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<< Go Back to Part 2 of Series
Kill The Prophets & Crucify The Witnesses
Addressing Sexual Scandal in The Messianic Movement - Part 3
To this day I don't hate Edgar Stine. To this day I feel a sense of extreme sorrow for the man and the judgement he's now awaiting. To this day, however, I'd be a fool, an idiot and a hater of children and teens if I just continued believing the rumors that he didn't do anything.
Maybe I have something mentally amiss for feeling and believing like this. Perhaps I'm just bound and determined to think children were being assaulted who weren't in fact ever at risk. Maybe I'm sick or a tool the devil for even writing this series. It's been suggested multiple times. It's been suggested by religious people, including the minister of a fellowship where sexual abuse and abusers were allowed to run rampant. Maybe I should buy their line. Even though Mr. Stine never laid a finger on me, maybe him doing what he did across that driveway to those other children 25 years ago somehow sent bad vibes 400 feet away and twisted my mind. I'm certain if Edgar were still alive today, he'd say the problem rested squarely on me and alot of folks would continue to believe him. As horrible as it might sound to say, experience has taught me that even my former minister would believe him.
A majority of youth who've been abused, ironicly, aren't believed when they finally cough up the courage to say something. That was pointed out to me almost 6 years ago when I sought counsel concerning one situation of alleged sexual abuse in the congregation we were attending. It was heartwrenching then, to watch that travesty of unbelief get carried into reality by none other than the very individual who warned US against disbelieving victims.
T Sorensen and B Snow, in "How Children Tell" document how in one study of 630 cases [of CSA], 72 percent initially denied having been sexually abused, and while 96% of the children eventually disclosed the abuse, 22% subsequently recanted those disclosures. Of that latter group, however, 92% later reaffirmed their accusations." (Child Welfare 70, No 1 (1991: 3-15).
The fact that most children who make such allegations either innately sense, or else know from experience they'll be disbelieved, contributes to this problem. It compels children who are abused into silence and covering for their abusers.
Satan's best defense is offence, and so how bitterly ironic is it that of all crimes which beset humanity, victims of sexual assault and those who stand up for them are so invariably painted by the defense as the trust-breakers, false witnesses, and abusers? How the h-ll is it ok to publicly identify a murder, but not ok to publicly identify someone who raped children, because "that would irrepairably destroy their reputation"? Somehow it's always easier to strangle the witnesses, kill the prophets, and crucify the messengers/
These sobering statistics don't mean it's too late to change course. Change, however, starts with individuals on a deeply personal level. We can either continue contributing to this problem, or we can enact a solution and practice that solution accountably together. We may not be able to change the course of the world, but we could change the course of the church if the leaders and laymen were willing to do it.
I don't believe I walked through the near-abuse experiences I walked through as a boy for nothing. I believe they made me more tersely aware of an epidemic that's not only sweeping the world, but specifically movements of faith. Satan knows the first and foremost way to destroy any people - a fellowship, a family, or a nation - is through the hiding of sin and hypocrisy. My experience with Edgar opened my eyes to the fact that there are young people in the same situations I was in and far worse who do not say anything. Young people sweep it under the rug in my neice's own words, and rack it up that rumors are something you have to physically experience in real life. They believe the lie that this happens to everyone, like my nephew told those he violated, until it becomes a way of life, lowering the morals and the morale of the next generation. That's how covering sexual misconduct within families and fellowships becomes multi-generational. Heaven is in all counts justified to damn those who don't do something drastic to change that, and yet it's happening right in front of us!
Continue to Part 4 >>
To this day I don't hate Edgar Stine. To this day I feel a sense of extreme sorrow for the man and the judgement he's now awaiting. To this day, however, I'd be a fool, an idiot and a hater of children and teens if I just continued believing the rumors that he didn't do anything.
Maybe I have something mentally amiss for feeling and believing like this. Perhaps I'm just bound and determined to think children were being assaulted who weren't in fact ever at risk. Maybe I'm sick or a tool the devil for even writing this series. It's been suggested multiple times. It's been suggested by religious people, including the minister of a fellowship where sexual abuse and abusers were allowed to run rampant. Maybe I should buy their line. Even though Mr. Stine never laid a finger on me, maybe him doing what he did across that driveway to those other children 25 years ago somehow sent bad vibes 400 feet away and twisted my mind. I'm certain if Edgar were still alive today, he'd say the problem rested squarely on me and alot of folks would continue to believe him. As horrible as it might sound to say, experience has taught me that even my former minister would believe him.
A majority of youth who've been abused, ironicly, aren't believed when they finally cough up the courage to say something. That was pointed out to me almost 6 years ago when I sought counsel concerning one situation of alleged sexual abuse in the congregation we were attending. It was heartwrenching then, to watch that travesty of unbelief get carried into reality by none other than the very individual who warned US against disbelieving victims.
T Sorensen and B Snow, in "How Children Tell" document how in one study of 630 cases [of CSA], 72 percent initially denied having been sexually abused, and while 96% of the children eventually disclosed the abuse, 22% subsequently recanted those disclosures. Of that latter group, however, 92% later reaffirmed their accusations." (Child Welfare 70, No 1 (1991: 3-15).
The fact that most children who make such allegations either innately sense, or else know from experience they'll be disbelieved, contributes to this problem. It compels children who are abused into silence and covering for their abusers.
Satan's best defense is offence, and so how bitterly ironic is it that of all crimes which beset humanity, victims of sexual assault and those who stand up for them are so invariably painted by the defense as the trust-breakers, false witnesses, and abusers? How the h-ll is it ok to publicly identify a murder, but not ok to publicly identify someone who raped children, because "that would irrepairably destroy their reputation"? Somehow it's always easier to strangle the witnesses, kill the prophets, and crucify the messengers/
These sobering statistics don't mean it's too late to change course. Change, however, starts with individuals on a deeply personal level. We can either continue contributing to this problem, or we can enact a solution and practice that solution accountably together. We may not be able to change the course of the world, but we could change the course of the church if the leaders and laymen were willing to do it.
I don't believe I walked through the near-abuse experiences I walked through as a boy for nothing. I believe they made me more tersely aware of an epidemic that's not only sweeping the world, but specifically movements of faith. Satan knows the first and foremost way to destroy any people - a fellowship, a family, or a nation - is through the hiding of sin and hypocrisy. My experience with Edgar opened my eyes to the fact that there are young people in the same situations I was in and far worse who do not say anything. Young people sweep it under the rug in my neice's own words, and rack it up that rumors are something you have to physically experience in real life. They believe the lie that this happens to everyone, like my nephew told those he violated, until it becomes a way of life, lowering the morals and the morale of the next generation. That's how covering sexual misconduct within families and fellowships becomes multi-generational. Heaven is in all counts justified to damn those who don't do something drastic to change that, and yet it's happening right in front of us!
Continue to Part 4 >>