which immediately caught my attention because anytime someone claims to know what God is doing or thinking at any given moment I find it quite amusing. Unfortunately given the heaviness of the subject I kept reading. It is clear that the author has much sympathy for the victim here, which he should have, but in his zeal to be, shall I say, non-sexist, he wades into very deep water and drowns in his own lack of clarity. Let me explain.
First let me say at the outset that since I am not a Christian or a follower of any of the "big three" religions which have their origins in the nile valley civilization (Abraham gets no credit from me), I won't be critiquing this piece based on my religious differences with this individual. He is entitled to his belief system. Since that belief system informs his logic it is only proper to base the critique on the theological pool which he draws from. Let us start here:
one of them a well-known community leader, have started a media campaign whose primary agenda seems to be to discredit the victim. They have made statements to the press saying that she wears make-up, that she dresses provocatively, and that she talks about sex on her Facebook page.
Lets just name names, OK. The fellow in reference here is Quanell X. He is a Muslim. I do find it particularly...ummm...interesting that this Christian author would point out this Muslim man. Don't you? Quanell X's position has been that he feels that the black males in this situation are being unfairly maligned and misjudged by the news media that he feels regularly portrays black males as animals who are out of control. Whether one agrees that such a judgement is appropriate in this case is besides the point. Quanell does in fact have a point. I will remind the audience that it was Quanell X who brought to light the video a recent beating of an unarmed black male by police officers in Texas. Admittedly I do not know the full extent of Quanell's statements in regarding this Cleveland situation, but to write as if he does not have a larger point that is credible is intellectually dishonest. In any case, that is not a theological argument so it's not really relevant.
Continuing:
I believe that God is interested in the wholeness and the redemption of all people. When applied to this 11 year-old girl, I believe that her need for wholeness and redemption is not because she has done something that needs to be “fixed”. She is a surviving-victim; to assign blame to her is to victimize her all over again.
I'm sniffling over here. That is such a sweet statement. Awww. Under Christian theology the above holds no water whatsoever. Under Christian theology every human being on the planet is in need of "fixing" because every human being on the planet is born into sin. It is the Christian theological position that humanity is inherently flawed. That sinful state requires "fixing" and the "fix" is Jesus' crucifixion and subsequent re-animation (resurrection). Humans get "fixed" by believing in this "son of God" intercession.
Furthermore, Jesus' actions and statements aside, Christian theology binds the behavior of humans to a set of rules, commonly referred to as the Ten Commandments. Some people are under the impression that somehow the commandments no longer apply because Jesus "took care of all that." Others think that because Jesus said that the highest of the commandments is to love your neighbor somehow negates the rest of the commandmens. Sorry. Not the case. In Exodus 20 there are well spelled out "don't do this..." rules that all Christians are bound by. One of them is fornication. For the uninitiated, fornication is sexual intercourse prior to marriage. If this young girl's posts on FB are correct, and anyone who works in the school system knows full well that they are likely truthful, then this girl is clearly in violation of the fornication rule. And had she been alive in Moses' day would have been stoned to death.
As a matter of fact, if we go strictly by the religious codes laid out in scripture, this 11 YO was technically a whore. I know we're not comfortable seeing it that way, but her actions, in the biblical sense was that of a whore. She was a sexually mature female (as in physically) who made herself sexually available to men she was not married to. Personally I don't go along with such conventions, but if you're going to pull the "What God thinks" card, then these are the kinds of things you're going to have to deal with which you may or may not be very comfortable with. Of course that is why a number of so called Christians have a habit of picking and choosing what they like from the Bible in order to make it fit whatever they are doing or thinking at the moment.
This brings me to a point that I have been mulling for quite some time, We are all familiar with the story of the woman caught in adultery from John 8:
1Jesus went unto the mount of Olives.
2And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.
3And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,
4They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.
5Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?
6This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.
7So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
8And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.
9And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
10When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?
11She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
You'll note that at no point in this passage did Jesus declare that the woman had not sinned. Go ahead and read it again. The story ends with Jesus telling the woman to "go and sin no more." So even though the men who had accused her were themselves sinners, their own actions did not negate the sin that the woman had committed. Jesus' position was that the men could not mete out punishment (what is referred to as judgment) on her because they themselves were guilty.
Therefore, unlike what is proposed by Mr Pierce, God is on the side of those who take responsibility for their actions and seek to "sin no more". and that includes the males who engaged in the rape of this 11 year old. Therefore; by Christian theology if any of those males involved were to declare that they would "sin no more" they would find the sympathy of Jesus just as much as the woman who committed adultery would have been. They would have the same forgiveness as the thief on the cross. But nowhere in this fellow's piece do we find such a theological point. Nowhere. Go ahead and re-read it. The fact is, contrary to the author's statement that
God chooses the victims of rape over the rapist(s).
Based on the words directly from Jesus's mouth, God is on the side of those who seek to "sin no more" and is NOT on the side of those who seek to condemn and punish for their own selfish ends because under Christian theology all have sinned and fallen short and therefore are in need of forgiveness. I suggest Mr. Nelson go and re-read his scripture before he posts on the subject again.
