Calling Sin A Sin

I was at Dom's website (http://bettnet.dyndns.org/blog/weblog.php) and he has an entry there that talks about a priest who appears to have had a secret life wandering around looking for young boys to have sex with.

When I was at a different job I began to notice that several of my colleagues had boyfriends and girlfriends and that they would "spend the night" at each other's places. We all knew that this was not a "sleep on the couch" sort of arrangement, but yet no one called them on it. I remember one instance where we were all invited for an out of town wedding and the couples began making arrangements to stay in hotels together. When I brought up the idea of the girls staying together and the men staying together I was looked at like I was judgemental and overly-concerned. As my roomate said "If I'm in a room with my boyfriend, I'd hope that you'd think the best of me". Well, yes hon. I'd love nothing better.

What I am speaking to here is: how many of us lead a secret life? How many of us struggle with an addiction to a sin-whether it's sex or alchohol or even drugs. Maybe it's stealing or gambling. Maybe it's anything.

Maybe we ok it in our minds because after all, if no one knows, we aren't hurting anyone, are we? Haven't we then bought into the great myths "If it's right for me..." and "I'm not hurting anyone" ?

But we DO hurt the body of Christ when we sin. Our sin puts a barrier between us and God and us and the Community. We may be less sensitive to listen to the Holy Spirit in the guidance of the ministries we are involved with. We may be less able to hear God calling us for something immediate and specific because we are entrenched in our thinking, in our poor choices and in sin.

This is probably a tricky area to talk about-and certainly a tough one-but I do believe in calling sin a sin and recognizing this in our lives. Whether we like it or not, whether we want to handle it or not we are called to live the Life of Christ so that we can give witness of His Life to others. We are held to a higher standard, folks DO look up to us, do expect certain things about us. This is not all that bad because we should ALL be trying to become more holy.

Does this mean that struggles are non-existant or not acceptable? No. For those who are struggling silently, my heart goes out to you. At the same time, I say-get to someone/place that you can find help. But for those who obstinately live in their sin-get over yourselves. This work is not about us. It is about Christ, first and foremost, then His people.

We need to be at our best so that His people receieve the best. We can't afford to get in the way. To many souls are in need of the Way the Truth and the Life.
UPDATE:
Doug has some good pointers.