When celebrities fall from grace through marital infidelity it strikes people of the world hard. Especially those who have the reputation of being the “good guys.” Those who indulge in marital infidelity and adultery seem to cause the greatest outrage and yet this ranks as one of the most common factors in divorce. But with celebrities it comes like a massive shock. As their world implodes and their private lives are laid bare to the public across the media, the public feels shock through a betrayal of trust.
We are shocked because the persona of these celebrities is so different from the images spread across the daily news. Their marital infidelity and adultery doesn’t fit our picture of them. We see them initially as having it all, often with a great family, great talents, lucrative sponsorships, adulation of the masses, all the trappings of success and the appearance of being an “all round nice guy or gal”.
We feel we know them, only to discover a dark side so foreign from the person we believed them to be and this makes us feel they have betrayed our trust. As their stories unfold and the truth comes out we are forced to believe they were not the person we had imagined.
There is nothing so hurtful as a betrayal of trust. When you put your trust and belief in a person and they betray that trust neither you nor they ever fully recover. And the worst betrayals of trust are in adultery, infidelity and the desecration of the sanctity of marriage.
If we were living in Old Testament times, those indulging in marital infidelity would have been convicted of the sin of adultery, which was punishable by death. Adultery is a very personal sin occurring when a married person has sexual relations with someone other than their husband or wife. The person committing adultery betrays the trust of their husband or wife choosing to break their marriage vows for a fleeting moment of pleasure.
However today under the laws of the land this sin is no longer a crime punishable by death. Yet even in modern western society marital infidelity is still considered terrible because it is a betrayal of trust. We still hold the sanctity of marriage quite dear and anyone who betrays his or her marriage vows suffers punishment at a personal level, if not by the state.
Under Old Testament law they would have been punished with death for their sin. Today though they still suffer a kind of death for their cheating infidelity, albeit in a different way. For celebrities, often their marriages die, along with sponsorships and earning capacity as their careers crash and burn and they lose their position of worldwide admiration.
The truth is that the real people wronged in the betrayal of trust through infidelity are the families of those committing adultery. They deserve better than they have got and the betrayer loses all trust from those closest to them. As for the rest of us, we too often feel betrayed but can only look on in incredulity at the events as they unfold. Generally the public never looks at that person the same way again.
But is there a solution and a way forward for them? In the New Testament world there is a provision for compassion where we can come to God to seek healing and forgiveness.
In the Bible (John 8:3-11) there is an account of a woman caught in adultery being brought to Jesus by the leaders of the people saying, “In the law Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you say about her?” Jesus’ response was, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” One by one they walked away, from the oldest to the youngest leaving Jesus alone with the woman caught in adultery. He then said, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again.”
The key to the way forward is shown in the above. The person caught in a betrayal of trust needs to first seek the Lord’s forgiveness, then seek the forgiveness of those against whom the sin was committed and most important, do not sin again. This is the path that all people need to take to regain respect and to commence healing their betrayal of trust if they have fallen prey to infidelity. Attempts to “spin” the situation, which is often the path taken by celebrities, will fall flat and make matters worse. Only the truth will make them free and only a true repentance from the heart will achieve forgiveness.
I hope that you found something here to help you or add to your own knowledge. If you have any questions, then please feel free to contact me.
