Sexual Abuse

An official investigation by The Washington Post has revealed a troubling trend of officers committing sexual abuse upon minors in their custody, many of whom were already attempting to report other different incidents of sex abuse.

By analyzing an extensive database of police arrests around the nation, reporters identified instance after instance of officers gaining the trust of minors, preying on them when they’re alone, and threatening them to ensure their silence afterward.

The Post highlighted the story of Officer Rodney Vicknair of the New Orleans Police Department. Officer Vicknair was recently sentenced to 14 years for violating the civil rights of a teenaged girl under his care.

Vicknair’s conduct was terrible, but also predictable. He’d been investigated for allegations of misconduct twelve times in his first twelve years on the job. Months before he assaulted the girl, he made inappropriate comments to her in the presence of another officer, but those comments went unreported. He also made a habit of visiting her alone in her home. After Vicknair’s pattern of inappropriate behavior had been reported to superiors, he remained on duty for another week, during which his assault took place.

The child eventually sued the city for allowing Vicknair to remain on the job. While the child’s attorneys were preparing for the trial, they deposed high level police officials to find out if Vicknair’s case had prompted any procedural changes. The truth, they found out, was disturbingly familiar.

“You don’t know of anything NOPD has done differently,” the attorney asked, “to prevent another Officer Vicknair?” “Correct,” replied the police official.

Experts say that part of the problem is the limited nature of police background checks, which often fail to investigate red flags or allegations of impropriety.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Those who serve in positions of power and influence are held to a higher standard; God will judge them even more harshly if they abuse their power.

Parents have another vector of potential harm to monitor besides the most popular social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X. Bad actors are collaborating on different internet platforms to contact, and actively harm, children, adolescents, and teenagers.

It’s true that plenty of internet safety threats are overblown and exaggerated to create clickbait stories that prey on parents' worst fears. Yet, with growing regularity, some of these fears end up quite justified.

These predatory groups are known for building rapport with their victims and then using blackmail techniques to leverage them into risky behavior. These relationships start friendly but quickly transition into bullying, and often result in the children engaging in self-harm and, in some cases, suicide.

Many users involved in these groups often trade tips and strategies on how to most effectively manipulate their marks, and trade pictures as proof. As a result, many of these forums contain the widespread dissemination of photos showing self-harm.

Most of the activity is happening on Discord and Telegram, which both have extensive features that can facilitate audio and video chatting. Telegram’s communication channels are also encrypted, which makes it difficult for law enforcement agencies to monitor.

Both Telegram and Discord have repeatedly stated that such behavior is a violation of their terms of service, and claim to be working with law enforcement to investigate and remove these users from their networks.

“People are not understanding the severity, the speed at which their children can become victimized,” said Abbigail Beccaccio, who heads the FBI’s Child Exploitation Operational Unit. “These are offenders that have the ability to change your child’s life in a matter of minutes.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

While part of raising children right involves increasing their autonomy and helping them to make their own decisions, parents still must remain vigilant and watchful around their children’s habits, especially their habits online.

A nine-year-old boy asked ChatGPT, “Is yo' mama so dumb that when she went to sleep, she put a ruler behind her pillow to see how long she slept?” The chatbot replied, “I'm sorry, but as an AI language model I don't have a ‘mama’ or the ability to feel insulted.”

The nine-year-old's real mom, journalist Linda McRobbie, was disturbed by her son's rude question. She’s not alone. Researchers estimate 54% of all conversations with chatbots contain profanity (often directed at the bot) and 65% contain sexual language. In 2019, about 30% of conversations with Mitsuku, an advanced chatbot contained abusive or sexually harassing language.

We might rationalize that a chatbot is just a thing with no feelings. So, what's the big deal about rudeness? Several things.

One is that part of our brains register our conversation with a chatbot as a social interaction with another person. When we hear the chatbot's voice, we think it's a real person, according to technology researchers.

Secondly, these AI assistants are designed to learn from our interactions with them. Our foul or abusive language may be training Alexa to talk back to us the same way.

Thirdly, we're training ourselves. Author and MIT professor, Sherry Turkle, who studies our relationship with technology says, "Abusing ... Siri, Replika (and other chatbots) coarsens us, not because the chatbots have feelings, but because we do." Forty years of research suggests that “venting” rage even at an inanimate object doesn't reduce anger. It just helps us rehearse it. There's even evidence that how we talk to our chatbots could start to shape our interactions with people.

The moral might be: “Be kind to thy chatbot because you’re practicing human relations.”

It’s ironic that Grace Community Church, pastored by John MacArthur, is located in Sun Valley, California, because its leadership seems committed to keeping certain details hidden from light.

Christianity Today published a story in February about the struggles Hohn Cho had with getting people in his church to admit fault and correct an injustice. Cho is an attorney, and had been an elder at GCC. A year ago, he and several other elders were tasked with investigating claims of spousal abuse from a woman in the church’s care. What he discovered was that she’d been rebuked by elders for failing to reconcile with her husband, but later the husband was imprisoned for child molestation and abuse, vindicating her claims.

Cho says he repeatedly asked church officials to privately apologize and make things right, but they refused. He says Pastor John MacArthur himself told him to “forget it,” and Cho was eventually pressured into resigning from the board. Even after his resignation, Cho was contacted by numerous other women from GCC who’d been given similar counsel to endure abuse from their husbands. Ultimately, he concluded that he just could not forget it.

Cho wrote in a report to the elder board, “I genuinely believe it would be wrong to do nothing. At the end of the day, I know what I know. I cannot ‘un-know’ it, and I am in fact accountable before God for this knowledge.”

Cho told reporters at CT:

They sided with a child abuser, who turned out to be a child molester, over a mother desperately trying to protect her three innocent young children. And that was and is flatly wrong, and needs to be made right. Numerous elders have admitted in various private conversations that “mistakes were made” and that they would make a different decision today knowing what they know now. But those admissions mean you need to make it right with the person you wronged; that is utterly basic Christianity.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Abuse; Church Discipline; Failure, Spiritual - We can't claim to stand for the truth if we won't tell the truth when it's inconvenient to do so.

For NFL player James Smith-Williams, it started with a challenge. The Washington Commanders defensive end was a student at North Carolina State University when he heard a speaker named Brenda Tracy talk about her experience surviving sexual assault. James told reporters, “Her biggest takeaway was, ‘If you’re a good man, what are you doing to be a good man?’ That really stuck with me.”

Once he entered the NFL, Smith-Williams partnered with Tracy’s nonprofit to establish a network of players who raise money and awareness for nonprofits that support survivors of domestic abuse and sexual assault. Because October has been deemed as Domestic Violence Awareness Month, he has been supporting the Purple Leash Project. This initiative seeks to make domestic violence shelters more friendly for pets, because of their potential for emotional support.

According to Smith-Williams, only 15% of current shelters even allow pets. “About half of the people who are in domestic violence situations delay leaving because of their pet. Pets are family too. Ensuring that people who have pets and who are in these situations have a place to go, I just think that is so important.”

Smith-Williams recently helped build doghouses at a local shelter who received a Purple Leash Project grant. He also wore a pair of purple cleats during a game in support of the charity. “As long as I have the ability to help out, I definitely will.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Having an effective witness is more than just avoiding sinful or abusive behavior. It’s also taking action in helping to defend and assist people suffering abuse in order to demonstrate the love of God to people who hurting.

In his testimony in CT magazine, Allen Langham describes hitting rock bottom in prison and finding Jesus reaching out to him:

As a child, there was violence everywhere I turned. My mother had been widowed by her first husband, abused for 20 years by her second, and deserted by my father when I was eight months old. Throbbing with anger and resentment toward my absent father, I was constantly getting into scraps with neighborhood bullies, hoping to earn their respect. I was also abused several times: by a family friend, by a boy across the road, and by a man I can’t say much about because I’ve blocked the worst details from my memory.

One morning, alerted by the shrieks of my eldest sister, I came downstairs to find my mother dead on the sofa, the victim of a cerebral hemorrhage. Something snapped in me that day—I was only 14—that put me on the road to destruction for the next 20 years.

By the time I left home at 16, I was a ticking time bomb—angry, bitter, and lost. My sister ran pubs, and I started down the path of drinking, gambling, and fighting, emulating the “gangster” lifestyle. This was my idea of what it meant to be a man.

But I excelled at rugby, and at 17 I signed a professional contract with Sheffield Eagles. Craving acceptance from members of the criminal underworld I perversely thought of as “family,” I began fighting for money, selling drugs, collecting debts for dealers, and generally bullying and intimidating my way through life. I walked into my first prison term as a lost little boy trapped inside a professional rugby player’s body. It didn’t take long for prison to turn me into a hardened criminal.

Eventually, after stabbing a number of fellow inmates, I landed in a top-security prison in London. I hated who I had become. With my violent outbursts and paranoid behavior, I had pushed away anyone I ever cared for—and put my family through hell.

I finally hit rock bottom and decided to commit suicide. With tears streaming down my face, I dropped to my knees and made one final plea to God: “If you’re real and you hear me, put a white dove outside my prison window. Show me you are with me!” The next morning, I saw a dove sitting there. Something inside me jumped, and tears of joy replaced tears of despair.

I began praying and studying the Bible in earnest. Before going to sleep, I closed my eyes, imagined Jesus on the Cross, balled up my rage, and surrendered it to him. When I awoke, I felt peace like never before.

God, in his patience, kept using this broken vessel for his purposes. He has given me the privilege of going into prisons and testifying to the hope and forgiveness he offers. I have spoken to rooms full of men convicted of the most heinous crimes and seen them reduced to tears. God helped me launch a ministry (Steps to Freedom) that reaches out to young people abandoned by society. He let me return to my first love, sports, as a chaplain serving several teams.

Miraculously, God has even given me my family back. It has taken years, but one by one he has repaired broken relationships with my sisters and their families, with my three children, and with the father who deserted us so long ago. The refining process has been long and hard. But bit by bit, it’s polishing me into a trophy of God’s grace.

Software engineer Cher Scarlett is helping to shine a light on discrimination and sexual harassment at Apple, where she works. In an interview Scarlett said, “Apple does not care about its employees. It cares about money. Maybe that’s capitalism, and that’s just the way corporations are. But I can’t live my life further accepting it and not saying something about it.”

Scarlett is motivated to speak up because she knows what it feels like to be powerless; not long ago she herself was the one in need of advocacy. That’s because before she taught herself to code, Scarlett struggled with a pill addiction after surviving sexual abuse and dropping out of high school.

Scarlett teamed up with Apple Maps program manager Janneke Parrish to organize an initiative with the hashtag #AppleToo, encouraging employees to share their stories of workplace discrimination. Parrish says, “It is an incredible story. She’s a deeply inspiring figure.”

Scarlett has become accustomed to telling her story to her many followers on social media:

I’m not a corporate shill, but I’m also not throw-away-my-job idiotic. I have to feel good about what I’m putting into the world, whether that’s in my job or on social media, whatever. I have to feel good about it. And if I don’t, I have to remedy it immediately.

Possible Preaching Angle:

The gospel has the power to transform people from victimhood to victory. Not only that, but God allows us to go through trials, not just so that our faith is tested, but that once we have overcome, we can also help others going through similar trials

Cody Byrd was seated at Biscuitville, a local breakfast spot, preparing to eat before heading off to work. But he noticed something peculiar: an older man was staring intently at an 8-year-old girl, who was seated next to her mother. Byrd said, “He just kept staring at her. It gave me this weird feeling.”

The man, who police later identified as Timothy Fry, got up from his seat after the girl left to use the restroom. Byrd sensed something amiss, so he also got up and followed them both into the hallway adjacent to both restrooms. Byrd asked Fry if he was waiting to use the bathroom. “And when he said, ‘Oh no, you go ahead,’ … that’s when it kind of rang that something’s not right.”

Byrd ducked into the men’s bathroom, listening intently. When he heard the women’s restroom door open, he darted back out--and saw Fry trying to grab the girl. She ran back to her mother, while Fry quickly started clearing his table, preparing to leave.

Avoiding a potentially messy confrontation, Byrd instead got a photo of Fry and his vehicle, and reported the interaction to police. As a result, Fry was arrested and faces a litany of charges, including kidnapping.

Greensboro police spokesman Ron Glenn praised Byrd’s actions. “(He) stepped up and prevented a far worse incident from happening. He was willing to help out and was able to act quickly enough to … get this man apprehended.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

Being a Christian means being ready to respond in obedience at all times. We honor God when we risk our own safety to defend the vulnerable.

In her book, Rebecca McLaughlin writes:

In 2018, ISIS victim Nadia Murad, shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Congolese physician Denis Mukwege. Dr. Mukwege, nicknamed “Doctor Miracle,” is a pioneering surgeon who has treated thousands of victims of sexual violence for the medical aftereffects of gang rape and brutality.

Recognizing Jesus's relentless call on Christians to serve the suffering, Mukwege urges fellow believers:

“As long as our faith is defined by theory and not connected with practical realities, we shall not be able to fulfil the mission entrusted to us by Christ. If we are Christ's, we have no choice but to be alongside the weak, the wounded, the refugees and women suffering discrimination.”

In a wide-ranging interview with GQ, artist and style icon Pharrell admitted some regrets surrounding his extensive catalog of hit songs. This is especially regarding the massively popular and extensively criticized “Blurred Lines,” featuring Robin Thicke and rapper T.I. The 2013 hit song was criticized as being misogynist and catering to rape culture, despite the fact that a woman directed its accompanying music video.

Williams says the controversy left a big impact on him:

Then I realized that there are men who use that same language when taking advantage of a woman. And it doesn’t matter that that’s not my behavior or the way I think about things. It just matters how it affects women.

My mind opened up to what was actually being said in the song and how it could make someone feel. Even though it wasn't the majority, it didn't matter. I cared what they were feeling too. I realized that we live in a chauvinist culture in our country. Hadn't realized that. Didn't realize that some of my songs catered to that. So that blew my mind.

Potential Preaching Angles: When we’re willing to admit when we’re wrong or when we’re ignorant about a topic, it allows us to consider the needs and perspectives of others. This helps us to become more like Jesus.

A team of journalists at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram spent nearly nine months investigating a pattern of sexual abuse in a loose network of independent fundamentalist Baptist churches, recently unveiling their findings in a series of articles entitled “Spirit of Fear.” In their investigation, the Star-Telegram journalists spoke to over 200 people concerning at least 412 allegations of sexual misconduct in 187 independent fundamental Baptist churches.

“Despite their use of the word independent,” their reporting said, “many of the churches were connected with other independent fundamental Baptist churches through colleges and pastoral friendships. And those connections, as well as the church culture, allowed abuse to flourish and abusers to move around the country without consequence.”

Stacey Shiflett, an independent fundamental Baptist pastor in Maryland, confirmed certain cultural markers where abuse tends to occur. “The philosophy—and it’s flawed—is you don’t air your dirty laundry in front of everyone. Pastors think if they keep it on the down-low, it won’t impact anyone. And then the other philosophy is it’s wrong to say anything bad about another preacher.”

According to Tammy Schultz and Sally Schwer Canning, professors at Wheaton College, church leaders need to be prepared to deal with these issues by cultivating a culture of respect, safety, and accountability.

Potential Preaching Angles:

Effective leaders model accountability, humility and biblical repentance. Those who excuse or cover up evil sow seeds of destruction and ruin lives.

Despite its mission to confront cruelty of animals, at least one member of the Humane Society of the United States needs a reminder that humans are just as deserving of compassion and protection.

CEO Wayne Pacelle resigned after allegations surfaced of sexual harassment. Initially, its board voted to retain Pacelle after concluding that the allegations weren't supported by credible evidence. However, a donor outcry, several board resignations, the launch of an official investigation, and the threat of an employee walkout were enough to trigger a swift reversal.

Much of the outcry against Pacelle was amplified after the Washington Post published several details from the official investigation. Those accounts demonstrated a pattern of behavior that, while not outright predatory, was still coercive, and including sexual advances made toward subordinates and volunteers. The scope of the investigation widened after several female senior-level officials claimed they had previously warned Pacelle that his behavior was negatively impacting the organization. Additionally, several other women were paid in settlement cases after claiming they were fired in retaliation for speaking out against Pacelle, whose behavior seemed to be tolerated among certain senior management.

Merriam-Webster defines "humane" as "marked by compassion, sympathy, or consideration for humans or animals." The organization could probably use a reminder that in the official definition, humans come first.

Potential preaching angles: Before you go out and change the world, ask God for help in changing yourself. Leaders should be held to a higher standard of conduct. Judgment comes first to the house of God.

Miracle Village in Florida is populated with an unusual demographic. Half of its population are registered sex offenders. Under Florida's state law sex offenders can't live close to schools, day care centers, parks, or playgrounds. And in some places swimming pools, bus stops, and libraries are out of bounds too. The effect has been to push sex offenders out of densely populated areas.

So, the late pastor Dick Witherow began the unusual community of Miracle Village (the name was changed to Restoration Destination in 2024) with a vision of providing a haven for people usually shunned by society (and the church). Convicts with a history of violence or diagnosed pedophilia can't join.

The BBC comments: This is a Christian community dedicated to helping sex offenders rebuild their lives, but non-Christians are accepted, and everyone is welcomed at church. There are anger management and bible study classes. And, as a condition of their probation, most of the sex offenders attend psychological treatment programs. Some of the offenders have jobs in local towns.

Craig Groeschel writes in “Soul Detox”:

My biggest struggle with bitterness started when my family discovered the awful truth about someone we had trusted in a position of authority over my little sister …. Most kids in our small town junior high school took at least one class from [a man named] Max on their journey through the sixth grade. To many kids, Max was a favorite teacher—always cutting up, telling jokes, and handing out easy As. To me, he became the object of the deepest bitterness that I've ever known.

Throughout the years, Max developed special relationships with his favorite students. Though none of us were aware of it at the time, we discovered years later that all his favorite students "happened" to be cute, young girls. My little sister, whom I treasured and loved, became one of Max's victims ….

Some studies show that as many as one out of three girls and one in four boys suffer some sort of sexual abuse. Whatever the numbers, this tragedy must crush God's heart. I know it crushed mine as a brother.

I remember trying to absorb the painful truth. How should I respond? Should we track him down? Have him arrested? Beat the life out of him? Make no mistake; I was furious the moment that I heard about his abuse. But the more I thought about it, my anger blossomed into rage. The seeds of bitterness planted in my heart grew to a full-blown briar patch of revenge. I prayed that Max would suffer eternally in hell, and I vowed to make him suffer on earth before facing God's judgment.

My plan for revenge wasn't necessary. To my bittersweet delight, we found that Max was suffering in a hospital, fighting for his life against a crippling disease, muscular dystrophy. I remember thanking God for his justice in giving Max what he deserved.

Most would agree that my bitterness toward Max was justifiable …. [But] no matter how justifiable my feelings were, in God's eyes my self-righteous hatred was just as sinful as Max's crime. Even writing that statement all these years later remains difficult—how could my desire for justice be considered as sinful as this monster's lustful actions? The vast majority of people would agree that my hate and judgmental rage were more than justified.

In the course of time, however, I learned that bitterness never draws us closer to God. Bitterness is a nonproductive, toxic emotion, usually resulting from resentment over unmet needs …. I wanted [Max] to suffer …. [but] I was punishing no one but myself and those around me who experienced the scalding spillovers of the acid churning inside me.

I was talking with a 29-year-old woman recently. She told me how she was changing and how happy she was that her life was going well. She shared all the victories and good things. In the course of our conversation over lunch, she said she was glad to be alive as a person. Things were going her way for the first time in a long time. She was a happy person.

And as I listened, it became clear that she always referred to herself as a person and never once as a woman. After about twenty or thirty minutes, I said to her, "You've been talking about yourself, and in every case you refer to yourself as a person. Are you glad you're alive as a woman?"

When I asked that question, she began to tear up. That led to a long, tearful discussion of the fact that she had been sexually abused, and as a woman, she felt useless and dirty. As a woman, she had no joy, but on the outside she was doing super. At the core of her being, she was not the happy woman she seemed to other people.

I suspect when most of us have problems in our lives, we simply try harder.

I know a young woman who got married but found she could not relate to her husband. As a child, her step-father sexually molested her for a number of years. That experience had made it difficult to have any kind of physical love. A molested child may not like to be touched, even though the thing that they need the most is to be touched and to be hugged.

But this young woman was transferring all of the revulsion and the hatred for her step-father toward her husband because of the depths of her shame and bitterness.

She came to a pastor, and he pointed her to (Luke 6). He said, "What does the Bible say that you should do to your enemies?"

She looked at verse 27 and said, "Love them, do good, bless them, and pray for them."

The pastor said, "That's what you have to do about your stepfather. Until you release all of the feelings of bitterness and you are free in your relationship with him, you will never be free to love your husband."

Every fiber of her being revolted against such advice. She thought to herself, Why should I forgive him? Why should I love him when all of those awful things were done to me?

Yet this young woman decided to apply this text of Scripture. She decided to bake her step-father a birthday cake. Rather than speaking evil of him, she decided to speak well of him. Upon further reflection, she realized that there were many good things she could say about him. In spite of this horrible sin against her, the fact was that in many other ways he was a good father. She began to think about those ways and speak well of him rather than evil. She decided that she would pray for him three times a day, that God would bless him, and that's what she did.

Several weeks went by as she continued to obey the Scriptures and to forgive the man who had so severely wronged her. She told the pastor later that she saw her step-father leave a supermarket and walk across the parking lot with a bag of groceries in his arms. For the first time in all those years, there were actually feelings of love toward him rather than revulsion. She said that except for their previous relationship, she could have gone and put her arms around him.

Then she made the crucial statement that was very important to the survival of her marriage: "Now I'm free to love my husband."