Random Ramblings #23: OWS and Responding to Sex Abuse Scandals

Every Friday we’ll take a break from topical posts and will post some random personal thoughts.

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A Cuppa Joe – Random Ramblings from a Fellow Struggler

I’d sure appreciate your prayers today as I speak to Calvary Chapel Downey School for two morning assemblies, then to their college age students for an evening session. It’s always a pleasure being with Calvary Downey over the years, and obviously it’s an honor as well. But my seminars normally are addressed to folks in their 40’s and up, emphasis on the up, so it’s usually old Boomers like me who I’m looking at from the podium, and the difference between them and younger believers is context.

I was shaped by perspectives that were common when I was young but that have been largely discarded while I aged. The Church and the Culture, more to the point, were pretty much on the same page when it came to sexual ethics. That is not to say the culture was specifically Christian, but the assumptions it professed were still largely Biblically influenced when it came to pre-marital sex, porn, homosexuality and adultery. Not so today. The students I’ll be speaking to have grown up seeing openly gay celebrities and probably knowing a number of gay friends; have been exposed to hardcore porn or at least access to it from childhood; are hardly shocked by divorce, since many of them will have grown up in split families; and in general, will have had their beliefs challenged on a daily basis by a world that is more and more hostile to those beliefs.

That’s not to say they’re jaded; quite the contrary. They’re blessed to be in an environment that’s Christ centered and safe, and I know I’ll be infused with all kinds of fresh hope and vitality just by interacting with godly kids living out their faith in such ungodly times. It’s no fault of theirs they came into a world so corrupted, and what a joy to be able to talk with them about the unique challenges and opportunities they face. So God help me to be relevant. They deserve it.

I can think of a lot of things other people deserve, but it’s too early in the morning for violence. Still, even in these jaded times, let’s never lose a sense of shock and, yes, moral outrage over the abuse of our young at the hands of predators. We’re in danger of immunity to shock due to simple repetition – (“Another trusted adult molested a minor, so what’s new?”) – and it’s that very immunity we’ve got to guard against. Yawning at evil helps the beast thrive, whether the evil of bullying, prejudice, or exploitation of kids. Speaking of which, it’s coming in waves from among coaches, from Penn State to Syracuse to local high schools.

You can fill in the blanks as we name all the forms of rage we feel when reading these stories, but I’ll add bleak sadness to mine as I remember when, as a boy, I had the security of viewing priests, teachers and coaches as some of the most honorable and inspiring of adults, evoking deep respect and emulation. Many of them still are, absolutely. But in light of these tidal waves of scandals over the past few decades, our national trust in the benign authority figure is going, going, gone.

That may be said of the Occupy Wall Street movement as well, though I’m in no position to write its obituary. Still, daily news items show less patience with its extreme participants when they assault police or defy local ordinances, and questions about their general effectiveness are being raised, and rightly.

But I want to remember this weekend that, while having real doubts about this movements’ goals and practices, I mustn’t let “occupy” become a dirty word, because it means so much more than sit-ins, camp outs and vague complaints. It also means knowing and living out God’s will for my life, prayerfully utilizing gifts and opportunities as He gives them, and loving, walking and being as He was and is. So I’ll yank the word out of its current context and put it in a much more positive one, remembering that the Master doled out the talents with a simple and clear command: “Occupy till I come.” (Luke 19:13)

Have a great weekend.