Some people are going to have an issue with the things I’m going to say here…buuuuuut I’m willing to run that risk.  Recently, various celebrities had their cloud accounts hacked and naked pictures of themselves leaked.  That’s the crime.  Period.  Full stop.  End of story.  Among them is Jennifer Lawrence, an absolutely (from what I know of her) awesome lady.  She was understandably traumatized and hurt when people violated her privacy in a way that I have no frame of reference for.  I suggest you read her side of things here, because her words are going to be infinitely better than mine.

What happened to her is shitty, and her standing up and being willing to talk about it is awesome.  Do you want to know what else is shitty though (and yes, I’m using ‘shitty’ because that’s the perfect word for it)?  People who use her pain, to push forward their own issues and talking points.  Even worse, is taking the opportunity to preach at her as if she has to share your morals.  One quote was all it took to turn Jennifer Lawrence standing up for herself into “This is a perfect opportunity to tell people how she’s wrong and you don’t need porn.”

This just reeks of the “NotAllMen” mansplaining crap that pops up on a regular basis.

“Well, not ALL men look at porn.”

“She shouldn’t have taken the pictures if she didn’t want them on the internet.”

“I don’t want to spend time talking about what a stupid idea it is to take and upload explicit photos of yourself (a.k.a. porn)…” (That one is real and not just hyperbole.)

Its all the same BS.  Well, ok.  It’s different flavors, but still the same BS.  The latter is really ticking me off though.  All of these letters pick one quote out of her whole interview:

“It was long distance, and either your boyfriend is going to look at porn or he’s going to look at you.”

And then proceed to talk about either what she did wrong: I.E. sharing pictures of herself with her committed boyfriend OR the goes into the Porn is bad (which I’m not getting into here) OR starts in examining her relationship and telling her what she’s doing wrong because its not the traditional Christian thing.

So, its not going to go over well with some of the people I know, but here it is.  Using someone else’s pain to put forward your Christian viewpoint is not Christian.  It is a crappy thing to do.  Your call isn’t to publicly shame someone else who is already hurting from something terrible that happened to them.  That’s not love.

Using someone else’s pain to promote your ideas is not Christian.  I don’t care what you message is.  I don’t care that you have the best of intentions.  If Jennifer Lawrence would read your “Open Letters” you would not be helping her in the least.  You’d be showing her that you don’t really care about what she’s going through, you just wanted to use what’s happening to her for a little signal boost.

And I know.  Some people probably have the best of intentions.  But guess what?  You’re not helping either.  Because by “pointing out her sin” or whatever you THINK you’re doing.  You’ve missed the entire picture and point of what just happened.  Jennifer Lawrence and the others who were hacked are the victims of a crime and here you are, wasting time telling them how they’ve screwed up, how THEY are the ones who need to get right with God.  That’s how I know you don’t care about the people who have been hurt by this, and how you don’t care about Jennifer Lawrence.  She sent some pictures to a man that she has been in a relationship with for many years.  Someone else violated her privacy and millions of men joined in that violation.  Why don’t you turn your “righteousness” on them?

I have been told my entire life that “God is Love” and I truly believe that.  I believe that Jesus loves us, and wants us to love others in return.  Maybe you “Open Letter” could think about what that really means for a while, and come back when you have a better understanding of the word, because I don’t think you really know what it means.  Am I being particularly loving now?  *shrug* Eh.  I’m an imperfect man.

Notice: I tried to be as respectful to Jennifer Lawrence and the other victims of the recent hack as possible and I apologize if that did not come across clearly enough.  If you want a good explanation of where this is coming from go and read a little of Chuck Wendig’s blog on #HeForShe.  To anyone wanting to explain how I’m wrong about Christianity and how we should treat people who aren’t Christian, please move along.