Adulterous Liaisons in Northern Ireland

According to 'extramarital dating sites,' the start of any year is prime time for men and women "to sign up to commit adultery."

One such site predicted an increase of 300% in new members at the beginning of 2012. The same site already boasts 43,000 Irish members.

An article carried by the 'Belfast Telegraph' (Thursday, 5 January 2012) outlined the case of one female who signed up to pursue the sin of adultery four years ago - "because she felt that after 13 years and a child together, her relationship had 'lost its spark'."

Since April past she has been engaged in a full-blown 'affair.'

However, despite the attraction of adultery, she fondly imagines that her sin will have little consequences:

"I've no doubt he loves me and I love him dearly. I don't want to break up our family and I couldn't break his heart by walking away ... .

I don't feel guilty because I can compartmentalise the two things. Being discovered scares men, but I believe that what the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve over."

Those who maintain these websites and so cash in on the sins of others (cf. Romans 1:32) clearly see no need for repentance. One spokesperson advanced:

"With websites the fate element is removed: people have to fill in a lengthy profile and face a lot of barriers. We're forcing people to question what they're doing in a way they wouldn't do in real life."

In case they believe their own excuses - and really are as morally bankrupt as the adulterers they facilitate, God's Word delivers a pertinent paragraph, or two:

"My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:
2 That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
3 For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
6 Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.
7 Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
8 Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:
9 Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:
10 Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;
11 And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
12 And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
13 And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!"

(Proverbs 5:1-13).

And again:

"Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness" (Proverbs 30:20).