I want you to try and just read these Scriptural quotes straight through, tune out the references and citations if you can. Their contexts only add to the depth of the power behind them, though some are initially addressed directly to the actual events of another time and place. They were written for our admonition upon whom the end of the ages has come. They inform a Scriptural perspective on what I want to talk about in this post and are worthy of meditation in and of themselves as they stand singly, and as they are grouped here today as a whole.
The above link is the genesis of this specific blog today. You may want to read it before you continue.
I also thought of subtitling this one "Independent Businessman (Part 2)"
Pedophilia. The succinct latinized name for sexual abuse of children. Sexual abuse sounds coarse, abrasive, raw - but pedophilia is clinical, soft, deceptive. Abortion. How about that one? Legalized murder sounds rude, judgmental, argumentative. I'll lose virtual friends over this blog and the Facebook post about this link on my page last night where I stated
Pedophilia is clinical and deceptive - let's call it what it is: sexual abuse of children. It's like calling abortion a choice or an ethical debate - it's neither - it's legalized murder and it is one of the greatest evils of our age. The effects of these misnamed sins are life long and catastrophic and healing only begins when they are rightly named in the victim's life.
Well Shakespeare asked quite lyrically in Romeo and Juliet: "What's in a name?..." My position is that we should call it as it is in reality, let's not disguise the matters in this case. With the strategically intentional dumbing down of our society, of which we are all victim to some degree, we need to be greatly attentive to making sure that what we say is actually what is heard today. Pedophilia and abortion ring alarms in my ears, but not everyone hears those clanging warnings. The word abortion to some engenders good feelings of progress and women's rights and respect. My adopted mother certainly demanded I recognize it that way. Hardly - the reality is all the opposites. This is not something on which we can agree to disagree. The Truth is never dependent upon your belief in, or agreement with, it to be true. We are not talking the life of the mother versus the life of the child, incest, or rape in 99.9% of the cases where abortion is practiced, we're talking convenience and multi-tiered irresponsibility code worded "CHOICE." I'm truly pro-choice in my beliefs, PRO-CHOICE BEFORE CONCEPTION. If God chooses to knit a child together in it's mother's womb He has a reason, the CHOICE has been made by a higher authority than you or I. Word games, unintentional or not, will not behoove us in this matter. It has always been so that there are many word games played in our culture, and cultures throughout the world. Another of my favorite peeves is "lifestyle choice". Attach that forcefully vague phrase to something and it's suddenly acceptable, WRONG. Sin is sin is sin. No one thing weighs heavier in the scale than another beloved, hard as that is to truly understand. We think there are grades and shades and scales ranking our least favorites higher on the chart than others. There are differences in effect of sin, akin to the differences between a pop-it, firecracker, a charge of TNT, a carefully shaped/carved wad of C4, a cluster munition, and a nuclear bomb. All of these are explosives. That's as clear as I can make it. The Bible teaches explicitly that our refusal to acknowledge and repent of our sin separates us from the love of God. A pop-it is enough beloved. You don't need to be guilty of dropping a nuke.
My friend Lee Clements got it right with the first part of his comment on that post last night:
I think it's an indication of the selfishness evident in our current culture--by saying "it's not their fault, they're born that way" we simultaneously excuse the behavior and ignore the victims.
We have bought into the philodoxical lie [philosophy is love of truth, philodoxy - love of opinion] that we live in a world where black and white aren't appropriate, we need shades of grey - which makes the pornographic eroticism of the current popular book "Fifty Shades of Grey" that much more ironic. I'm quite certain the British author Erika Leonard writing as E.L. James knew full well the ironies she was capitalizing on in creating that title for her juggernaut [here's a word game for you, look up juggernaut in the dictionary and see if every single definition doesn't apply philosophically] trilogy; and as well with the not at all subtle choice of the main character's name Christian Grey. Rarely does an author accidentally stumble on something, and if they do, they finesse it for full effect and praise their god or God accordingly.
Childhood sexual abuse is a nuclear bomb beloved, it is wildfire unleashed, it is indiscriminate in the the devastation it wreaks - and it is not contained or targeted in who is affected. Ground Zero will spill forth radiation for the remaining decades of that person's life and even those on the farthest fringes of the initial event will suffer at least the repercussions of the shock waves produced. Abortion is not far different. If you think I jest or exaggerate feel free to message me, we'll sit down at length and discuss the topic. Take off a Friday and plan to stay with me over the weekend because we'll just be getting into it when you have to leave Sunday evening. It's that serious. I'm 40 years old. I've been at sorting this topic out for at least 33 years, and helping others out of the black holes of abuse for a touch over 22 years. The lies are that insidious, the misconceptions that complicated, it's just plain bad stuff any way you want to analogize it. Therapists who write books take helicopter rides over the landscape of childhood sexual abuse, because driving through the wilderness takes volumes. Authors have to separate recovery tomes for women and men, because the roots of this evil bring forth different trees of devastation. We share a whole common ground of issues in some ways, but Men are from Mars Women from Venus.
Sin takes myriad paths once it enters the gate beloved, make no mistake, do not delude yourself with soft words and lies. Promiscuity, transgender issues, homosexuality, dissociative disorders, ADHD, multiple personality disorders and blatant demonic possessions, alcohol and drug abuse to falsely escape the pain, violence perpetrated against people who had absolutely nothing to do with the abuse, robbery, suicide, incarceration, insanity... the untreated, unhealed outcomes are never good, and never precisely predictable. Sin is never pretty, nor are the secondary results victims exemplify throughout their lives. Oh the Bible calls this fruit by the way, fruit of a bad tree. The unredeemed heart of humanity will always produce these if left untended - the victims of abuse are much more likely to exhibit all of them in abundance. This kind of tree is good for nothing, but to be cut down and burned in the fire. The repentant, redeemed heart, has another list which can take years to cultivate and produce in any abundance, but always begins showing at least little buds soon after Jesus is accepted and the Holy Spirit seals you: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control; against such things there is no law." Galatians 5:22-23 (ESV). The somewhat good news in this issue is also something that corrects a misconception that victims becomes perpetrators. Here's one of the things I posted last night:
The few untreated, unhealed individuals who do survive rarely become perpetrators themselves, they often are some of the angriest or most volatile individuals and die of bitterness exacerbated issues. There are an extremely high percentage of survivors who become homosexual or transgendered as a result, and live otherwise 'normal' lives with semi-successful integration in their culture. With extremely rare exception, however, almost every perpetrator was a victim themselves. Men and women who have both survived and recovered make up less than 5% of the total victims by generous estimates. There is so much stigma and shame and false assumption out regarding the issue of childhood sexual abuse that percentages and numbers are strongly educated estimates rather than concrete certainties. Survival is only the first step in a long road for childhood sexual abuse victims, rape victims, abuse victims, or those who choose abortion or have it forced upon them. Survival is the first step, recovery is another journey altogether... few actually make it down that healing path. Without Jesus I most certainly would not have made it, that is a concrete fact. I am one, and I am not alone.
Childhood sexual abuse is not a joking matter popularly accepted by promotion in such songs as Van Zant's "I Know My History" where he winkingly invites us to accept this kind of thing with the catchy lyrics "I was cuttin' the grass when she asked me in - learned everything I needed to know when I was sixteen (know what I mean?)"; or the melodic 50's and 60's songs about forbidden young love, or________ fill in the blank. Belief check: are your beliefs more informed by the Bible or traditional and popular music? Think about that another time friends. The truth of the matter is that a sixteen year old boy was willingly abused in that Van Zant song. Because the lady had an itch she wanted scratched and she used him knowing his ego and hormones would override any sense the boy had. Pop-it, firecracker, half stick of TNT? I don't know but it was definitely an explosive event, and it is far more common than we think. I have friends who were their mother's sexual partners because their alcoholic fathers were out drinking and whoring while mom was left at home neglected... I've just about ruined that whole Van Zant album for myself writing this blog. $16.99 I'll never get back. Sin is priceless. Sin is like a drop of oil that seems insignificant at first drip, but ends with an indelible, creeping ring stain all out of proportion to the initial event.
This paragraph isn't nice, it's pretty raw actually. Sometimes the truth comes out that way before you get to the redemption parts. Proceed with that warning or go away now. To have a homosexual news anchor plead for understanding and even admit sympathy for a serial pedophile is beyond words - it is beyond insulting - it is re-traumatizing for childhood sexual abuse victims. And I'm not even addressing his open homosexuality and the hurtful, harmful, self inflicted wrongness of that whole issue which has been forcefully shoved down our public throat in almost justified retaliation for our hypocritical inability to love the human caught in sin. I have homosexual acquaintances and a few who call me friend. I don't treat them inhumanly but they don't think I agree with what they're doing to themselves or that I'll ever promote or advocate their 'lifestyle choice'. I sat here numb for three hours after I read that article last night. I mean vaguely tingling over my whole body, numb. It's one of the milder manifestations of PTSD resulting from my own childhood sexual abuse. I actually cried for a few minutes, a healing, cathartic thing not possible for me in years gone by. I thought about faces of victims I've known over the last two decades and what their reactions would be. Sympathize with perpetrators?, hardly - they need to be killed and cremated and their ashes flushed into the sewer where human waste belongs. Even if they are repentant. They aren't worth a patch of ground or another moment's oxygen. Extensive re-trials and incarcerations - why? For the cost of a bullet we victims would be happy to help society out by greatly reducing the monetary costs of everything following the conviction. If they sincerely repent they'll get to be with their Lord that much sooner, if they don't, they'll get to be with their father the devil post haste - but to allow them to live while the innocent victim and their family have to live with the fall out is unconscionable. The thief on the cross next to Jesus repented and we'll talk with him in Heaven, but he still died justly for his crimes against humanity. Therapists who have worked in this area for decades estimate that most of us victims don't live past our mid twenties, our coroners and police reports read causes of death that don't say "pedophile victim" BUT THEY SHOULD. Why should the perpetrator get three hots and a cot while we struggle to piece together a life that falls apart at every turn? We have to read books and pay for therapists out of our own pocket and attend self help groups with non-judgmental people who have been victims themselves - all while life goes on without stopping. Keep yourself together and buttoned up properly in public life, act like nothing's wrong. Read Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence book and figure how to make something out of your PTSD having life since you're obviously incapable of living up to your potential... On and on the confusing self talk and 'helpful' suggestions go. And don't bring it up in Church during Sunday School prayer time either, well meaning ignorance will twist it to be your fault somehow and the victim leaves the fold chased by the devil himself rejoicing that another one of God's children is isolated from the Body and will have their healing path confused and the results delayed by shame, anger, and bitterness. And your Sunday School class decides you've backslidden and need extra prayers but they never call or visit and find out why they are the ones who need to apologize. There's something to be said for not going to the hardware store for a loaf of bread, but there's also a strong word in something I read by Reinhard Bonnke:
Churches are not clubs for the perfect. They are clinics for the sick, the wounded and the maimed, where those a bit stronger help those who are still weak. The forgiven forgive. The healed heal. The comforted comfort others. Our role is not to kick people when they are down. They are the devil's victims and rather than scorn we should pour on them the oil of understanding and bring recovery and joy.
I've wept with people over the devastating affects - I have zero sympathy. I've puked reading stories of survivors who carried this evil into their tragic adult lives and experience re-abuse in their attempts to obtain healing. I rinsed my mouth, brushed my teeth and forced myself to return and face the truth they live with daily. I believe God was onto something when he said to cut the sin out of the body, remove the evil from among you, let the nations see and fear. There's a time and place for everything beloved, coddling criminals the way we do is dragging us all down. What about forgiveness, healing, love? Yeah what about that for the victims? What about reasonable defense from future crimes, not reliving the trauma every time we see someone's face, not living in fear that someone will find us and repeat their depredation [there's another word game for you]? Why does the criminal get our sympathies and monies while the victims are given a pat on the back and encouraged to move on with their life? Victim's copays aren't waved at the therapist's office, (if they can find a therapist in the field at all, and if they can afford it). We (rightly) say they need to make sure they are investing in their recovery and valuing the therapist's time accordingly. We're reteaching them respect and boundaries. So what is it the perpetrator learns by the converse actions? Just askin'. The same God who is steadfast and healing and the very personification of everlasting love also teaches our hands to make war and guides us to fight for what is right and reflective of His nature. What about the fear of God being instilled in humanity? That's the purpose and end result of capital punishment and He is not going to do for us what He created us capable of doing for ourselves. If you disagree with me on this I want you to go back and read the Bible where the most revered Israelite king David has his story told. If it helps you make more sense out of it get the Chronological Study Bible which attempts to put the passages in event order. Objectively read it. Start in 1st Samuel after he's out on his own dodging Saul's pursuit. David was ruthless and surrounded by unsavory characters and yet he was God's anointed, and received the accolade of being 'a man after God's own heart.' Read where he killed entire villages of people from oldest to youngest so that not a single survivor remained, why? Because God had told the Israelites to purge the evil inhabitants of their Promised Land, to remove the evil from among them so that they would not be ensnared again. Israel failed during the initial years and they routinely suffered accordingly. David picked up some of their slack and helped everybody out. A man after God's own heart indeed. If you read my very first post on this blog I alluded to there being a sermon in the phrase 'people taken captive', there's a huge chunk of it, David always killed man woman and child, and yet his enemies took the occupants of Ziklag captive so that they could utlimately be rescued. There's some additional exegetical reasoning for David's ruthlessness but it's all an irrelevant tangent to this post.
My main goal here today is to warn that as the article link suggests 'normalization' and sympathy will infiltrate our main stream culture like sewage overflowing a treatment facility tank. We accept abortion today, we accept homosexuality, we accept every religion except Christianity, we accept lying and cheating politicians who rob us blind, we have little understanding of how to speak the Truth in love as we are commanded to do because we haven't faced the skeletons in our own closets thoroughly enough to exorcise the demons. We no longer believe that spiritual warfare is real, that it is indeed the everyday normal Christian life we are called to. We no longer acknowledge that we are the recipients of the Abrahamic Covenant and that we too are blessed to be a blessing. We live in a pluralistic society where acceptance of everything is preached and the refusal to tolerate or even just separate our personal lifestyle from evil is called 'prejudice' 'bigotry' 'hate speech' 'hate crimes' etc., ad nauseum. The most intolerant religion of our day is tolerance. I can love you unconditionally, but if I tolerate everything you do I'm in for a world of hurt. If I fail to be the watchman on the wall and warn you that your sin is leading to your physical and spiritual death and maybe even our parting ways as friends- I will be held accountable by a higher authority than friends and acquaintances.
Beloved God is not mocked. He's seemingly turned His cheek for now, but have no doubt about it He is the righteous judge and He is the standard by which we must measure ourselves. You aren't getting into Heaven because you're better than Hitler, or your adulterous greedy neighbor, or ________ fill in the blank. God does not judge on the curve. Thank God that Jesus Christ died as our atoning sacrifice and rose again proving our redemption was possible if we would but believe and call on His name. Repentance involves calling things by their right name however, and if we can't rightly name our sins we can't rightly repent. If we say we have no sin, well then we have no hope of Salvation either, because God is not mocked. We will have made our choice as certainly as the person who repented in tears. The one who was forgiven much will love much, the one who had no sin in their eyes will have no love in their life at all.
I've said my piece for today. I hope me willingly and openly talking about these things will bring peace. I wish I could have woven humorous anecdotes into this one but it would have just been insulting to every one of us who have walked this path. I can usually even dig up morbid humor just to ease the tension, but not today. This is the gym where Superman really get's his superhuman strength and it's just no fun pushing the weight.
Be blessed.
No comments:
Post a Comment