By now, most of us have heard of Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop.  We’ve seen photos in the newspapers, perhaps on social media or videos on YouTube.^TM  Maybe we saw them on television coverage of the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight and Accountability Committee as Congresswoman and committee member Majorie Greene (R-GA) held up the more salacious of the photos barely a year ago for the public to ogle.  This is definitely cringe-worthy material.  As USA Today described it: 

The laptop breach . . . revealed photos of Biden using drugs, naked and engaged in intimate relations with other adults.”

THE PLOTLINE

The story was that Hunter Biden dropped off his laptop to be repaired at a computer shop in Delaware, but when he did not pick it up within a specified time frame, the laptop became the property of the shopkeeper (John Paul Mac Isaac), perhaps much as we lose claim to the clothing we leave at the dry cleaners if they become “abandoned property” under law?  If only Hunter Biden’s hard drive was wiped as clean as our unclaimed clothing.

At some point, and more than likely after the shopkeeper believed that Hunter Biden was never coming back, the shopkeeper browsed through the files and found all sorts of evidence of potentially illegal, but at the very least, scandalous activities, including Hunter Biden in a tub, in various states of undress, with women in likewise states of undress, drugs and so forth.  I do want to add the caveat that I have not examined the photos in detail, so I may not be one hundred percent accurate in my depictions, but you get the drift.   The shopkeeper might have discretely contacted someone close to the Bidens given the compromising nature of the files on the laptop, but instead, the material wound up in the hands of America’s Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, who was much less discrete had other plans for it.

So, the laptop contained some of the deepest, most horrible secrets in the life of President Biden’s son.  I have to admit that while I am favorably disposed toward President Biden, his wife and his late son Beau, I am much less charitable towards his son Hunter.  I see him as a disgraceful individual who should not come anywhere near the White House.  I’m afraid he is pulling (has pulled) his father down.  But maybe . . . just maybe Hunter has asked God for forgiveness, received it, and in that case, who am I to judge? In that case, I am the one who needs forgiveness. Nor am I a product of the life experiences and family dynamic that define the Biden family.

TO THE POINT

The point of this post is not to bash Hunter Biden.  The point of this post is ask you, the reader: “What is on your laptop?”  “What secrets and sins lie buried in your heart waiting to be accidentally revealed?”  “What have you done that you would be absolutely horrified to have revealed, splashed on the front page of the New York Post?”  What vile or repulsive thoughts have we all entertained at one point in our lives or another. What still festers like an odious, poisonous wound in our spirit?

Whatever it might be, God already knows about it it (and more.)  And if there is a life review¹ associated with death, you may be forced to confront what you’ve suppressed for so long, even if in a millisecond of time.

It’s easy to think “I’m certainly no Hunter Biden.  I could never stoop that low!”  Or, could you?  Or, have you? One of the worst—and most common—sins is for us to feel self-righteous when we hear of the moral failings of others, which we judge to be more heinous than our own. I admit to a fleeting sense of satisfaction when the guilty verdicts came in on Mr. Trump’s hush money trial. But that was wrong of me. Because there but for the grace of God go I. It should be a humbling period, not a cause célèbre.  Another example: someone caught in adultery when we, ourselves dream of such experiences, perhaps only in a romance novel. Deena reminded me recently of how Jimmy Carter gave Playboy magazine that infamous interview when he was running for President. In the interview, Carter mentioned that he has personally committed the sin of adultery because he has lusted after different women in his heart. Many Americans thought this was a hoot and absolutely bizarre when, in fact, Jesus warned about it in no uncertain terms (Matthew 5:27, 28.) But the ridicule Carter received was not unsurprizing. St. Paul tells us that the preaching of the cross is foolish to many and to their perile.

Look at the two committee chairmen in the photo above. Look at their body language as they prepare to squeeze, taunt and humiliate Hunter Biden even more, whether for personal political gain, or to justify their own sense of morality by casting stones at some other person. Note how their arms are crossed. One chairman has a broad smile on his face while the other has a smirk. What’s in their hearts? They do have a responsibility to investigate crimes and conduct oversight into some issues. But where are the lines drawn? Where is the professionalism? Where is the grace, humility and humanity?

PHARISEE AND THE TAX COLLECTOR

In Luke, Chapter 18:9-14 Jesus told the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector:

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: ^‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

As far as forgiveness is concerned, God’s forgiveness is unconditional. There is the expectation, however, that in the process of receiving divine forgiveness, we forgive those who wronged us. Thus, in the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus said: “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors (Matt 6:12.)”

So, let’s not rejoice at the sins and misfortunes of other. This only gives the devil the opportunity to trip us up when we least expect it. Every sin we commit is ultimatelyagainst God (Psalm 51:4) regardless of how we direct it or who the victim is. The Apostle John’s first epistle (New Testament) is a good primer on how to appoach this difficult subject. It’s worth rereading in its entirety.

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FOOTNOTES

¹But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment (Matthew 12:36.)