I’ve seen enough in my life to no longer be shocked when men sin. I’m not shocked when a prominent Christian leader is accused of molesting young girls or committing adultery or lying or twisting the Scriptures for personal gain or just plain doing something selfish. They may hurt or anger me, but they don’t shock me because I know how sinful men are and how even the best of us can fall and often fall harder than anyone else.
What does still shock me however is the amount of cold-blooded hatred that invariably follows when one of the above scenarios occurs and not just from the world but from those who claim to be Christians. It is even more shocking today in this situation because these people are not angry at the actions of a man, but those of a child. A CHILD. Essentially, you’ve got a bunch of adults attacking a child all over the internet! It boggles my mind and I just shake my head in disbelief when a so-called “Christian” gets on social media and joins in with the world in casting stones as if they were without sin.
As someone who was a victim of sexual abuse perpetrated by a 14 year old boy, I am especially pained by the viciousness with which Josh Duggar is being attacked. The young boy that molested me knew better. He knew better in the same way that he knew better than to steal cookies out of the cookie jar. He had no idea what a grave sin he was committing. He had no clue nor any way to know what it was that he was messing with.
That young boy grew up, repented and told me he was sorry. Over the next 10 years of his life, many things happened in his life that nearly destroyed him and brought him face to face with some of the very worst consequences of sexual abuse. Just a few weeks ago, he looked me in the eyes and he said, “Abbie, I am SO sorry…”
When I look at Josh Duggar, I see a man much like my friend. They were both young boys without the maturity to know what they were doing. They both repented and have tried to make amends to their victims as well as they could. So perhaps you will understand why it so infuriates me when people who weren’t there, don’t know anything about the people involved or the facts of what happened and have no business even having an opinion are slandering Josh up one side and down the other.
It infuriates me that someone would not only destroy Josh, not only destroy Josh’s sisters by taking away their freedom to choose how to deal with the situation, but that so many of the people doing those things associate themselves with Jesus Christ. They’re dragging Josh and his sisters through the mud and the slime and they’re dragging Christ along with them. They are bent on spitting in the face of Christ by refusing to do one of the very first things that He commanded them, to love your neighbor as yourself, (put another way, to forgive others as they were forgiven) and yet they claim to belong to this Man. This Man who ate with “tax collectors and sinners,” who let whores touch Him, who told adulterers and adulteresses to “go and sin no more,” and who gave up His life, not only for those who He loved during His time on earth in the flesh, but also for those who came before and those who came after. He loves David, the adulterer who committed murder to cover it up, Rahab who was a whore, Samson who slept around, Saul/Paul who murdered Christians, Peter who denied Him. He loves them all and died for them. He loves ME and died for ME. He loves Josh Duggar and He died for Josh Duggar.
If you do not have ears to hear, then there is nothing I can say that will change your mind or your heart. If you do have ears to hear and you’ve heard, I pray that you will repent. Repent like Josh repented, Christ’s blood covers you too. If you yet refuse to repent, then I have just one more thing to say to you…
Woe to you oh man or woman who would dare refuse to forgive he who your Lord has forgiven. Woe to you who claim the name of Christ and yet don’t even attempt to love others the way He loved you. Woe to you for you do not belong to Christ at all, you are children of the Devil and it is with the Devil that you will spend eternity while the Josh Duggars and Doug Phillips and Davids of the world will be in paradise with Him. Woe to you when He says, “I never knew you, depart from me, ye who work iniquity.”
New Love...New Life 