The baptism of a pornographic actress has caused controversy, but the real question isn’t whether Lily Phillips’ sins are too great for God’s grace – it’s whether she truly understands what repentance means, says Lois McLatchie-Miller
The internet - and Christians in particular - have responded predictably to the news that Lily Phillips - infamous for having sex with 100 men in 24 hours - has been baptised: with widespread outrage, mockery and disbelief. A kind of moral hysteria that suggests some sins are simply too sordid, too public, too shameful to be washed clean.
But Christianity has never worked that way. This is at the core of our faith.
If - and only if - Lily has come before God in repentance and humility, her sins have been forgiven fully and freely. That is not a loophole in the gospel; it is the gospel. Grace does not recoil at sexual sin, violent sin, public sin or spectacular sin. Jesus did not flinch when a broken woman wept at his feet. He did not ask for her sexual CV before offering forgiveness. He simply said: “Your sins are forgiven.”
And that is wonderful news. For Lily - and for us all.
Real repentence
Lily’s past is not a problem, but the present ambiguity surrounding her repentance may be. According to her recent interview in US Weekly magazine, Lily does not appear to have denounced her sin - nor the harm caused to herself and others - by her public commodifying of sex.
The loudest voices condemning those who turn to Jesus are often the least credible
Unlike Nala, another former OnlyFans star who recently came to Christ, she has not said that she intends to delete her OnlyFans account and put away her old life. That matters. Not because her sins are uniquely bad - Christianity is not a sliding scale of respectability - but because repentance is not optional window-dressing on the Christian life. It is a hinge on which everything turns.
The issue is whether she is turning away from sin and towards Christ.
Baptism is not a PR reset. It is the symbol of a burial. The old self goes under the water and does not come back up. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation,” Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17. New creations do not cling nostalgically to their old chains. They break them.
If Lily is not shaking off her old ways in favour of a new life in Christ, then it was wrong - and unfair - of the priest to baptise her without the discipleship she so desperately needs.
Visible sin
That said, the loudest voices condemning those who turn to Jesus are often the least credible. The modern Pharisees have been out in force - those who sneer at Lily, at Nala and at others whose sins are sexual, visible, and therefore socially convenient to despise.
How many of those tweeting “Christ is King!” and condemning Lily to hell are defiling themselves with pornography on their computer screens on a daily basis? How many are being unfaithful to their wives or husbands – or are treating others as sexual objects? How many are captured by pride? Greed? Lust?
Jesus had strong words for such people: “Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye,” he asked, “and pay no attention to the log in your own?” (Matthew 7:3).
Many commentators are acting as if Lily Phillips is a worse sinner than they are. But scripture speaks directly against that instinct. Jesus tells us that “whoever has been forgiven little loves little” (Luke 7:47). Conversely, they who have been forgiven much, love much. The woman with the most obvious past may yet become the most devoted disciple.
Serious holiness
The real danger is not that Phillips might be forgiven too easily. The real danger is that she might never be helped to truly repent - and that the watching world sees Christianity as either cruelly judgemental or embarrassingly unserious about holiness.
Time will tell. Jesus himself gave us the test: “You shall know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16).
In the meantime, we would do well to lower our pitchforks and raise our prayers. If we truly believe the gospel, we should be desperate - not cynical - for all who are lost to find Jesus. To repent. To be remade.
Christianity is not a sliding scale of respectability
To discover that their body is not a product, their sexuality not a performance, and their worth not up for sale. That they are worthy and beloved as a child of Christ – not through what they have done, but through what Christ has done for them.
That is the invitation Christ offers to Lily Phillips. It is the same invitation he offers to all of us.
1 Reader's comment