Chuckling at Sin

by Dan Bouchelle

A few weeks ago a local campus newspaper featured a picture of a “man” dressed in women’s clothes, a “Drag Queen.” The picture accompanied an article about some event where students and others could go see males parade around in women’s clothes as a form of entertainment and cultural expression. My wife was sitting in a college class when the paper came out. One of the other students asked her, “Have you ever been to a drag show? You really ought to go. It’s a hoot!” This person was not homosexual, but she found watching the licentious display of mild homosexual behavior entertaining.

Apparently this is a common feeling. The Birdcage has been one of the top grossing movies of recent months. It is about a young man, raised by two homosexual men, who becomes engaged to a young lady whose parents are strict moral traditionalists. I haven’t seen the movie, but I’m sure the homosexual men are portrayed as compassionate, caring, witty, joy-filled people in contrast to the traditional family members who likely come off as repressive, hateful, narrow, ignorant tyrants. One thing I do know from seeing ads for the movie—they want to draw people in by getting them to laugh at sin.

I love to laugh. I love humor. I enjoy the comical side of things. But I can’t find anything funny about gross immorality. I don’t think it’s funny when someone gets smash-faced drunk. I don’t think it’s cute when a guy gets away with having sex with several women. I don’t think profanity and sexual innuendo enhance a comedy routine. I suppose I just know too many people who have been devastated by their own sin or the sin of others near them. Like the exceptionally devoted Christian young lady I know who married a polite young man thinking he was a sincere Christian. Six weeks later he tells her he is homosexual and is having an affair with a man. Neither she nor her parents see much to laugh about. Every day people experience the heartache that comes from violating God’s will. So when Rosanne, Friends, or Seinfeld try to make sin look cute, I feel like grieving, and I quit watching. Sin just isn’t a laughing matter.

Once you begin to see sin as funny, you forget it is serious. If Satan can convince us that morality, sobriety, and faithfulness are merely matters to chuckle about, sin seems more acceptable. Yet somewhere very near is a Holy God and the people hurt by the sin so many find amusing. They aren’t laughing.