Hugh Freeze, Jesus, Sex and Righteousness

I love sports and follow sports more than I likely should. Twitter, sports talk radio, etc. Constantly. Yesterday news came out that Hugh Freeze resigned as the head football coach at Ole Miss because of dialing up an escort service. Now, he says it was a miss dial. Other news says that he met and confessed much “indiscretion”, and subsequently resigned. Now, here is the rub, Anthony Bradley, who I really like tweeted the sentiment that I was feeling…”…wasn’t he one of those Jesus talking kind of coaches?” Bradley is a follower of Jesus, professor at King’s College and super outspoken. If AB is expressing that sentiment, how might others think?

AB is right. Freeze was outspoken about his faith, and I’m sure now people will be talk about his faith and his failing. Two emotions struck me as a follower of Jesus, pastor and sports fanatic. First, the emotion was of anger that Jesus’ reputation would take a hit because of the folly of Freeze. The other emotion was of pity that the sexual nature of his sin would be the highlight by some while ignoring their more serious infractions.

Not all sin is the same. I know it’s popular to say that “sin is sin…its all the same to God.” Thats just not true. Jesus said that blasphemy of the Spirit was unforgivable thus designating it as greater than adultery. Not all sin is the same. Period. But people are going to make a big deal out of the sexual nature of his sin. Here’s my point. Sexual sin is not good. Its bad. But it gets much less play in Scripture than this:

Proverbs 6:16-19 (ESV) There are six things that the Lord hates,
seven that are an abomination to him:
17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
and hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked plans,
feet that make haste to run to evil,
19 a false witness who breathes out lies,
and one who sows discord among brothers.

Don’t misunderstand, sexual sin is still sin, but here’s the deal, sex has been so elevated to idolatrous status that it’s thought to be the pinnacle of human existence. Sex is a multi-billion dollar industry in porn and slavery. Sex seems to be the chief pursuit of most. No thought is given to the fact that life is as rewarding and full without sex as with it (that whole gift of singleness). So, Christians will talk about Freeze’s sexual sin but likely ignore their haughty eyes which which they look down on those who make less money than they do, or don’t live in their swanky neighborhood, of course in the most Christian way. They’ll berate Freeze’s dialing up an escort service, but ignore that their feet are quick to run to their accepted brand of evil…their socially accepted brand of evil. They’ll be shocked at Freeze’s behavior, yet lies by the fact that they spend most of their resources on more and better and drop God a $20 bill in the box and think they’ve done God a favor. God requires a minimum of 10%, so to drop God less than when it’s clear one miss handles the rest is lying. Period. But, old Hugh Freeze is a bad man, right?

I’d say most of us should likely focus on righteousness as God defines it and be gracious to Hugh Freeze. His sin just got uncovered. Mine and yours will likely stay under cover for a while.

So, while we talk about sex, porn and adultery…all things that are sin and will kill…lets not ignore the things God says he hates that we may be guilty of.

Be righteous, Mitchell Jolly, and be gracious and helpful to others.

Just my 2 cents.