'Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a man who had been caught in bed with a boy; and making the man stand before all of them, they said to him, “Teacher, this man was caught in the very act of sex. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such men. Now what do you say?” They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at him.” And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the man standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to him, “Man, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” He said, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”'

This raises lots of interesting points. To our society, the man's offence is far worse than the woman of John 8. Yet to the pagans of Jesus' day, it would actually have been less. The fact that these days church ministers can carry on in ministry after being caught with a woman is extraordinary - but sadly true...

And we get picked on. Don't giggle too loudly the next time you hear some pontificating preacher claim that all sins are equally bad in God's sight; he's right, but the fact that our area of temptation gets treated how ALL sin should be treated shows how much of a problem the church has: that should be the ideal. And in the meantime, be nice to your church leaders, at least occasionally. Most of them are trying to do a good job...