What The Ashley Madison Leak Says About Us

The recent hack to the online affair website Ashley Madison has been in the media lately. While many articles have been written about it, I resonate a lot with Glenn Greenwald's piece comparing it to The Scarlet Letter. From a strictly libertarian viewpoint, I am against such invasions of privacy by both government agencies as well as private groups such as Anonymous. Greenwald also brings up the recklessness of such an broad-sweeping data dump. "Whether they actually did what they are accused of will be irrelevant: Digital lynch mobs offer no due process or appeals. And it seems certain that many of the people whose lives are harmed, or ruined, by this hack will have been guilty of nothing." I have strong disagreements with some of Greenwald's claims for moral reasons, but in general I found the article to be most helpful and worth reading.



While we may be decent humans who don't want to go out of our ways to be busybodies, if it's made convenient for us then we often can't resist. Think of way celebrity tabloids are sold at checkout lines. Gossip sells. We know that sites like Ashley Madison exist, but now that there are searchable databases of the users we want to see who the perverts and cheaters are. As a society we seem eager to be gossips. We want to know all the salacious secrets of peoples lives. It doesn't matter than there will be lives of innocent spouses and children left in shambles in the wake of such public shaming. All that matters is that we know who did what with whom.

From a Christian perspective, the fact that a website facilitating affairs exists should deeply sadden us. Clearly, there are many more heterosexuals ruining the sanctity of marriage than there are homosexuals. This is never something to be celebrated. The continuing downfall of Josh Duggar reminds us that we still have work to do building a positive image of marriage from inside the church. The problem is not just that such a site exists, however. The Ashley Madison leak shows us how titillated we have become with salacious gossip; it shows us that we as a society are busybodies. Every single one of us has done things in secret, things we are ashamed of, that if brought to light would ruin our reputation. Thankfully most of us benefit that our secret shameful deeds remain secret. Christians should be deeply saddened by the way people are reveling in the moral disgrace of others.

The celebratory responses to the leak show us how we prize our own reputations above our neighbors. Clearly adultery is a sin. It has damaging effects on the people connected to it, but it is a private affair. We as Christians should not desire that private transgressions be made a public spectacle if they do not need to be. It is not insignificant that when our Lord, Jesus Christ, instructed us to confront our brother with sin he instructed it to be done privately first, then with two or three witnesses, and only after that fails to be brought before the church. The Matthew 18 passage is specifically dealing with matters of church discipline and reconciliation, but I think there are things we can learn about how to deal with sin, to what degree that such sins should be publicized, from a passage like this. Publicly shaming sinners was obviously not something Jesus sought to do.

There are many people who will be hurt by this leak. We should be praying for them, both the victims and the adulterers. Instead of a curiosity to see which public figures are on the list, we should make an effort to resist any urge to be a busybody. Unfortunately, with the way media works, some revelations will be inevitable but we should make an effort to minimize media's effects when possible. If you know anyone who is touched by such public shaming, pray for them. Adulterers need the gospel, and so do it's victims. Before we dare sit in the seat of judgment and scorn, let us remember two things. First, let us remember that while we were yet sinners (adulterers, homosexuals, gossips, and the like) Christ died for us. Secondly, let us remember that our Lord, when confronted with the adulterous woman, gave this council: "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her."

What does Ashley Madison teach us? We are all sinners and we all need a savior. The good news, the gospel is, that God became man and laid down his life to save us. Let us live in light of this, with mercy and grace, not judgment, toward our fellow sinners.