An Opportunity for Grace: The Ashley Madison Leak and the Church’s Response

Last updated on: August 20, 2015 at 10:20 am by Kyle Roberts

An Opportunity for Grace: The Ashley Madison Leak and the Church’s Response 2015-08-20T10:20:19-05:00 Kyle Roberts

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Financial hacks are boring. Government hacks are little more interesting–if there’s international political intrigue. The Ashley Madison hack? Anything but boring. Salacious, steamy, revealing, personal, sexual–with plenty of opportunities for voyeurism, reveling, disgust and “I’m-glad-that-isn’t-me” relief.

Yesterday, I reflected on the morality of vigilante hacking. I also pointed out, via reference to Graham Culley’s post, the potentially serious consequences for the exposed customers of Ashley Madison. Embarrassment, shame, regret–potentially even suicide. How will these millions upon millions of people (we’re told that the customers are 90-95% men) deal with having been exposed as–at the very least–fantasizing about adultery and having the details of those private fantasies leaked to the web?

Then the internet told us that Josh Duggar (yes, that Josh Duggar) was found to be the first celebrity exposed in the leak. This is the Josh Duggar who worked as the executive director of the conservative evangelical Family Research Council. He apparently had two separate Ashley Madison accounts going for several years, while he led this group.

Understandably, the response to the news that Duggar was the first celebrity outed was quick, raucous, and pervasive. Yet another huckster caught in his hypocrisy. Another (huge) blemish on the brand of “conservative, traditional, family, values.” I have to admit: I chuckled a bit when I heard the news. Didn’t you?

We Americans despise nothing as much as we do hypocrisy. And, in Josh’s case, his known history as an abuser makes this new revelation the nail in the coffin of his public collapse. We want our frauds and hypocrites exposed for what they are. And when you build your career on “family values” and your ideology is based on heteronormativity, suppression of the rights of a marginalized group, and sexual “purity,” you’re going to get burned badly when you fall.

But it’s also easy to forget that hypocrites are people too–and who knows what demons haunt them. And it’s also important to remember that we’re all hypocrites, each in our own ways.

As I was scrolling Twitter yesterday, I came across one Tweet, by Andy Crouch, that stood out above the rest.

“The unfolding shame of the Ashley Madison hack is an opportunity for repentance, grace, and the gospel. Hope pastors & churches are ready.”

In the aftermath of the Ashley Madison leak, there will be shame, new suspicions, broken trust, hurt spouses, even some shattered dreams.

For those of us who believe in the gospel of grace and forgiveness, and who believe that the best thing that Christians can do in the world is to be “ministers of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18), this massive public leak, with all the guilt, shame, and embarrassment that will come with it, may provide an opportunity for the church to live out our calling.

It will not just be people “out there” who are exposed and affected; it will also people in our communities, in our families, and in our churches. It may also include our deacons, our youth pastors, our pastors, our teachers, our leaders. They may not make the front page news, but they–and their families–will need help nonetheless.

It will be important to remember that it’s by grace we are saved, not by our works. That love rules all things. And that love can cover a multitude of sins. The ministry of reconciliation is not an optional calling, for those who believe in the gospel of grace.

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"Time's Up": On Ashley Madison and the Morality of Vigilante Hacking

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