FM96 Theology

This week on FM 96, Tucker and Taz spent some time talking about the Ingersoll warden who used his credit card at a strip club in North Myrtle Beach amounting to nearly $800. In his defence, the warden claimed that the charges weren’t all his.

I don’t listen to Tucker and Taz very often and I forget which one took the time to share his personal wisdom on the matter, but I do remember quite clearly two rules that were given for men who just want to enjoy a similar night on the town.

Firstly – Do not use your credit card at a strip club, because the statement reveals where the money was spent.

Secondly – Don’t rat on your buddies, because they have wives and families.

I’m pretty sure that neither Tucker nor Taz read my blog, and even if they did, they probably wouldn’t find it very encouraging. Or maybe they would.

I really have a difficult time understanding much of what happens in this world. I’m told that there is nothing wrong with a lot of things, but at the same time people try to hide the things that they say are perfectly fine.

Something is amiss in my mind with the whole strip club charges. Either going to a strip club is a perfectly acceptable thing to do or it is not. If it’s fine for a man to spend his money on alcohol and naked girls, then there is no reason why a credit card couldn’t be used for that legitimate and noble purpose. In that case, there is no such thing as ratting someone out. Nothing was wrong with it right? If nothing was wrong, then your buddies should have no problem with their wives and children knowing what they were up to. Isn’t it a good thing to be truthful?

It isn’t Tucker and Taz’s fault and I’m not bashing them. They’re just part of the human race and they wouldn’t have their jobs if they actually encouraged their listeners to be honest about the life they are living. They have to tell their listeners to keep lying in order to ‘protect their buddies’. We all know that we all do things that we aren’t supposed to do and instead of confessing and turning from it, we are programmed to hide and cover up. That’s just the human way.

Where are you in that? Do we all do that? Is the case of the Ingersoll Warden an isolated incident? Or does that sort of thing happen very often in our culture? I’m led to believe that this kind of life isn’t isolated in the least. About half of the marriages in our culture end in divorce. Is it any surprise? If husbands and wives continue doing things that alienate one another, how could the story possibly have a happy ending?

I realize that I talk about sin a lot and maybe I seem hard. I’m sorry if it bothers you, but if you are honest with yourself as you process life, haven’t you noticed? Very few things destroy relationships in the same way as old fashioned sin. Nothing alienates a husband or wife, friend or sibling quite so much as when you sin against them.

Do you intentionally do the things that you know will upset your husband or wife? Even if we don’t get ‘caught’, what happens to the relationship when you continue to live in hiding? Can you be completely intimate with someone you are hiding from?

If you aren’t a believer, do you even know what sin is? Do you want to know the ways in which you are destroying some of the best relationships in your life? If you are a follower of Jesus, are you living as a person of the light, or do you still have to hide?

Maybe you can’t reveal everything to the whole world, but where there are still areas of hiding in your life, I urge you to find someone with whom you can confide in; someone who will call it what it is and encourage you towards Christ.

For the record, I see nothing noble or right about spending one’s time or money at a strip club, even though I have frequented those kinds of establishments myself. Did you hear that? I said I’ve been there, done that and I’m not pretending that it was ok. I’m not Mr. Self Righteous trying to justify my actions or to hide them. Maybe my thoughts are bad advice, but it’s much more liberating than living a life in isolation from the ones who love me most.

And if Tucker or Taz ever do read this – I want you to know that if you ever get tired of living life the way the world lives, I’ll be your brother. You’re funny guys.