The Trial of Trevis Smith -



Whether big league, little league, on no league sports play a fascinating role playing scenario in the lives of young and old around the world. We all love our games of sport and idolize our best. The youth emulates their heroes.

That is why when a role model fails morally it is such a tragic outcome. A recent court trial plays this out. Trevis Smith, married and a father, played football in the Canadian Football League (CFL) with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. He was accused and convicted of having unprotected sex with two women while knowing he was HIV positive. While the sex was consentual the women was unaware of his health needs. Fallen from grace Smith is sentenced to a six year prison term. He is appealing the judgement set.


While Trevis Smith is responsible for his sexual misconduct and must be held accountable a nagging question keeps resurfacing. What were these two 'victimized' women doing in his life in the first place? Surely they could have and should have discovered his martial status without difficulty, being a high profile sports personality. Surely you don't sleep with a person at the drop of a smile. Or, am I too old fashioned for my own good? In my mind these women are as guilty, responsible, and accountable for what they did to themselves as much as what T.S. did to them.

You can't run wild with your sexual drives and then blame another for the consequences. You are as much a morally responsible person as the next guy. In our morally disordered and adrift society we have forgotten that. There is a divine moral code in the universe. By ignoring and breaking it we only harm ourselves. And we have no one to blame but the person in the mirror.

The T.S. trial was, really, about the accused and the victims breaking two of these fundamental codes: "You shall not covet" (i.e. wanting is not yours) and "You shall not commit adultery".

And God doesn't give us the Ten Commandments just to make us feel unhappy or unfulfilled. He gives us the Ten Commandments in order to order our lives so that we can be happy and fulfilled.

By living a life that's impure, you rob yourself of a relationship with a spouse. You rob yourself of a relationship with immediate and extended family. Most of all you rob yourself of your relationship with God.

The universal moral code is all about establishing a well-ordered society. Greed and adultery are not good for our society. Adultery leads to broken homes and disrupted families, and sometimes families without fathers and all the ills of society that come because we don't care whether we commit adultery or not. The Ten Commandments are designed not as rules to make you unhappy, but as rules to make society work right. Living morally is about living a good life.

God's moral code makes provision for divine forgiveness. While this is true, for everyone, the consequences live on in life.

Trevis, his wife, his children, the victims, know this to be true; too late but they know.