#youtoo?
Yesterday I was at the grocery store. A middle aged, seemingly cheerful checkout man rang up the gal in front of me and then proceeded with my order. He accidentally popped the cover off a bag of veggies and said, “Oh sorry! Manhandled that one too hard!”
The guy on the next register said, “This is the third time we’ve had to cite you for manhandling this week! One more time and you’ll have to go in the loony bin!”
“Just throw in a keg of beer and I’ll be a happy camper!” the man handling my groceries laughed.
I didn’t shrug it off, but I didn’t laugh with them. It’s not as high on the Richter scale as many in the sexual harassment hopper. Women are on death row for the crime of being raped. Women are murdered for “honor” when suspected of luring men into sin. Even children are pulled into the lurid reality that being female puts one at risk of being manhandled.
But the tone of voice, eye rolling, and body language of the store clerks reminded me, yet again, that society is not doing well educating people in gender roles and respect. These men have been programed to believe that this was humorous and normal, if not customer service.
Truth be told, I could have been in almost any country in the world and experienced the same thing. The only ingredients needed were a male interacting with a female without having first had a personal encounter with God that led him to repentance, washed him in the merciful blood of Christ, and filled him with the Holy Spirit for regeneration.
What’s kept me awake at night listening to the Lord’s heart on this issue is how wide-spread it is, and the tentacles rooted and accepted in society that justify mindsets like this. Tolerance weighs in and laughs at how mild this is. There is much more serious mockery going on. Like laughing at German girls who were stupid enough to be raped by refugees, or college girls who were stupid enough to get 4.2 GPAs and qualify for a sorority. Didn’t they know they would be raped? Never mind bigger issues like war brides and group rape.
In the Middle East - my personal reference point - a woman absolutely dare not, should not, must not ever look a man in the eyes unless he is her husband and they are in private. If she does, she has just invited him to sexually molest her. Women go to prison for the crime of causing a rape.
In fact, when men are at prayer, women are encouraged to stay away. It is a given that - as we were taught by a Saudi cleric - men submit the front lobes of their brains to Allah in prayer, but their animal instincts should not and can not be controlled.
Exactly. Yes, if you can do math, you also just did the logical calculations and understand that this means that males in Islam do not have free choice. They are sad victims of women. They are led around by their urges and must respond.
In other more ‘modern' societies people believe a more cynical lie: sex should somehow be free. Free of commitment and entanglement; responsibility and accountability. In one European culture, boy’s are given special beds by their fathers when they can conquer virgins. In Middle School. Virgins are anathema freaks; perhaps the most mocked and pestered people alive.
So “smart” people are proactive. They develop vaccines to fight sexual diseases. For the accidental pregnancy, there are free abortions; for the accidental STD, free health care, for the suicidal tendencies of women who’ve had abortions, free counseling, for the men who have used up their God-given oxytocin, viagra. The list goes on.
In several African cultures the myth that having sex with a virgin cures a man of AIDS has led to a rash of baby dumping when said virgins have babies at younger and younger ages … because there are so few virgins left to rape.
And, historically, this has been a fairly uniform view. Archeological digs at several earthquake and volcanoes ridden historical cities unearthed statues of men who are 9/10ths sexual organ, with a tiny body. Pompei, Ephesus and Catalhuyuk come to mind. The same process seems to have occurred in each city. God the Creator was put aside for idolatry, after which mankind was reduced to being incapable of controlling lusts, twisted sex was woven into religion, homosexuality was progressively accepted, then exalted, and society became depraved. If any one doubts this process, try the first chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans.
The answer is so smack dab, hit-me-across-the-face obvious that it would be laughable if it wasn’t so avoided. Avoided globally, historically, individually and collectively.
God is radically in love with us humans! He hasn’t compromised at all; not one iota!! He hasn’t evolved, changed his mind, or adjusted. Just as the sun comes up each morning and gravity still exists, His heart longs to draw each of us close, and He gives us a key and vital component to make access possible:
It’s called free choice.
But with kismet, fate and karma free choice is non-existent. Under Shari’a, tribal and eastern religions free choice is locked out. Instead, men are designed to sicken if they don’t get their sexual needs met. They are driven by lusts, and for Islam this is made worse because they are taught that Allah gave 9/10th of desire to the female. She is therefore to blame when a man feels the urge.
Under the guise of tolerance many modern societies have sought to “solve” this with free condoms and abortions. It’s a kindness, surely. Free choice means free to pursue sex every way any human has a whim to, with anyone, or, now, anything, if you count the sex robots. But we have a misconception of what God meant with free choice.
God chose to not make humans automatons. He gave us Free Choice. He wants us to each choose for ourselves. He wants us free and powerful and able. This means that a free good choice has good consequences, and a bad free choice has negative consequences. Like physics, gravity, light, and dark. There is Truth attached to each choice.
Interestingly, when we make a bad choice, we have another choice. And that is how we respond when God - who loves us, and is right there with us - gently points out our sin. The heart who genuinely wants to walk in the Light, and values the goal of righteousness will be repentant, and change at the whisper of His direction. The heart which is rebellious will grow haughty, accuse God, and harden his or her heart in response to God’s gentle exposure of sin as sin.
The next problem with us is that we then build societies and religions on that haughtiness and rebellion. Women are currently victims of the twisted justification of lust. Men and boys are sodomized by the same spirit.
The real problem however is when society demands that everyone bows to the rules that arrogance have shaped. Thus those who dare to challenge that and speak Truth and bring Hope become a threat to the establishment. Just consider daring to say sin is sin. You know what the consequence will be.
The #MeToo Movement had merit for a while. It was an attempt to bring sexual abuse to light. But because it allowed and even cheered on people who espouse sin in other areas of their lives, it has possibly made women’s lives harder by failing. Generalizing and labeling people didn’t work well either. Hating all older white men, all police men, or all black people is dangerous. We get caught in a war of words that splits gender preferences, and builds political agendas around people with presumed phobias. If you lack an example remember even just one of Erdogan’s speeches.
I’m personally thankful for Free Choice. I see the historical fruit of societies who thrived when there has been a Revival. Jails were emptied, abuse stopped, marriages thrived, children grew up loved, inventions bolstered the economy, music and books were written and God blessed the land. A Revival means that there was genuine repentance for sin. Using Free Choice blessed everyone. Instead of angry women screaming with vaginas on their heads women knew they were safe, loved, and valued and could enjoy a society that respected them.
I’m looking for that next Great Awakening, when Revival touches chords in the hearts of hungry souls. In fact, that’s my prayer. I don’t see answers in any political or religious agenda. In fact, Jesus warned his disciples of the religious and the political in Mark 8:15. No. Revival will come when we cry out to God for His Presence and realize that there is No. Other. Solution.
On behalf of the inane cashiers with dirty minds, the clerics bumping front lobes on the ground, the women in jail for rape, the teens who are gender confused because they grew up in a single parent home with no father, the girls in hiding from honor killings, the rabid mobs that are paid to shout obscenities, the children who are orphans because their mothers were taken by ISIS, I cry out for Revival. #youtoo?