the tindog coffeehouse

It seems like everywhere you turn lately, there’s some new sordid story about the marital breakdown of Jon and Kate Gosselin, the stars of TLC’s reality show Jon & Kate Plus 8.

Like others who watched the show, I always respected them for their faith and their commitment to their family. How much of that has changed over the years I don’t really know since that’s really only a question that they themselves can answer.

But if there’s any good that can come out of the couple’s situation, it’s that the train wreck being played out on television and in the tabloids can provide us as Christians with some extremely important lessons.

First, Christianity Today reminds us that we’re as vulnerable as anyone to falling victim to the seductions of the world:

It was not until the recent allegations of sexual impropriety arose that a significant number of Christians began to question whether Jon and Kate were indeed the examples of faithful living that we had imagined. Somehow most of us missed the long trajectory that was, day by day, moving them farther from a life of Christian virtue. Sexual immorality—whether actual or merely suspected—caught our attention, but the materialism, narcissism, and exploitation of children that preceded it was largely overlooked.

As such, the breakdown of Jon and Kate’s marriage is but a symptom of the larger weaknesses of ethics in the evangelical community. We are easily seduced by wealth and fame. We are easily contented by the shallow rhetoric of hot-button issues. In short, we are easily deceived by cultural values painted in Christian veneers (or clothed in Isaiah 40:31 T-shirts).

Second, blogger Jon Acuff points out the ever-present need for grace:

Did Jon and Kate get what they deserve? I don’t know. I’ve seen other Christians express this opinion but I don’t know Jon and Kate. I know me. And I didn’t get what I deserved. I got grace. I got forgiveness. I got Christ. I got rescued from the ruins of a life that seemed beyond redemption. I got a second chance and a 10th chance and a 300th chance. I didn’t get what I deserved. And when we say that someone, “Got what they deserved,” whether we’re talking about a reality TV couple, our relatives or our neighbors, we lose sight of grace, which is the undercurrent of our entire faith and a gift we do not deserve.

We’re all flawed. Every single one of us. To think otherwise is a flat-out lie. Why should the Gosselins be any different than the rest of us? Or to put it another way, why should I think than I’m any different from them?