Most Christians agree that viewing p*rn is sinful. But do we realize that dogpiling, creating filthy memes, doxxing, sharing private information, goading, belittling, and manipulating are just as sinful?

When I was a young man, I played bass guitar in a Christian rock band. Our band played many church events throughout the south. Youth camps, church retreats, D-Nows, Lock-ins, that sort of thing.

During those events the band would stay in a church host home. The speaker for the event would stay at a host home as well. Not long after my final summer with the band, a prominent speaker we toured with was arrested and sent to prison for voyeurism.

What is Voyeurism? Voyeurism is the practice of obtaining sexual gratification from observing others.^[1] When done without consent, voyeurism is a crime. If a person views someone else in a place where that person has a reasonable expectation of privacy, they have committed a crime. For example, the speaker mentioned above was caught filming women in their bathrooms.

I have been thinking a lot about this recently, especially in regard to social media. You see, a voyeur is not only a peeping tom, but a prying observer who is usually seeking the sordid or scandalous.^[2]

Why do people rubberneck in traffic? Because we are sinfully curious and drawn to the misfortune of others. The Germans call this schadenfreude: taking pleasure in the misfortune of others.

Last year I was sitting in my office when I heard a loud explosion. I stepped outside and discovered that a dump truck had driven off the highway and into somebody’s home. Emergency responders were swift, but so was the rest of the town. It didn’t take long for word to spread that a body was trapped underneath the dump truck. Within minutes of the accident, onlookers took to social media posting images and providing firsthand analysis. I watched all of this happen before the dead could be retrieved. People crowded behind the yellow tape hoping to be the first to see and report the gruesome news.

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