Help! Make This Transparency Train Stop

A day after posting this article on the high price of transparency, a story has unfolded that demonstrates that cost in ways that should break our hearts and send us to our knees. It's a humbling story that has been marked by exposure that has devalued privacy from the very beginning. It's a story that has made a lot of money, but not nearly enough to ever compensate for the cost.

I was recently telling my daughter that I strongly disapprove of reality shows such as 19 Kids and Counting, because they confuse transparency with authenticity. I told her it will only be a matter of time before a story breaks which reveals that things behind closed doors with the Duggars aren't quite as they appear. Our sinful natures find us all having skeletons in the closet (thoughts or behaviors that we wouldn't want others to discover), and the ones that reside in the midst of this kind of raw public exposure rattle the most. In choosing this level of transparency, the Duggars removed the privilege of dealing with the inevitable skeletons of 19 sinners in privacy. Sadly, that choice has come at an enormous expense. 

If you haven't read the article, I hope you'll take the time. The train of transparency is roaring down the track, and we can't afford to linger thoughtlessly.