The mission of Issues in Perspective is to provide thoughtful, historical and biblically-centered perspectives on current ethical and cultural issues.

On 16 July 2025, Andy Byron (50), CEO of the medium-sized software company Astronomer, attended a Coldplay concert in Foxborough, Massachusetts. [Coldplay are a British rock band formed in London in 1997 and are considered one of the most influential bands of the 21st century.]  The jumbotron camera turned to Byron, who was holding Kristin Cabot (52), the company’s HR director, around the waist. When they noticed themselves on the stadium’s “kiss cam” (camera), they immediately disengaged, with Cabot turning her back and Byron awkwardly ducking out of view. “Either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy,” said Coldplay’s lead singer, Chris Martin, to the stadium audience of 66,000. Cabot and Byron were indeed married, but not to each other. The clip quickly went viral on TikTok, then everywhere else.

As Justin Murphy argues, “The dramatic effect of the video derives in part from Andy Byron’s lack of the one virtue that even the worst rakes in history have generally mustered: discretion.”  Common sense naturally causes one to conclude, this was a really dumb thing to do. Both Byron and Cabot have resigned from Astronomer.

Since I read about this, I have been processing how Christians should respond.  How should we think about this?  What is the Christ-honoring thing to do here?  What words should we use to talk about this?  Where is the balance between a judgmental spirit and the grace and mercy of God?

Adultery is arguably a sin but it important that we as Christians be careful in how we discuss such an indiscretion on the part of Byron and Cabot.  As several columnists have argued, this tragic situation that has ruined two lives came from a “dismal orgy of public shaming.”  Murphy comments that “Here we are presented with a man whose authentic instinct was to hide like a cornered rodent. This is an economically successful man, the leader of a successful company. And yet his fully developed adult nature is so craven that he weaseled away to hide—from the world, his wife, and himself.”

First comment:  “We should not cease public judgment of human behavior in the public sphere. Our only obligation is to be as fair, precise, sensitive, balanced, and proportional as possible.” The case of Andy Byron is significant, not because he is especially evil and deserves brutal judgment, but because it’s a clear-cut test case of what has happened to our culture’s view of marriage, family and the vows we take when we are married.  “For example, educated opinion insisted for decades that divorce is harmless, families are unnecessary, and adultery is just a natural fact of life. These incessant and elaborately intellectualized edicts were heard and heeded, perhaps more than their proponents even expected. The resulting society was unbearable, precisely for the types of people who promulgated these ideas.”

It seems to me that making this tragic case into a spot on national news programs, and flooding social media with the monotonous replaying of the video clip is grossly hypocritical.  It was wrong ethically but it was not unique in our post-Christian culture.  Byron and Cabot reflect the values and virtues of our postmodern culture and shaming them across all facets of the media is suspect.

As I have been thinking and praying about this, I was drawn to the narrative about Jesus in John 8—a woman caught in the very act of adultery.  The absence of the man is this situation drives home the hypocrisy of the accusation.  Nonetheless, three observations about this passage are relevant to the Byron and Cabot tragedy:

1. In John 8:7, Jesus declares, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”  [ESV]  This is a direct reference to Deuteronomy 13:9—witnesses of the crime must be the first to throw the stones of execution and they must not be participants in the crime itself.  Jesus’ comments, D.A. Carson observes, “cut through the double standard and drives hard to reach the conscience.”
2. His words did indeed reach the conscience, for the crowd fled.  As they fled, Jesus addressed the woman with respect and dignity.  He called her “Woman,” which was entirely respectful.  Everything about the situation indicates that she was guilty of adultery, but Jesus saw her as a person who could be redeemed, who could be renewed.
3. Jesus asked her where her accusers were.  “Has no one condemned you?”  Almost shockingly he declared, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” [ESV]  As Carson comments, “The confidence and personal absoluteness of Jesus’ words not only call to mind that Jesus came not to condemn but to save (John 3:17; 12:47), but prompt us to remember the Synoptic accounts that assign Jesus, like God himself, the right to forgive sin.”

Therefore, I have begun praying for Andy Byron and Kristin Cabot.  I have been praying that they would both come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior; that their respective marriages would be salvaged; and that they would find the new life in Christ which will bring fulfillment, purpose and blessing.  I want to see them as Jesus saw that woman caught in adultery.

Second comment:  Wyatte Grantham-Philips concludes that “there are also broader implications at play in our increasingly online world—about the state of potentially being visible everywhere you go or tracked through ‘social media surveillance.’  Experts say it’s more and more common for moments that may have been intended to be private, or at least reserved to a single physical venue, to make their way online and even go global today . . . From CCTV security systems to Ring doorbells, businesses, schools and neighborhoods use ample video surveillance around the clock. Sporting and concert venues have also filmed fans for years, often projecting playful bits of audience participation to the rest of the crowd. In short, the on-scene viewer becomes part of the product—and the center of attention.”

For the Byron-Cabot debacle, “we can talk about what’s right and wrong, and whether they deserved it,” says Alison Taylor, a clinical associate professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business. Still, it’s a “very frightening thing to get a lot of abuse and harassment online,” Taylor notes. “There are real human beings behind this.”

As Grantham-Philips infers, “It’s hard to think that that these kind of viral moments will ever go away—and there are few legal restrictions to stop users from sharing clips of interactions recorded from anything from a concert to the street widely online . . . But on an individual level, Bock says it can be helpful to “think before you share” and question whether something’s really accurate.  “Social media has changed so much,” Bock says. “But we really have not, as a society, caught up with the technology in terms of our ethics and our etiquette.”

In conclusion, this summer I have been preaching on the Wisdom books of the Old Testament, which focus on the application of key terms to our lives—“wisdom, discretion, prudence, insight, discernment, understanding.”  In Proverbs 2:11-12, Solomon gives a helpful overview of the protective function of wisdom in our lives:  “discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you, delivering you for the way of evil.” [ESV]  May Andy Byron and Kristin Cabot realize the protective function God’s wisdom provides and may we all be reminded to seek discernment in our decision-making—gaining insight into the consequences of our choices.

See Justin Murphy, “Coldplaygate and the Case for Public Judgment” in First Things (28 July 2025); Wyatte Grantham-Philips, “Can you Ever Expect Privacy in Public” Associated Press (22 July 2025).