Ashley Madison, Planned Parenthood, & the Culture of ‘Victimization.’

Ashley Madison, the adultery website recently hacked by “The Impact Group” leaving 25 gigabytes of user information released to the public is offering a reward to anyone who can track down these hackers. They clearly are hoping to head off, “further victimization,” of their clients.

Planned Parenthood continues to paint themselves as the victims of radical extremist's videos likes of whom are responsible for shooting abortion providers in their churches, clinic bombings and more. Stating, “The group behind these videos has close ties with organizations and individuals who have firebombed abortion clinics and threatened the physical safety of doctors who provide abortion.”

Interestingly both these groups maintain that they, or their clients, are the victims of these undercover exposés.

This reveals something about our cultural understanding of victimization. Victimization is now understood by the feeling of shame and guilt, not innocence and injustice.

In one instance we see babies either being torn apart so that their organs can be harvested and sold, or moving in a metal bowl awaiting this fate. In the another we have 33 million user accounts, presumably all of whom are looking to have an affair with someone.

The true victims in these exposés are the spouses of the 33 million and the babies crushed.

While the ethics of undercover videos and hacked websites can be debated, what has been discovered is uncovering the true meaning of who is actually a victim and who is actually a perpetrator.

To use another recent example, Vester Lee Flanagan (AKA Bryce Williams) shot and killed reporter Alison Parker and videographer Adam Ward during an on-air interview. A few hours after killing the pair Williams committed suicide.

Now, if the reasoning of Planned Parenthood and Ashley Madison were applied to this case, Williams would be the victim driven by guilt and shame to suicide because of the deaths of Ward and Parker.

Of course, thinking this way about Williams seems ludicrous. But this is the danger: many in the public will believe the rhetoric of Planned Parenthood and Ashley Madison.

The Church stands up for the innocent and seeks to see repentance, reconciliation, and redemption in the life of the perpetrator.

Shame and guilt do not equal a victim, innocence and injustice do.

Kinda Nostalgic

I started The Lord of the Rings again this last Saturday. It's like walking down an old familiar path from my youth, in a way nostalgic and in another remindful - remindful about the person I once was and who I am now, which is revealing of the changes that've taken place.

Do you remember the things you got excited about as a kid? For me it was Star Wars for a little while then it was Lord of the Rings. I had action figures of both - the Lord of the Rings ones are still in my closet at my parent's house, I gave the Star Wars ones away. Remember the way we'd get caught up in our fantasy worlds of wherever we'd imagined?

Part of it was innocence and part of it was ignorance. Innocence in that we'd never lost love before, never been betrayed before and never known uncertainty. Ignorance in that we didn't know how the wide world operated, we didn't know the time demands or the way our dreams would be warped or killed.

But at the same time growing up has been an experience I don't want to trade for anyone else's. The lost loves, the time demands, the way my dreams have been shifted or changed or even killed (I suck at math therefore the dream of astronaut was a lil far fetched) it's all served a purpose, a plan, to bring me to where I am today. Does that mean it's all figured out? Definitely not. Does that mean every aspect of my life is the way it should be? No. It just means that I'm content with the adventures God has placed in my life - even though some feel daunting.

I underlined this in my book yesterday,

"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to do is decide what to do with the time that is given us. And already, Frodo, our time is beginning to look black. The enemy is fast becoming strong. His plans are far from ripe, I think, but they are ripening. We shall be hard put to it. We should be very hard put to it, even if it were not for this dreadful chance."

Maturation

So here and there I’ve written about (like all other writers and artists) the loss of innocence, i.e growing up and forgetting what it was to be young and to be carefree.

We used to imagine everything, right?

I don’t think we’ve stopped.

Sure we still imagine everything, what it would be like if ________ were true.

We haven’t grown up, we’re still kids in our minds. We haven’t matured we’ve just continued.

Sure we’ve lost innocence, clouds and fireflies don’t enchant us anymore. But we’ve not grown up our minds are still blank.

Until we look at reality and are enthralled by the what-is we’re still children in our thinking. Because any kid can imagine himself greater than he is or better than his friends, but it’ll take a mature mind to understand his own limitations and live right up to those limits.

Do we not strive for more? Honestly, I think we’re all capable of more than we think we are; we’re just lazy. Can anyone do what I do? Yes.

It’s not a positive thinking deal, not at all, no it’s a thinking deal.

It’s not telling yourself everything’s gonna be alright when the crap is hitting the fan, no, it’s a sucking it up and in spite of the crap fighting to continue.

So what is it to grow up? It’s to boldly face reality and understand in spite of yourself you are not capable of changing the world, but you are capable of being a friend, a parent, a sibling, a worker, a ___________ to the glory of God and the benefit of whoever.

Innocent

“I am a whore I do confess, I put you on just like a wedding dress and run down the isle. I’m a prodigal with no way home I put you on just like a ring of gold and I run down the isle to you. So could you love this bastard child, though I don’t trust you to provide?” ~Derek Webb

Yes.

Writers write of the ‘loss of innocence.’ Singers sing of it. People speak of it to their friends. But we’ve never been innocent.

If we believe Scripture to be true and foundational, there was never a time in our lives when we were pure, when we were right, when we were good (Isa 64:6; Rom 3:9-18). We’ve always been deserving of hell.

I know, this is a happy Monday post, right?

But we have hope, that tiny yet beautiful word, hope. We can be expectant of our Savior to be enough. Clinging to this hope. We hope on hope that our hope will not be put to shame.

It’s faith really, faith in the unseen. For how can we hope in what we see? How can we have faith in the things we know break or fail?

“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:16-18