My Christmas thought for this year

On Sunday I looked into the eyes of an accused rapist.

He was afraid, angry and defensive at the accusation, trying to convince me that he had an alibi, that his 16 year-old accuser had fabricated the whole thing.

To my knowledge all evidence, including medical, says he did it.  The victim and her counsel have only to say the word, and he and his 2 brothers will be arrested, perhaps this week. She is currently working through the tough decision to press charges.  If convicted, they could get 20 years.

Their mother and girlfriends are afraid as well.  One has a child.  Another is 7 months pregnant. “They're not bad boys,“ the women say.  “They've never hurt anyone.“

They don't know that another girl is now making a similar accusation, and tells me she believes that others have been abused as well.

Sin hurts both victims and perpetrators, wrecking lives, families and societies.  It's brutal and ugly.  Everyone hurts, but often is too ashamed to talk about it.  And into that ugliness and hurt comes God, not with flaming light sabre but with stinky diapers.  

If it weren't for Jesus, I wouldn't be living in Thailand. If I did come, I might be more like many other men, taking advantage of women instead of defending them.  It weren't for Jesus, I wouldn't be sitting and talking compassionately with apparent predators.  Maybe I'd be one myself.

If guilty, they need to go to jail and their families will have to deal with it.  And we will probably visit them in jail and offer assistance to their families and help support their children.  That would be weird from a human standpoint, but it simply comes from this whole God-as-infant thing that teaches us to live life with people and share in what they go through, to fight battles against terrible evil using humility and sacrifice as our only weapons, because our purpose is not to win but to bring the peace that Jesus already came to give.

May that peace be yours.

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Marie
Posts: 4

Peace On Earth
Reply #4 on : Sat December 29, 2007, 17:28:17

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Thanks, Jim, for a powerful testimony.

Rich Peachey
Posts: 4

Re: My Christmas thought for this year
Reply #3 on : Fri December 28, 2007, 22:27:12

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I agree with Bill -- Jesus all over this one. And what a challenge to remember that it is the *sin* that we are to hate, not the *sinner*. After all, the sinner is just another human in need of a savior. God hasn't given up on us, nor should we ever give up on them.

Bill Graver
Posts: 4

RE:
Reply #2 on : Wed December 26, 2007, 04:21:27

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Visiting boys in jail, boys who hurt somebody you love. Not just that, but also helping their families and children.

wow.

Jesus is all over that one.

Roy Bessell
Posts: 4

Re: My Christmas thought for this year
Reply #1 on : Wed December 26, 2007, 03:56:31

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Thanks for sharing. I pray daily for predators to be converted. I started doing that when a pickpocket got my wallet in Buenos Aires. I don't believe there is any other solution for the problem. Another Christian war veteran told me that, "God wants us to go kill the gangsters that control a certain country." I told him, "No! God wants us to teach the Gospel!"