It's Not Funny

Louis CK comedian extraordinaire recently admitted to behaving inappropriately towards women for years. His confession, which can be read in its entirety on the following web site (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/10/arts/television/louis-ck-statement.html?action=click&contentCollection=Arts&module=RelatedCoverage&region=EndOfArticle&pgtype=article) admits that the accusations are all true. Honestly, reading what he did is disgusting and disturbing. I wouldn’t want elementary age kids reading this stuff!

Of course, people who have been associated with him have reacted in the politically correct way: contra Hollywood’s usual way of dealing with things like this. While Harvey Weinstein went about his sexual harassment for years, without so much as a peep from Hollywood, everyone is jumping on the “that's disgusting and unacceptable” bandwagon when it comes to Louis C.K. And for the record, this is all happening while Hollywood continues to create movies that actually promote, and mimic, the very thing being disdained and condemned in Louis C.K. and Weinstein.

Louis C.K’s confession rings true, though certainly one suspects he’s doing the politically correct thing. His last sentence is the one that grabbed my attention: “I have spent my long and lucky career talking and saying anything I want. I will now step back and take a long time to listen. Thank you for reading.”

Will he? Who knows! But we know that this posture of listening openly, and with honest personal reflection, is truly the right place to start. Psalm 81:8-13 notes that if we’ll but listen to God, and let Him direct us to the revelation of himself in the person and work of Christ, He’ll satisfy us with the finest of wheat, honey from the rock (v. 16). Maybe Louis C.K., who is anything but a Christian, is beginning the long slow journey of having the empty place in his soul occupied by Someone who can actually fill it. As philosophers have puts it for millennia, “If there is a God who created us, then the deepest chambers of our soul simply cannot be filled up by anything less. That’s how great God is!” Only He can satisfy the thirsty soul.