Eat Cake

Within our heart of hearts, we possess a certain set of beliefs - Jesus talked about knowing what those desires are and calling people out because of the evil desires that they harbored.  We have to make sure that our private beliefs that do not honor God are brought into submission to Him, because in the moment of pressure, those errant thoughts may lead to destructive action. Jeremiah 23 says:
23 "Am I a God near at hand," says the Lord, "And not a God afar off?
24 Can anyone hide himself in secret places, So I shall not see him?" says the Lord; "Do I not fill heaven and earth?" says the Lord.

We have to be careful not to assume that what we think or do in private will not have consequences. The Holy Spirit will shine His light in our hearts and seek to correct our conscience so that our lives are in sync with the teachings of Scripture.  We have to hold on to the truth and allow God's Word to govern how we see and respond to the world around us.  It determines how we engage, and gives us power to live a life pleasing to Him.

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Perhaps in Luke 12, Jesus was looking ahead to an age in which there is no privacy and cautioning each of us to make sure that even our private behavior is consistent with who we say we are in the
Lord.  Consider these verses:
1 In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together, so that they trampled one another, He began to say to His disciples first of all, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
2 For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known.
3 Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.

It was just a picture.  An innocent picture posted on social media.  A 15-year-old girl celebrating her birthday at a local restaurant, clad in a rainbow shirt and seated behind a rainbow cake.  What's not to love, right?  After all, even though the LGBTQ agenda has co-opted the rainbow as its symbol doesn't mean that the rainbow can't be displayed or celebrated.  Right?

And, to think, the Christian school she attended kicked Kayla Kenney out - for that picture!  Family Research Council reports:

The press wasn't interested in the real story -- which is that Kayla, who'd already posted (multiple times) that she identified as gay, had a two-year record of disciplinary problems. She was caught cutting lunch, vaping, bullying, disrespecting teachers, and violating the school's moral code. Her own mother, in an interview last week, admits "Kayla was no angel..." In fact, the school had met with the Kenneys multiple times -- most recently in October -- warning her to clean up her act. So the idea that the rainbow cake was just a fluke -- when Kayla is snapping pictures of "getting a gf" and being "in her bed" -- is, as Rod Dreher puts it, "almost certainly a flat-out lie."

Now, the school, Whitefield Academy, in Louisville and the parent company of The American Conservative, the publication for which Dreher writes, are being sued. According to WLKY.com in Louisville, they accuse the school of not following its own policies, and blamed the school and the publication for "outing" her.  Yes, it is true - Dreher had posted Instagram photos of Kayla, which have apparently been removed at this point, which goes to show that this "innocent" shot of Kayla did not tell the whole story.  There's even a Facebook past, now-deleted, in which Kayla's father plainly states that his daughter was suspended because - wait for it - she's gay.  So is the mother going to sue the father, too? And, as FRC points out, Dreher likened this incident to another example of irresponsible media reporting:

"...[And the] account they give is not what Kimberly Alford and the mainstream media want you to believe. It seems to me that this is a situation much like the Covington Catholic smear campaign one year ago -- when the media read what it wanted to read into a story involving a conservative Christian school and slandered them in the name of progressive values."

The FRC column states:

And the irony is: while the Left is busy overreacting to Kayla's case, the real intolerance gets ignored. Where is this same concern when secular schools tell kids they can't pray, start a Christian club, or play "Joy to the World?" The liberal media doesn't mind flying to Kayla's defense, but good luck finding a primetime firestorm that compares to this one. Students are threatened every other week for their faith, but it rarely makes the mainstream press. Why? Because a) most outlets don't sympathize with them, and b) it doesn't fit their narrative -- that Christians are mean, self-righteous, pushers of outdated morals.

It's a clarion call to Christian schools and their religious liberties.  The FRC piece quotes David Closson of the organization, who had served as a deacon at the church that started the school.  He shares, "This story is important because it raises a question at the heart of ongoing religious liberty debates in this country, namely, whether a Christian school founded on Christian convictions can insist that its students and staff comply with its publicly-stated Christian values. Thankfully, Whitefield Academy's statement of faith clearly communicates the school's stance on issues related to sexuality." He adds: "Other Christian schools should pay attention to this and ensure their own statements of faith clearly outline what they believe about marriage, sexual ethics, and the Christian faith that grounds their worldview."

This statement by Closson can segue right into our section on the takeaways here.  We should always be scrutinizing our worldview, and make sure that we view the world through the lens of Scripture.  We can ask ourselves, what do we believe?  And, is our worldview grounded in truth?  Or on personal opinion?

In this information age, we still have to recognize that you can't believe everything you see.  There will always, it seems, be op-ed pieces that masquerade as news - opinion journalists are trying to sway you to see things their way and even stoop to unacceptable levels to do so.  We have to make sure that we are not deceived and search for the facts.

Finally, we can know that what we may think to be personal details can no longer be expected to be kept private.  We experience opinion journalism and there is citizen journalism.  Some of that is good, because it circumvents established structures of reporting information.  But, privacy is a precious commodity these days, and we have to make sure that our seemingly private behavior as children of God honors Him.  And, many help the process along by sharing personal details on social media.  We can't be naive to think that a Facebook post that may be "private" won't somehow leak out into a more public sphere.  People at large can go to your social media feed and learn a lot about you; perhaps what you don't want to have disseminated far and wide.  So, if you don't want it shared or seen, don't share it.  Use discretion and make sure the profile of your activity and personality the world sees honors the Lord.