Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay

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The word “disposable” describes a lot of the dominant dating culture, but as current events demonstrate, it is a fitting label for more than that. The sordid tales surrounding the late Jeffrey Epstein (and before him others, such as Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby) speak to the depth of human depravity and to the callousness of which some are capable. Indeed, the word disposable would seem to be a fitting byline for his life: Having disposed of countless, underage females over his life (if the reports are accurate), he is said to have taken (disposed of) his own life. And he was hardly alone in what he was doing: He had a steady stream of “visitors” over the years, some of them quite prominent, and at least one woman on the payroll facilitated much of what went on.

If all this is not bad enough, there are ongoing reports on the rise of “sex slavery” throughout the world, which is becoming prevalent in the United States. Tens of thousands of women and girls are brought into the US every year against their will, and “anywhere from 100,000 up to 300,000 American children at any given time may be at risk of exploitation due to factors such as drug use, homelessness, or other factors connected with increased risk for commercial sexual exploitation” (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_slavery).

It would seem the sordid Epstein tales are not an anomaly but rather are beginning to reflect the culture. There is so much cause for sadness—so many lives used and discarded, as the well as the vacuous lives of the perpetrators. We desperately need a culture that respects and cherishes human beings for who they are, namely, creatures made in the image of God.