Within the past few years there has been a significant uptick in the number of incidences reported in the news of teachers having “inappropriate relationships” with their students.
In the past week, here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, three educators have been arrested for allegedly carrying on trysts with female students, with two of the male teachers involved with the same girl and the other one being someone I had worked with as an umpire.
In the latter case, I am still in shock! The amount of grief and regret I feel for him is beyond words.
One writer at the Washington Post with obvious ulterior motives in mind suggested that social media and texting were to blame for all of the newly spouted illicit liaisons.
To me such a conclusion smacks of an encounter Jesus had with some scribes and Pharisees who criticized Jesus’ disciples for not washing their hands before eating bread.
The scribes and Pharisees believed that by failing to follow the traditions they established led to defilement of the person.
Jesus, however, countered such shallow thinking by pointing out that, “Not what enters into the mouth defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man.”
Of course, that conclusion offended the Pharisees but, then, Jesus went on to explain, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.”
In other words, what defiles a person is not what goes in, but what comes out. “These are the things while defile the man.”
The same principle could be applied to the idea that social media and texting are the causes for the increased numbers of educators fornicating with their students.
It is not the social media or the texting. It is what is brewing inside of those who make the choice to act. That is what defiles the educator.
That said, it must be remembered that ever since the 1950s-60s sexual revolution and the barring of God from the classroom, it should come as no surprise what we are seeing today.
Americans are constantly bombarded everywhere one looks with some kind of sexual innuendo or an ad using sexual overtones to sell some product.
One-third of all teens are sexually active, which includes slightly more than one-half of all High School senior girls.
Add to that the fact that fewer and fewer people subscribe to the biblical ethic regarding sex and morality, but have turned to a more pragmatic approach to sexuality, then it is no wonder during those opportune moments the educator loses his/her proverbial mind amid the heat of passion and the student loses whatever perspective he/she might have.
Of course, by that time, it is all over but the crying. Fantasy becomes a horrible reality as guilt sets in and then it becomes a matter of trying to either undo what was done, lie about it, or come clean.
Unfortunately, in a staggering number of cases that just keeps on growing, the truth eventually surfaces and then comes all the embarrassment, shame, and justice.
It is the end result of thumbing our noses at God.
So, with these latest revelations about teacher-student relations, is there a possibility that they eventually go away or will they worsen? Well, let’s consider a couple of things before I answer.
Does anyone foresee a change in the sexual morés of society very soon? No.
Does anyone foresee any kind of reformation within church society on the near horizon? No.
Does anyone know of a real, objective reason outside of what God has to say about sex, morality, and ethics, why a teacher should not being having sex with a student? No.
Then, frankly, I do not see these relationships getting better or being cleared up. In fact, they should not, as long as we continue to sow corrupt values into our society, which includes our children.
Instead, given the direction society is headed and how sex-crazy it is about nearly everything, it would not surprise me to wake up one morning and read that a new law had been passed which sanctions certain kinds of teacher-student relationships that condones intimate, sexual contact.
If you doubt that, then please note, it is already happening in Maryland. Why should it stop there?
