week.
The Washington Post recently revealed scandalous details about a Democrat candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates named Susanna Gibson. According to the report, the 40-year-old Gibson used an internet platform called "Chaturbate" to stream sex acts with her husband. The parents of two children took financial payment from viewers for performing specific, requested acts.
The perversity may actually prove to be illegal under Virginia prostitution law. But because politics is the only religion to so many people, and power the only god worth worshipping, the political left has dutifully circled the wagons in defense of Gibson. Rather than recognizing an obvious moral deficiency in the decision making of one of their own, several Democrat officials in the state have sought to make her a celebrity.
The day of the article, a Virginia state senator named Louise Lucas called on fellow Democrats to, "make this the biggest fundraising day of her campaign." She railed how she was "p***ed," not at Gibson's lack of discretion, but at Republicans for thinking it untoward. And that was just the tip of the iceberg. A cavalcade of progressive voices and organizations expressed outrage at those who had committed such a brazen "invasion of Gibson's privacy" all with the intent to humiliate her.
Is there no one left in the Democrat Party who is willing to point out that Gibson and her husband humiliated themselves by choosing to engage in public perversity?
Then it was the political right's turn.
During a live musical theater performance of Beetlejuice, professing Christian Representative Lauren Boebert was escorted out of the show by security after she and her date were observed "vaping, singing, [and] causing a disturbance." Video surveillance showed they were guilty of much more.
I'll spare you straining through the grainy night vision video and tell you that it is beyond dispute that the currently married congresswoman - her pending divorce is not yet final - was thoroughly groping a man who is not her husband, while simultaneously being groped in return. As if that wasn't classy enough, Boebert flipped off the usher who was simply doing his job, taunting, "Do you know who I am?" before threatening that she was going to "call the mayor."
It gets worse, of course. As it turns out, the man she was with owns a "gay-affirming" bar that has hosted at least one drag show. I needn't remind you that Boebert has portrayed herself as a warrior for Christian values in D.C., telling anyone who will listen to, "take your children to church, not drag bars."
In response, many on the political right have rushed to rationalize and defend Boebert's conduct. A Republican congressional candidate from Texas, Caroline Kane, demanded to know why security footage was so readily available from a Denver theater, but so hard to come by in Jeffrey Epstein's jail cell, Bill Clinton's Oval Office, or in determining the source of the White House cocaine bag.
A host of others downplayed her conduct and said they didn't want to hear anything about it until "Pedo Joe" and his disgusting sniffing of young girls was discussed. Some even considered the incident a reason to vote for Boebert:
Is there no one left in the Republican Party who is willing to point out that Boebert's conduct is lewd, morally grotesque, and a pox on politically conservative Christians?
Both these sorry episodes are indicative of a society awash in political idolatry. It's what happens when an overfed people, drunk on sinful excess, collectively conclude that God no longer exists outside of the golden calves fashioned by the masterfully manipulating hands of the political class.
Susanna Gibson isn't guilty of perversion and worthy of censure. She votes the right way!
Lauren Boebert isn't a sinful disgrace and in desperate need of humble repentance. She votes the right way!
And anyone who "judges" them is just a stone-casting moralizer.
Or maybe those who "judge" are just the few people left for whom God is God, right is right, and sin is sin - and think society would be better off if we all submitted to that reality.
