The Incarnation of Mercy

Just as is evident here in John 8, the using and abusing of women continues today.  It is both inside the church as well as outside the church. I subscribe to the BBC news. I want to know what is going on not just in America, but what stories are going on in the world. The past few months, two have jumped out at me. The first was yet another headline about India’s continued revolt to the 23 year old woman who was gang raped on a moving bus, beaten, and thrown out of the moving bus, left for dead. India is trying to figure out how to fight back against outrageously out of control sexual abuse by men and how to curb it. The BBC reported that this was not just a problem in India, but that most countries are ignoring this worldwide epidemic of abuse against women. This leads me to the second story – and one that happened right here in America. The BBC wrote a series of stories about America’s mixed reaction to the conviction of two teenage boys who raped an inebriated girl in Ohio. The BBC reporter was shocked that so many Americans sided with the two boys and thought the girl took the case too far – it was just a case of boys being boys. But what does that make the girl? A toy? Or worse, worthless?

This is not an isolated incident. 90% of rape victims are female. Someone is assaulted every two minutes in the US. 1 in 4 women will be sexually assaulted in her lifetime. Almost 60% of attacks are never reported to the police. By the sheer number of these statistics, these women are volunteering at our churches. They are in our youth groups. They sit in our pews week in and week out. They come to us for advice and counseling. But they may or may not ever reveal to another living soul the anguish they have lived through.  Like Christ, we must stand up against those who would use women for their own purposes, with no thought to the woman herself.

         We must be aware and actively fighting a systemic issue that is both within our churches and without. We must shine a flashlight in these dark and neglected shadowy corners in order to bring the light of new life to the trapped women around us. Large portions of the population are dealing with issues rarely spoken about aloud in churches – examples include rape, sexual harassment, sex slavery, child abuse and domestic abuse. Church don't support these horrific problems, but they are rarely spoken about directly. Rape and abuse exist in our own churches (even by church leaders!) and victims are still too scared to report these violations of their bodies or to talk about them with anyone else. It is as if the victims have done something wrong! Many perpetrators rely on their victims’ silence in order to continue their abuses.

Let’s work to raise awareness of this into our churches and elsewhere!  Like Jesus in the story of the abused woman, we must break the snares that trap so many people. We must create safe spaces to share, we must raise awareness of the issue, we must insist that the victim has nothing to be ashamed of, and we must work to stop this type of behavior in our community. Furthermore, we must respond to the victim in a way like Jesus did – no condemnation and the chance of new life (which is an idea that lies at the very heart of Christianity!).  My favorite comment about this story in John 8 is by St. Augustine –

After everyone had left, the wretched woman was left there with the Incarnation of Mercy. My plea to you is this: to go and do likewise – be this person to a woman who has suffered dearly at the hands of others.