Hanging The Future

Mark Salling, an actor on the TV show Glee was found dead just a few days ago from an apparent suicide by hanging. He was facing 4–7 years in prison for possession of child pornography pictures found on his devices.

What Mr. Salling did was wrong, there is no denying that. In fact, Genesis 6:5 says:

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

And also does Micah 7:2 state:

The godly has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among mankind; they all lie in wait for blood, and each hunts the other with a net.

There are many other quotable sections like this throughout the Bible; stating that all humans on this earth are full of sin and wickedness. In fact, this particular line from James 2:10 reads:

For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.

is basically stating that all sins are the same, no matter how great. Sin is sin, whether it’s lying to your parents about some small thing or murdering your neighbor for no particular reason. Both are a sin and we are accountable for them in the same way in God’s eyes.

A particularly sad part of the world is how we treat each other. Mr. Salling sinned by viewing inappropriate photos of young children. But when reading the story on TMZ, take a look at the comments posted there.

These people say some awful things about Mr. Salling. They say all people who do this deserve to suffer, even to die. But do we all not sin, do we all not deserve the death penalty (we all die for that reason, in fact) for our sins?

Why go so far as to say such bad things about this guy? He made a grievous mistake, we all do at some point. In human terms, some worse than others.

Did the news, or any of those commenters, state anything positive? No. Maybe they should have written a story like this:

Mark Salling (35), was raised a Christian, had two siblings and two wonderful parents and many fans of his character as Puck on Glee, who all loved him.

Mark had an active love of birds and wildlife and volunteered with the James Hunter Wildlife Rescue charity.

He brought so much joy and entertainment to those around him with his musical talents playing the drums, bass, guitar, and piano.

He was working on a campaign to help raise awareness for children who don’t have enough or anything to eat by taking on the spokesman role for the Child Hunger Ends Here campaign, sponsored by Feeding America, ConAgra Foods and Schools Fight Hunger.

Unfortunately Mr. Salling succumbed to the wicked ways of our human existence, by sinning against God and his fellow man, and chose to hang himself. We pray that he has reconciled with our Father and found forgiveness from Him. We pray that we will all see him again and ourselves forgive him in the afterlife.

We all do good things and we all do bad things, some more than others in both instances. While Mr. Salling chose to enact his own justice (which sadly it seems most people preferred according to the comments) on his acts, we should all be careful to realize what Matthew said in 7:5:

You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

Forgiveness, treatment, understanding, and caring for others is so much harder to do than just throwing someone in a cage or wishing death upon them.

I’m not defending what Mr. Salling did in either his crimes or his suicide, what I am saying is that we’re all hanging our own futures by not following God’s words in how we treat and respond to others no matter that scenario.