China Built the Most Embarrassing Bathroom Ever — It Preaches Better Than Most Churches

A Chinese shopping mall's radical solution to bathroom smokers accidentally preaches one of the most uncomfortable truths in Scripture.

SERMON TRANSCRIPT…https://weirddarkness.com/COTU-TransparentBathroomStalls

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Sometimes the strangest headlines from around the world hit a
little too close to hun not because they're relevant to
our daily lives, but because they accidentally illustrate something we'd
rather not think about. Today, we're going to talk about
a shopping mall bathroom, a very creative punishment for rule breakers,
and what it all has to do with how we

(00:23):
live when we think nobody's watching. Hello, Weirdos, I'm Pastor Darren.
Welcome to the Church of the Undead. Here in the
Church of the un Dead, I step away from being
the host of Weird Darkness and step into the clothes

(00:43):
of a reverend. I still share things that are dark, strange,
or macabre, diving into the paranormal, true crime, monsters, and more,
but I try to find a biblical take on the
subject matter. I have to say it is a fun
challenge if you're a Weirdo family member from my Weird
Darkness podcast or a weird o in Christ from this one.
Welcome to the Church of the Undead. And I use

(01:04):
the word undead because as Romans six, verse eleven says,
in the same way, killing yourselves dead to sin, but
alive to God. In Christ, Jesus and as Ephesians two states,
even when we were dead in our trespasses, God made
us alive together with Christ. If you were dead and
now are alive, that makes you undead. If you want

(01:26):
to join this weirdo congregation, just click that subscribe or
follow button and visit us online at Weird Darkness dot
com slash church. In this episode's message, a Chinese shopping
mall's radical solution to bathroom smokers accidentally preaches what are
the most uncomfortable truths in scripture? Full disclosure. Before I

(01:47):
get into the message, I might use the term pastor
because I've branded this feature as a church and I
got a minister's license online. But I do not have
a theology degree, nor did I ever go to Bible College.
I'm just a guy who gave his life to Christ
at the age of twenty one and has tried to
walk the walk ever since and has stumbled a lot
along the way because like everybody else, I am an imperfect,

(02:11):
heavily flawed human being. So please don't take what I
say as gospel. Dig into God's Word yourself for confirmation, inspiration,
and revelation. That being said, Welcome to the Church of
the Yon dead. Wow. The Schwabei International Center sets in

(02:35):
Shenjen's Luau district in China, and like shopping centers everywhere,
it has a problem. People keep smoking in the bathrooms. Now.
I don't know about you, but I've walked into public
restrooms that smelled like someone hot box to the place
with a pack of Marlboroughs, and it is not exactly
a pleasant experience. In China, apparently, bathroom smoking is practically

(02:56):
a national pastime. One commentator online noted that it's not
uncommon for people to start choking the moment they enter
a men's restroom because the smoke is so thick. The
shopping center tried everything. They posted signs, they imposed fines,
They even banned repeat offenders for periods of time. Nothing worked.

(03:17):
People kept sneaking cigarettes in the stalls, confident that behind
that locked door nobody could catch them in the act.
How's that song go, Mall cup, don't you fill me
up with your rules? Everybody knows that smoking in the
stalls is cool. Okay, Well, I know that's not the
way it goes, but that's the way they sing it
in China's public restrooms. Apparently, so the management team got creative,

(03:42):
very very creative. They erected some new bathroom stall doors
with rectangular glass windows. Under normal circumstances, the glass stays
frosted for privacy, you know, the way bathroom doors should be.
But here's the twist. Hidden in those doors is a
special silver halied compound connected to a smoke and heat sensor.

(04:05):
The moment someone lights up a cigarette, the molecules and
the glass react that frosted privacy glass. It instantly becomes
completely transparent, clear as a freshly wind next window, and
there you are, pants around your ankles, cigarette tin hand
fully visible to anybody who happens to be washing their

(04:25):
hands at the sink. If that weren't enough, a loud
automated message also blares through the restroom announcing that smoking
is prohibited, lecturing the offender about secondhand smoke prevention, just
in case anybody in a three stall radius missed the
show you were putting on. The shopping center put up
signs to warn people, one of them breads, And I'm

(04:47):
paraphrasing here because I don't speak Chinese. Resist the urge
to smoke unless you want to become Internet famous. See,
the real threat isn't just embarrassment in front of the
guy of the urinal. It's that someone might whip out
their phone and record you in your moment of exposed shame,
and that footage could end up on social media. In

(05:08):
a country of over a billion people with smartphones, that
is not an empty threat. The response online has been mixed.
Some people think it's genius. One commenter celebrated that they
finally have an effective way to combat smoking. Another said
it's a great idea given how bad the bathroom smoking
problem is. Others raised some valid concerns. What if the

(05:31):
system malfunctions? What if somebody outside the stall deliberately blows
smoke under the door just to expose an innocent person inside?
Does the system react to perfume or other aerosols? These
are legitimate questions, and honestly, the potential for pranks here
is astronomical. For now, the transparent doors are still in

(05:52):
a trial period, but if public response stays positive and
they work the way they are intended, they'll become permanent.
Wouldn't you just love to see these installed in your
local bar or at the football stadium restrooms? Okay, so
why am I a fake Internet pastor talking about Chinese
bathroom technology. Well, because we all have a bathroom stall.

(06:16):
I mean not literally, Well, yeah, I mean we all
do literally have bathroom stalls, but I mean metaphorically. We
all have places in our lives where we think we're
hitting private spaces where we believe nobody can see what
we're doing. Whether it's the browser history we clear, the
conversations we delete, the thoughts we entertain, or the habits
we indulge when we're alone. We all have our frosted

(06:39):
glass doors. And here's the uncomfortable truth that this weird
news story accidentally illustrates. We think, just like those frosted
glass bathroom door stalls, that those doors are private. We
think that because nobody else can see us, nobody knows
what we're doing while we're thinking. But Scripture has something

(06:59):
to different to say about that. In Luke chapter twelve,
verses two and three, Jesus tells his disciples something that
should make all of us a little uncomfortable. He says,
there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, nothing
hidden that will not be made known. He goes on
to say that what we've said in the dark night
will be heard in the light of day, and what

(07:22):
we've whispered in the ear and inner rooms will be
proclaimed from the roofs. That's the biblical version of the
transparent bathroom door. Everything we think is private, one day,
it's going to be very clearly seen. Jesus isn't trying
to terrify us here. Well, well, yeah, maybe a little bit.
But his point is that we shouldn't live as if

(07:43):
our private moments don't count. The person we are when
nobody's watching is the person we actually are. Hebrews four,
verse thirteen puts it even more directly. Nothing in all
creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and
laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we
must give account. God doesn't need a silver halied compound

(08:06):
and a smoke detector. He sees through our frosted glass
all the time, every time. Here's the thing about those
Chinese bathroom smokers. They weren't doing anything particularly evil. Smoking
isn't the sin annoying maybe, and definitely bad for your health,
but not a moral failing. The issue was that they

(08:28):
were breaking a rule and thought they could get away
with it because they were hidden. That's the real problem,
not the cigarette, the belief that secrecy equals permission. How
many of us live like that. We convince ourselves that
if nobody sees it, it doesn't really count. If nobody knows,
it's not really a problem. If we can keep the

(08:51):
door frosted, we can keep doing what we're doing. But
we're not actually hidden. We just think we are. The
shopping center's transparent doors work as a deterrent because people
fear exposure. They fear being seen. They fear the shame
of being caught doing something they knew they shouldn't be doing.

(09:13):
And here's the kicker. We already are seen by a
God who knows every thought, every action, every hidden thing.
The glass has always been clear from his perspective. So
what do we do with this uncomfortable reality. Well, the
apostle John gives us some direction. In First John, Chapter one,

(09:33):
verses five through seven. He writes that God is light,
and in him there is no darkness at all. If
we claim to have fellowship with Him and yet walk
in the darkness, we lie and do not live out
the truth. But if we walk in the light as
He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another,
and the blood of Jesus his son purifies us from

(09:55):
all sin. Walking in the light means living as if
the glass is already transparent. It means making choices in
private that we be okay making in public. It means
recognizing that there's no such thing as a hidden moment,
not really, and letting that shape how we live. This
doesn't mean we have to be perfect. Notice, John says

(10:17):
the blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin. He's
not saying we'll never mess up. He's saying that when
we walk in the light, when we stop pretending our
frosted glass is actually opaque, we experience real fellowship with
God and with each other. Hiding is exhausting, Pretending is exhausting.

(10:37):
Living with the constant fear that someone might blow smoke
under your door and expose you. That's no way to live. Now.
Here's where the bathroom door illustration breaks down, and where
the gospel is infinitely better than Chinese mall technology. The
shopping center's transparent doors are designed to shame people, to

(10:58):
expose them at their moment most vulnerable, to make them
afraid of being caught. The signs even threatened that offenders
could become Internet famous and not in a good way.
God's approach is different. Yes he sees everything, yes nothing
is hidden from his sight, but his response to our
exposure isn't to broadcast our shame on cosmic social media.

(11:23):
His response is grace. Romans eight, verse one tells us
that there is now no condemnation for those who are
in Christ Jesus. When God looks through our transparent glass
and sees all our mess, our failures, our secret sins,
our shameful habits, he doesn't pull out his phone to
record it. He extends forgiveness. The cross of Jesus is

(11:46):
where our exposure met his grace. Every hidden thing we've
ever done was laid bare on that hill, and Jesus
took the consequences for all of it. So we don't
have to live in fear of being found out. We
can walk in the light voluntarily, not because we're terrified
of exposure, but because we've already been forgiven for everything

(12:07):
there is to expose. So how do we actually live
this way? Let's look at a few practical suggestions. First,
stop building private kingdoms. Whatever habits or behaviors we only
indulge when we're alone. If we would be embarrassed for
someone to see them. That's a sign we already know

(12:28):
they're not good for us. We need to start making
decisions in private, as if the glass is already transparent. Next,
remember that exposure is not the same as condemnation. When
we mess up, and we will mess up, we don't
have to hide in shame. First, John one, verse nine
promises that if we confess our sins, God is faithful

(12:50):
and just to forgive us our sins and purify us
from all on righteousness. Confession is voluntarily making the glass transparent.
It's stepping into the light before someone else drags us there. Finally,
extend to others the grace God has shown you. If
we ever catch somebody else with their glass gone clear,

(13:12):
our job is not to record it and post it online.
Our job is to offer the same mercy that we've received.
Somewhere in Shenzhanjina, there's a shopping mall bathroom with doors
that'll expose you if you try to sneak a cigarette.
It's meant as a deterrent, a threat, a promise of
public shame. But here's the good news that bathroom technology

(13:35):
can never offer. Our God already sees everything, and he
loves us anyway. We don't have to live in fear
of being found out because Jesus already paid the price
for everything hidden. We don't have to pretend our frosted
glass is keeping our secrets because it was never really
frosted to begin with, not from God's perspective. So let's

(13:57):
stop exhausting ourselves with the illusion of secrecy. Let's walk
in the light where real fellowship and real freedom are found.
Let's live transparently, not because we're afraid of exposure, but
because we're already covered by grace. The glass is already clear.
God sees you completely, and He still loves you. Believe

(14:21):
it or not. That is a truth worth stepping into
the light for. If you like what you heard, share
this episode with others whom you think might also like it.
Maybe the person you share it with or want to
join this weirdo congregation too. To listen to previous messages,

(14:43):
visit Weirddarkness dot com slash church. That's weird Darkness dot
com slash church. I'm Darren Marler. Thanks for joining me
weirdos and until next time, Jesus loves you, and so
do I. God bless