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Posted on 04/18/2010 9:49:35 PM PDT by Judith Anne
I seriously wonder about some FReepers, sometimes. Any other person accused of a crime would be defended by every FReeper as being innocent until proven guilty by a court of law. I've seen whole threads written by men who have been accused of child abuse by ex-wives out to deny them their visitation rights or to wrest more money out of them. These men are rightly indignant, and furious about the unjust accusations that cannot be proven but are never withdrawn.
Yet where are those FReepers when a PRIEST is accused? Where is the presumption of innocence? Suddenly, every accusation becomes a verdict, and not only the accused but his entire organization and all its adherents are held responsible.
I can only wonder what some of these so-called conservatives (who so faithfully defend the Constitution) would do, if THEY were the ones accused! It is a nightmare for any man -- all of you know how even the accusation stains the man forever, even if it is proven false!
Not only that, many here assert that the problems of 30, 40 and even 50 years ago must be tried in the media TODAY!
Remember the Duke rape case? There are more similarities than differences here. The priests are accused, nifonged, and instead of being defended, they are vilified!
What other man of you could stand under the weight of such an accusation trumpeted by the press, and come out whole? None! And such accusations made, LONG after the statute of limitations has passed, sometimes even after the accused is dead and buried for YEARS -- are YOU one of those who automatically, reflexively, spitefully, and gleefully act as judge, jury, and executioner?
Women! What if it were YOUR HUSBAND, YOUR BROTHER, YOUR FATHER, YOUR UNCLE, YOUR SON who was accused? Wouldn't you want the best defense possible? Wouldn't YOU believe in their innocence? Wouldn't YOU help protect your loved ones as much as possible? And yet, YOU JUDGE THE CHURCH FOR DOING WHAT YOU WOULD DO?
Shame! Vast shame! On all who have sinned against the innocent!
Are you saying that ordinary people have to be satisfied that those who have harmed us are repentant before we forgive them? Because that is not supported by anything in the New Testament.
Now, I understand that we must become like children; and I understand that children can teach us a lot about God’s redeeming Love. But I would never demand from a child that the child face and forgive a sex abuser.
When the child becomes an adult, I expect the child to have dealt with it, with the help of the parents and the law. Forgiveness, then, will have some meaning.
But children must not be told that they have to forgive. That is outrageous.
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I hear you. Great damage can be done by forcing or unduly influencing a child to forgive, a child who is incapable of understanding how they feel and how the experience of molestation is affecting them, and will affect them in the future.
It may allow the parent to put it in the past, but the child will continue to live with it.
The biblical injunction to remove the wicked man from among yourselves is no more respected than before as threads posted here on FR testify.
But the monetary costs are the least of it, great as they are. It is the effect upon those who sought spiritual direction and donated their resources, their widow's mite, and now see churches closed and dioceses bankrupt because greedy venal leaders wanted to keep their scarlet robes and positions intact.
There just isn't enough mill stones to go round.
Children can forgive very easily, much more so than adults from what I’ve seen.
Small wonder Jesus told us that we need to become like little children. It’s more than their innocence and ability to trust.
AM: Sez who? He isn't called "wonderful counselor" for nothing!
But how does that square with 1 John 2:1?
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.Jesus Christ here advocates on our behalf, directly with the Father, not on behalf of the rules of the law court, understood at the human level. The law court is, of course, a human institution. If it truly serves the public good, then that means it is truly ordered in God's Law. But I have noticed that human institutions in general tend to fall away from their original principles and purposes in time.
In any case, all I can say is this: If you reduce Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of Our Father, to the status of a lawyer (a lawyer is an interpreter of law, not the law itself — not the Word, the Logos), then somehow I suspect you continue to miss the main message of the Christian religion.
Or so it seems to me. FWIW
My analogy was was purely clinical. I am not responsible for you and the good doctor thinking below the waist. Should I now be concerned that you will see the word "anal" in analogy and think the worse?
And further I would suggest that this reluctance to forgive (or its corollary the desire to retain a quiver full of offenses for future ammunition) - is the very reason so many Christians do not experience miracles in their lives:
He agreed that the abused must come to the place of forgiveness and letting go. That they will likely never forget but they must come to a place of forgiveness and letting go else the bitterness etc. will eat them alive while the abuser may not care less. I agree with him wholeheartedly.
Thank you so much for your insights and encouragements, dear brother in Christ!
Nope, just another misguided chinless wonder who thinks that she can be her own Pope.
I forgive because it is God's will - and because I don't want to block my own prayers - and because I'm such a sinner, I cannot afford the luxury of harboring resentments.
Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: - Luke 6:37
Blessed [are] the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. – Matt 5:7
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. - Matt 6:12
For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. - Matt 6:13-14
Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive [them], and ye shall have [them]. And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses. – Mark 11:24-26
To God be the glory, not man, never man!
I guess that the degeneracy description liberates the OPC from being called a church of Christ. Their shrinking numbers would also indicate that they are not the church of Christ that He would be with forever. More failure. How can they even look themselves in the eyes?
Of course He established the divine Law and will see it fulfilled to the letter:
LOLOL!
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