Pastor Chris - The Exchange

Have you seen the story about Professor Lawrence Scott Ward, a marketing professor from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business? Apparently the good professor is going to be doing some hard time for making child pornography and lying to authorities regarding a Brazilian teen he was trying to smuggle into the United States. Officials say Ward has preyed on teenage boys from around the globe for years. His sentence is for 25 years and as he is 66 years old he may never get out of jail. I hope for his sake he gets help while in prison and can make peace with God, but he is where he needs to be for the good of society.

Two things about this report from Fox news entitled "Ivy League Professor Gets 25 Years for Making Child Pornography by Exploiting the Poor!" concern me though. First, the way the article reads what really got Professor Ward into trouble was his lying to the authorities concerning what he was doing. Lying is bad! No argument there, but it almost sounds as though if he had come clean he wouldn't have gotten as much jail time as he did. Am I to understand, then, that if he hadn't lied he would have gotten a significantly reduced sentence? Me? I think child porn deserves 25 years on its own merit. For lying to authorities, tack on some more time. My second beef with the article is the insinuation that exploiting the poor somehow made this whole thing worse. If the kids he was exploiting came from middle class homes would that somehow make it better? I don't think so. Now having said that, I recognize the poor often get taken advantage of and they are easier to prey on because of the lack they suffer, but isn't child porn bad enough without the class distinction or have we reached the place where we are so desensitized to crimes such as this that we have to bring up the added offense of exploitation to really get people upset?

I mention all of this on top of the breaking news that Roman Polanski, the film director, was arrested in Zurich Switzerland for having sex with a 13 year old back in 1977. There is a notable hue and cry from Hollywood's elite over Polanski's arrest with the sentiment being the relationship was consensual and therefore Polanski did nothing wrong.

While many of us are outraged, none of us should be surprised. This is, after all, the fruit of the lie we have bought into. We have exchanged the glory of God for a pitiful substitute and we worship and serve ourselves and creation rather than the creator (Romans 1:21ff). Paul tells us in Romans God's wrath is being revealed because we no longer honor God or give thanks to Him.

All we're doing as a society is substituting one value for another. We're exchanging a diamond for the tennis ball the dog chews on. We're exchanging gold for rebar, rubies for nuts and bolts. Let's do the opposite. Along with Paul let's count everything rubbish that we might gain Christ. Do not exchange God for anything. Exchange everything that you may gain God!