My Only Comfort

But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die: But unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing; there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death: for as when a man riseth against his neighbour, and slayeth him, even so is this matter: (Deu 22:25-26)

He found her hurting behind a dumpster. Instead of helping her, instead of getting her to a hospital, instead of checking to see if she was alright – he raped her.

Really.

I can’t even fathom how utterly depraved one must become to do such a thing.

Seriously, think about it. How low, how degraded, and how despicable must one be to commit a rape?

And yet we not only see it everywhere, it seems to be condoned with a “boys will be boys” attitude. How can God possibly allow this to continue? It is of his mercies alone that we are not all consumed.

This son 0f the devil might have fooled the judge; he might have fooled a lot of people. These kind fool the churches too. But he didn’t fool God.

We’ve got ourselves into a strange judicial system. We think that the system is for the purpose of changing hearts and helping the criminal lead a productive life, rather than existing for punishing evil-doers.

Some crimes – such as stealing in order to eat – are done out of desperation. Such a criminal can be helped by a judge. Some criminals have fallen into the wrong crowd and have gotten caught up in something beyond their capabilities. These also perhaps can be helped.

But that isn’t a rapist. A rapist, according to Moses, can’t be helped. God can, of course, but God has said to us – this one is beyond you. Put him to death. He must be removed from society. You can’t do anything with him.

The church also seems to lead the way in this strange, perverted view of justice. We think that if someone becomes truly repentant, then they shouldn’t be judged so harshly. We say, “If they are sorry, then there shouldn’t be any consequences.”

What a monstrous statement, what pride and arrogance, to thing we can do that which God says we cannot. Eventually it leads to utter foolishness and wickedness, for what measure will one use to measure the heart? When did the meaning of “repentance” change, to mean carefully constructed words and half-hearted mutterings of regret?

For that matter, the one in question showed no remorse whatsoever – but the judge still didn’t want to “ruin his life.”

Here’s a light-bulb moment, you wicked unjust judge: This young son of Belial ruined his own worthless life. His despicable father referred to his crime as “20 minutes of action.” As if it was just meaningless sex. “He shouldn’t have to suffer his whole life for it!”

How much suffering, though, do wicked men bring on the world 20 minutes at a time? This young woman will struggle with this her whole life. She has found her voice, and for that I rejoice. But the pain will never go away, until God wipes away every tear.

How many families are destroyed by one murderer in one moment of time? How many lives are destroyed by serial killers in one moment of time?

How many communities are shattered by one drunken driver?

Here are the facts. According to the bible, one who rapes is the same as one who murders. A rapist is not someone who “makes a mistake”; one who is just overwhelmed with passion and couldn’t help it. A rapist is one who is so thoroughly degraded, who has so thoroughly corrupted himself that he is no longer fit to live. No man can do anything about a rapist. He’s beyond help.

That isn’t me who said that. It was God himself. No one, not me, not this judge, not the church, can pretend otherwise. A rapist is not overwhelmed with lust, or love – but rage. Rage against God, and therefore rage against the image of God. He sees beauty, personhood, innocence, or even just a human being in God’s image and wants nothing more than to destroy it, whatever it takes.

It’s what turns him on. It is spitting in the face of God and saying, “Here’s what I think of your daughter, God! What will you do about that?” – and he derives sexual pleasure from spitting in God’s face, through degrading God’s image! It is not a moment of drunken passion, it is not just a moment out of character – it is a defining act of one who has so thoroughly repudiated everything good and kind and pure and embraced the full worship of wickedness and evil, no matter what he successfully pretended at before.

Woe unto him, and woe unto the one who looks the other way. God WILL have his vengeance on those who cause the little ones to stumble.

Can God change his heart and bring him to repentance? Of course he can, and we pray that he will, for it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But that isn’t our concern. Our concern is obedience. Our concern is to view men the way that God views them. Our concern is to align our thoughts to God’s thoughts.

And if God has spoken this about the rapist, how dare we say otherwise.

Please do the hard work of examining your beliefs. Excellent and challenging article by Jeff Crippen.

I would like to introduce you to my wife. Isn’t she lovely? The reason I want to introduce you to her is that today is her birthday. I would tell you how old she is, but I have listened to her over the years. She has kept me from much foolishness – such as asking or telling how old a woman is.

She is very beautiful. I fell for her around a campfire. We were with a church group and the conversation turned to Oscar Wilde and that was when we knew. 

Actually, I think I need to go back a bit. I was interested in her earlier that day. Beautiful, charming, witty young lady. So I went up to her and talked to her. I don’t know why, but my idea of wooing a young lady was not well thought out. I believe that I started with Kant’s eyes being opened to reality by David Hume – or some such.

And she listened to me. For two and half hours. I listened to her. We didn’t talk about puppies and music and movies – that would come later. We talked about irrationalism and empiricism and the decline of the Age of Reason.

For two and a half hours.

Sorry, guys. She’s mine. Always will be. Beautiful, charming, funny, and will listen to this old guy talk for hours.

After twenty years, she still makes my heart leap. Her eyes still grasp my soul.

She also spends every day, every moment, in excruciating pain – pain that most of us have never had. She has it every day.  CRPS and EDS are cruel, relentless, vicious.

I see in her eyes how much she hurts and I hurt with her. And in immense pain, she still counsels those young women who are broken and hurting. She still listens to the horrors that evil men do. She still walks with others who are hurting and broken – even when she can’t get out of bed.

The days she can’t get out of bed far outnumber the days she can.

I have never known a woman as strong as she is. She clings to her Father in heaven, even in tremendous suffering. She asks “Why?” and then resolves to follow Him, even in the valley of the shadow of death. She can’t do another thing that day, but still has a smile and a prayer for me and for her friends and for her children.

Her daughters rise up early and call her blessed. In fact, they are coming over in a moment with breakfast.

She has also walked with them through very dark places. When you are in a very dark place, sometimes you need someone to walk with you and lead you over to the other side.

My wife has always been that person. Spend a moment talking to her, and you will smile a little brighter, lift your head up a little more, and change a little bit.

I don’t know why she has this debilitating illness. To me, it seems that she could do so much more good if she wasn’t in so much pain. But my ways are not God’s ways. His ways are good, and wise – even when we don’t see it. It is my wife that suffers, but she’s the one that would have said that first.

So happy birthday, my love. I’m walking with you every step of the way. I am so thankful to God that he saw fit to add a little more color to this world on the day that you were born. And I am also thankful that he led me to you and you to me.

Let’s do this!

Food for thought….Some very valid points here. I think we have historically failed miserably in the area we should be the strongest.