For The Record
This should probably go without saying, but I need to say it lest anyone accuse me of not speaking up and being one sided.
I'm glad Mark Foley resigned. His perversion is deplorable and blatant hypocrisy is frightening. I don't care what color his state is or whether he rides and elephant or a donkey, the right thing to do was to resign his position immediately, apologize to his victims and his constituents and possibly even be tried for his crimes. I do believe he should be forgiven, but only when he apologizes for his wrong doing. Alcoholism is not his problem; he is a homosexual pedophile and needs to repent of that, not some straw man "not-quite-as-bad-as-pedophilia" confessional.
Just goes to show you how easy the business of being a hypocrite has become.
InterAction:
6 October 20062. Gina:
I am a stranger here, but may I share my view too? Yes, the molestation card is played often, but don't think that it is always played lightly. Here's my card - a 30 year old card of great humiliation and chronic fear.....I was molested. By more than 6 people; most of whom were relatives. T o publicly and blatantly state that fact to anyone takes either an ability to lie, a point of great courage due to healing, or an almost hopeless desperation. I am not, and neither are the vast majority of Americans qualified to form a fair opinion about this man's situation. He may have reached that desperate point and now after being "caught", may see this as a way to finally start dealing with the situation. By claiming to have been molested, he may have just done the most horribly frightening and courageous thing he has ever done. This is also a terrifying leap into taking responsibility. The most difficult thing of all to us who have been sexually abused....is admitting it to ourselves, being honest with ourselves. We are usually the last to believe that it really happened and spend decades of our lives running from it. . Please don't quickly decide who and what he is. We really don't know. If he truly was molested then he is an innocent victim damaged to the point of now being a monster like the one who violated him. His monster is to blame. Now that he admits his childhood abuse, and admits his own abusive behavior, he has started taking responsibility and will find his own blame and disbelief that he could become what he loathed! This is not what that little molested boy ever wanted. He did NOT make himself into a monster....he was TRAINED by his monster - secretly, evilly, and without his awareness. I personally have great compassion for him (assuming he has been honest). This point of his or my life is horrifying. How do we look in the mirror, feeling like scared hurt children, but seeing ourselves as monsters? And admit it to ourselves? And to the world? Could you do this? Do you have any idea the amount of shame a person's soul can hold? We do. I do. And I am not a homosexual pedophile or a criminal. But I feel so ruined and dirty inside that if I cut myself open rotting flesh would pour out. And if this man is being honest with us.....I bet that's how he feels to. He doesn't need or deserve a bunch of half-baked vicious gossip and supposition from us or the media. We don't need or deserve to spend our time forming half-baked opinions about a man whose shoes we have never set foot in. We don't have the right. We don't have the truth. And our time would be better spent shutting up and praying for him with compassion, leaving the judging and truth-telling up to him and God.
6 October 20063. Jesse Gardner:
Gina, thank you for your viewpoint and being willing to speak up with your thoughts. I value them and I'm sorry for the pain you suffered as a child. Wickedness is so painful.
I do agree that he needs prayer above all. We are called to love our enemies, to bless those that curse us and to do good to those that despitefully use us. So in that sense, we are called to love him. But don't forget that Jesus referenced children and said that if anyone offended any of them it would be better to have a millstone tied around his neck and to be cast into the ocean. Remember, in the post I made it clear that we should forgive him, but only when he apologizes for what he did wrong. How can a man seek forgiveness for something which he does not think is wrong?
While he may be telling the truth, that does not negate his choice. He has a choice. Even if he was molested as a child, as an adult he had a choice before pressing 'Send' on his cell phone. I had some pretty sick things done to me as a child, and that certainly has affected my thought processes, but I cannot use that as an excuse to do wrong. If I sin, even if that propensity was forced upon me by a monster, it is still sin. You can rape me; as soon as force myself upon someone else, I am the rapist.
That said, I really don't want to say too much about this, because it has become more of a circus show than a pursuit of truth. (Who told who what when and why didn't they do more, ad infinitum, ad naseum.)
YourThoughts?
(Minutia)
This entry was written by Jesse on Tuesday, October 3, 2006 at 2:03 PM and appears in the America chapter. The previous article was entitled, "Senseless Violence", and the next entry is called, "Baby Got Mac". Bookmark the permalink, save it to del.icio.us or Digg it.
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3 October 20061. crystal:
I was so frustrated to hear on the news today that he has come out and said he was molested by a clergyman as a young teen. This seems like a commonly played card! I wish people would just take responsibility.