It's Tuesday, February 3, 2006. I'm Albert Moller, and this is The Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.

One of the things that Christians always have to think through is whether or not a current news preoccupation is really a big issue of worldview significance.

Now, you might think that in almost every case, it would be so.

But that's not the way it works in our society.

Sometimes, just given the way public interest works, sometimes because of the way the media

operate, sometimes just because of social media and public conversation, things that

aren't really worth talking about much can explode all over the place.

And that's something we just need to watch because it really gives us a dual responsibility.

Number one, not just to be preoccupied with whatever the society is preoccupied about.

And then secondly,

for Christians to zero in on what is really important. Now, sometimes you have situations in which

it's a bit of both. And that's certainly the situation with the late Finnan Sear, Jeffrey Epstein,

who, of course, we now know as infamous for rampant sex abuse, and that includes child sex abuse

and at least teenagers, and includes sex trafficking, it includes criminal convictions in terms of

activity with underage persons. And we now know that was just the surface of the evil represented

by Jeffrey Epstein. And we also know that this has

become an issue of just constant cultural preoccupation. And for that matter, of a form of just a moral

leering or just moral obsession, often without any kind of moral weight to it. And you have the celebrity culture and all

this intersecting as well. So let's just take it apart for a moment. Let's understand where we are right now.

Here's where we are, I think, right now. You had Congress come together and pass legislation

that would require the Department of Justice to release millions and millions

of items related to the federal investigation into the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein.

...