"The Empty Cheap Frivolity of Our Own Sexual Lives"

Via iMonk's twitter, I was pointed to this post by David Fitch concerning his thoughts about the Miss America flare up and perceptions of evangelicals by the gay and lesbian community. I thought this section was rather insightful:

To me this Ms California episode is an irruption of the Real (in a Zizekian sense) for us evangelicals. It reveals the horror of who we are in the eyes of the gay/lesbian peoples. For she (Miss America) is a symbol for how we project onto gays/lesbians our (evangelicalism’s) own sexual sin thereby making ourselves feel better. By saying what she said about gay unions, moments after the swimsuit competition, she was basically telling the world “we do the same things, but for gay people it’s sin.” We have duplicity personified as Miss California says “lust is good, objectifying my body is normal, the fulfillment of all desire is good” on the one hand, and then with the other says to the gay and lesbian world, “but you can’t do any of this - because you’re different you are not allowed.”

In the process she becomes a glaring symbol of how by pointing out someone else’s sin, we can ignore the empty cheap frivolity of our own sexual lives and still feel better about ourselves. We do not need to fess up that our own sexual habits are so badly skewed, our desires so poorly oriented. We can keep on ignoring the emptiness of our own sexual sanctification by displacing our lack of “enjoyment” onto “the others,” the gay and lesbian people. This too often has become the nature of our witness in society. As such, I believe such an episode reveals the inner contradiction of our own sexual life and politics as evangelicals. And the gay world just looks on with a snicker.

I'm not sure any Christian will ever be completely absolved (in the world's eyes) of his or her hypocrisy. This is why we need Jesus and why we should be quick to model the gospel of repentance and forgiveness. May we rest more in Jesus and point people to his perfections all the while seeking to consistent in our message AND our lives.