OM DENNE EPISODE
I guess I’m just not made for Vegas. My favorite thing about it is the food. Every culinary school grad with dreams of being the next celebrity chef I think moves to Vegas. The net result is that even in an outskirts of town “resort” hotel casino the food is fantastic. Nothing comes from a bottle or a premade bag. Everything is hand made from ingredients delivered that day. It’s a Glutton’s paradise.
But our evening off was a Monday which unfortunately was the day that most of the shows took off also. Unless you wanted to indulge Lust at Magic Mike, the Thunder from Down Under, or the generic Cabaret, the pickings were slim. Although it was interesting that libidinous female shows greatly outnumbered those aimed at men. There might be a story about our current moment in that. Female lust is celebrated while male is slightly embarrassing or just tacky. Although nature still has a say as we will all probably find out as what goes on at Cornell doesn’t stay at Cornell.
When the shows didn’t pan out, after I engaged in a bit of Envy over someone who could drop $250 per ticket to get into the Sphere without blinking, Sloth took over. Hotels used to be known for terrible mattresses. Not anymore. It has been a long time since even the cheapest place I stayed in had a mattress that crooked my back. So instead of hunting for the highlife, a two hour nap mid-afternoon indulged my inner slug. And I felt a tinge of Wrath at the conference organizers that the schedule started at 8AM. They could have at least pushed it back to 9 AM. Then I could have indulged both sloth and gluttony in the same morning.
So, I suppose that leaves me two deadly ones. I certainly understand greed, but the flashing lights of the slots and video poker hold little attraction. A few years ago sitting at a blackjack table brought a little frisson, but looking at one this time all I could think was “that’s not going to pay the mortgage.” The Monday Night Football game (GO Bears) might entice both my greed and pride. I could tell myself a story that I have just enough math skills left that I’d be part of the “smart” money. And the payouts at the sports desk are definitely better. As it turns out I should have bet my Bears and their 3rd string QB. It would have paid for the trip. But alas, I’m a glutton, not a greed head. And writing that I just indulged my pride. Although not as much as if I had the winning ticket to prove it.
I suppose after that tour of the seven deadly sins I should address the subject of the conference. A subject sure to break anyone’s pride. Sitting there amid the temptations of Vegas talking about addiction. And specifically porn addiction. You don’t have to go to Vegas anymore to indulge lust. Maybe that partially explains the lack of male aimed shows. Why see the cabaret when your phone is a portal to a different world? Now the conference was full of medicalizing terms – dopamine cycles – and warnings – three stages of addiction. And without judgement upon the reality of them, that’s the way our culture allows us to talk about it without shame. Because that is the natural outcome of indulging sin, shame. Adam and Eve recognized they were naked, stitched together fig leaves and hid.
And you can’t address the sin, until you get past the shame. God called out “where are you?” and asked “who told you, you were naked?” And eventually he made them clothes. Fig leaves don’t last near long enough. The medicalizing that we do that helps past the shame, though I believe it has a wrong aim. It’s aim is management. The worst of it can be an attempt to normalize it, reference “minor attracted persons.” It’s what I call the problem of the church of acceptance. We admit we are sinners, and we just accept it. The gospel is not about acceptance. It is absolution. Sin and shame take their toll. We die. But Christ has freed us. We can drown that Old Adam and his addictions and the new man can arise to live forever. And yes, it is a daily struggle. And yes we will often fail. But we are not just sinners. We are saints. God not only gave Adam and Eve clothes, He gave them a promise. That snake would die. And in Christ it does.
