Ecosexual Foolishness: A New Low, Even for CNN

Just when we think we’ve reached the bottom of the barrel for serious reporting by CNN, we discover there are even greater depths of foolishness. This is the same network that breathlessly affirmed a conspiracy that did not exist, according to Robert Mueller’s report to the Department of Justice,^[1][2] that psychoanalyzed President Trump receiving two scoops of ice cream when everyone else was served only one,^[3] and that described the burning devastation of a Black Lives Matter riot as a “fiery but mostly peaceful protest.”^[4] Despite these low standards, the bar dropped even lower on Monday when a CNN anchor stood outside our abandoned U.S. embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan and reported about the Taliban takeover, “They’re chanting ‘death to America,’ but they seem friendly.’”^[5] Nevertheless, CNN has managed to outdo even this foolishness!

Jacqui Palumbo’s lengthy article titled “The ‘Ecosexuals’ Hosting Joyful Weddings to the Earth” is a see-it-to-believe-it moment for our country. The picture adorning the article is worth a thousand words. It shows an eccentric, lesbian couple hugging a tree while arrayed in purple outfits that look like something stolen from the aliens in a 1950s B-grade science fiction movie. Their outlandish costumes make it nearly impossible to take the article serious. Nevertheless, “the most trusted name in news” does its dead-level best to make their antics seem both reasonable and admirable.

“Madly, passionately, and fiercely in love” with our planet, Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens showed their commitment to Earth as lovers (rather than Earth as a mother) in 2008 by marrying the planet.^[6] The wedding was accompanied by “two artists bound by a boa constrictor, a striptease opera singer and a spanking session with long-stemmed roses in lieu of paddles.”^[7] When describing their relationship, these self-described ecosexuals wrote, “We shamelessly hug trees, massage the Earth with our feet, and talk erotically to plants. We make love to the Earth through our senses.”^[8]

Strange as this may seem, their marriage to the Earth was only the beginning of their union with the natural world. Since then, Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens have married the sky, sun, moon, soil, coal, Appalachian Mountains, snow, Adriatic Sea, and Venice Biennale. Moreover, they have future plans to marry brine shrimp, and possibly even the fog.^[9]

What foolishness! And yet the “the most trusted name in news” is endeavoring to legitimize this behavior. Truly CNN has embodied the criticism of Romans 1:22: “Claiming to be wise, they became fools.” However, CNN is merely reflecting values embrace by our American society at large.

Romans 1:18–32 warns that one of the ways God judges nations is to abandon the people to their passions. Sometimes the most devastating judgment of all is not a spectacular foreign invasion, an economic collapse, or a natural disaster. The most dreadful judgment may be what pastor John McArthur calls God’s wrath of abandonment, when God permits a nation to suffer the full consequences of its willful rebellion.

This judgment is the result of allowing our unrighteousness to suppress the self-evident truths of God (Rom. 1:18). It is a natural consequence of supplanting God with nature—or even a blind devotion to “science” (Rom. 1:25). In turn, this is used to justify dishonorable passions that lead to the dishonoring of our bodies (Rom. 1:24, 26).

How can we know whether we are experiencing the wrath of God’s abandonment? Romans goes on to say that a people who have embraced these steps will be “filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them” (Rom. 1:29–32).

One need only scan daily news headlines or read the people’s comments on social media to realize that these qualities have taken root in America. Reports such as CNN’s article about ecosexuals are becoming increasingly common. In other words, America is almost certainly experiencing God’s judgment right now. So how do we reverse course?

We start with ourselves. God’s wrath is directed against “those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness” (Rom. 2:8). Before we seek to change the mentality and values of our government, our community, or even our neighbor, we must first examine ourselves to ensure we are fully committed to obeying God’s truth—wherever it may lead. Are we more committed to God’s truth than we are to our job, our child’s educational opportunities, our reputation, or our social media followers? Are we prepared to daily take up our cross in order to follow Christ in an increasingly anti-Christ culture, or do we find ourselves justifying compromise and complacency in a self-seeking effort to avoid the discomfort that comes with the cross (Luke 9:23)?

Judgment is not coming to America. Judgment is already here. The foolishness, immorality, and unrighteousness readily found in our daily news proves this. Nevertheless, a gradual judgment of abandonment affords a nation opportunity to repent and to reverse course, but this will never happen on a corporate level until it first occurs on an individual level. The solution sounds simple—stop being self-centered and obey God’s truth—but it will cost us everything. Until we ourselves can commit to this, we cannot expect those around us to change. The real question we must ask ourselves is, “Do we fear God’s judgment more than we fear the discomfort of being faithful followers of Jesus?”