We Too by Mary E. DeMuth

Author:Mary E. DeMuth
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780736979191
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers

HIT AND RUN

Imagine an unruly drunk driver. Perhaps he’s been caught in smaller indiscretions before, been warned many times, or maybe he’s gotten away with it for years. Even so, on one particular day, this drunk driver jumps a curb and hits an unsuspecting pedestrian. (And it doesn’t matter what that pedestrian was wearing.) He flees.

The driver begins to believe that there are no repercussions for driving drunk. So he keeps doing it, continuing to jump curbs and harm people—people who have to go to the hospital, who enter rehab to learn how to walk again, who will never be the same. But for the driver, there’s no repentance. No getting caught. Just more drunken driving, more harm, more brazen confidence—all while he publicly excels in other areas, seemingly unaffected by what he’s done. He even compensates for his behavior by joining a support group for survivors of drunk drivers and makes speeches about the evils of driving while intoxicated. Because of this, he’s the last person you’d expect to be a serial offender.

Then one day, the investigator on all these cases uncovers camera footage for every accident, and the authorities arrest him. The drunk driver, faced with incriminating evidence over the span of years, confesses, then “repents.” Even so, he cannot take back the harm. The hit and runs happened (many times, many lives). All that criminal activity devastated the pedestrians who now battle injuries for life, whether or not the driver repented. The man’s “repentance” cannot negate the crime, nor can it erase the damage done. In order to move on with their lives without bitterness, the survivors may have forgiven him, but even that forgiveness does not erase the crime committed.

The drunk driver will be prosecuted, and if he ever gets out of prison, he’ll most likely not be allowed to operate a car again, or he’ll have to breathe into a device to be able to start his car. And the survivors will have the right to file civil cases against the driver to be recompensed financially for all the pain, medical care, and damages done to them.

Now imagine that the drunk driver is a sexual predator. Sadly, in the case of sexual assault or harassment, survivors seldom sue, and these situations seldom darken the courtroom. But the analogy stands. Even if the perpetrator repents, that does not make everything happy again, tied up in a bow.

So let’s tread carefully. We must be discerning when someone (who has multiple victims) claims to repent. Just because the person is nice or seems sad, remember that there are people aching in the aftermath of their predation, and that even the perpetrator’s repentance cannot remove what has already been done. “We are all sinners,” people say when a sexual predator who happens to be a Christian leader is outed. Some other frustrating responses:

•“Let’s not cast the first stone.”

•“Gossip is a sin, so by posting or warning, you are gossiping.”

•“Judge not lest you be judged.”

•“Women should expect harassment and get over it.

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