“I See the Offender”
The offender stands within my sight,
Bound with the chains of judicial might.
I cannot reach him – I wouldn’t try,
But it’s crossed my mind – I wouldn’t lie.
Forgive me.
My little girl so young and sweet!
How can I stay here in my seat?
The rule of law will be my guide;
Within Thy Fortress I will hide.
Hold me.
Vengeance is not mine, I know;
It’s in Your hand where this will go.
But somehow wrongs will be made right,
If not now, then in Your sight.
Avenge me!
by: Anthony Baker
The Recovering Legalist 
Thought provoking. Can you shed some light as to what this means to you?
What it means to me? It’s what I felt as I sat in a courtroom today, not 50 ft. from the man…excuse me…the predator who exploited my youngest daughter. What it means to me is that as a father I want justice. As a father, a man, I want vengeance. But as a follower of Jesus Christ my heart is crushed. So many emotions – some primal – but I’m going to trust God to handle it. And should the legal system not handle it the way I’d like, I do believe there will come a day when the scales will not be held by blind justice, but the Righteous Judge who sees all and knows all.
For over a year, now, I’ve kept mostly silent about what’s been going on. I’ve been silent for many reasons, if not simply for privacy. But my patience is wearing thin. There are many others out there who are being affected by predators. So, even though no trial has been set, or plea received, I’m beginning to get to the point where I’m going to be more open. I must, however, make sure anything I say does not jeopardize any legal proceedings. It’s frustrating, to say the least.
This made me weep. My heart goes out to your little girl so young and sweet. To all the little girls so young and sweet.
And the little boys, too.
Hello Anthony,
I also have a daughter who was the subject of a predator. A rapist when she was nine years old. I didn’t know about it until she was an adult. She had blocked it out, but the rape event and the subsequent events that occurred in her life were the results of a predator. She then married a pedophile predator when she was eighteen because of her low self esteem issues and mental health issues that she struggled with during her teen years.
We try to expose the predator (if possible), but people in higher positions of society are vulnerable to becoming predators themselves, so it is hard for them to judge this kind of sin correctly. We see this in the revealing of the sexual deviancy in the lives of presidents, lawmakers, church pastors, executive professionals, etc. Some say that pastors are falling like dominoes to sexual sin. It’s the devil spirit of our time. We just had a well known pastor fall to a sexual assault charge in my community in the last two weeks.
I’ve had to look to God and trust him to protect my children and my grandchildren and also to protect me. I’ve had to trust that God will cover the bases, so to speak. He’s able to heal, protect, and provide what is needed in our lives. The world is getting more dangerous. There are more and more predators and those who are succumbing to deviancy in our communities. I found out that I am pretty useless at protecting my family. Evil is much more cunning and smart. But God is the game changer for the future and for righteousness.
Evil may be prevailing for the moment but righteousness and holiness wins. God has a plan and his plan is working out in the lives of his people. Let’s be faithful and totally surrendered to Him. Paul says that we can endure all things in Christ. We look to God for what we need and take from his hand our provision of ability.
Thank you for such a thoughtful response. I am sorry you feel helpless to protect your children, and you’re not the only one. But our limited ability to protect our children is much akin to our lack of ability to protect them when they drive alone in an automobile, or fly off on an airplane; we must leave them in the hands of God, but at the same time do all we can reasonably do with what wisdom and knowledge we’ve been given.
In my case, I thought I did everything correctly. I was in a balancing act between pastor, father, husband, friend, etc. People’s lives hang in the balance when a false accusation is made, and they are made often. I could not just destroy somebody with an accusation when the accusation seemed unfounded, correct? However, sexual predators are drawn to Christians; they know we will try to be forgiving, understanding, hopeful, and gracious. They know we try to look for the best in people, so they use our character to prey upon us – while we are praying for them. The result is not only robbed innocence, but ultimate betrayal. However, had I known the red flags that I didn’t know existed…had I known the whole story behind the person involved…had I done just a few things differently, things would have been different. I didn’t do everything correctly, but now I will (at least I will try).
I do believe that sexual sin is on the rise, but I don’t think that any one group is more inclined than another. If there is more press given to those in authority doing this kind of thing, it’s because that kind of person makes for better media. That being said, it’s always been a fact that Satan has sought to destroy the lives of ministry leaders, even leaders from all walks of life. Those in leadership, but especially spiritual leadership, will be the targets of more intense temptation, for when they fall they do not fall alone. Unfortunately, it is the human tendency for those who are in leadership to assume they are more capable of fending off such temptations.
One answer to all of this is to never assume someone will never do anything wrong. We must ALWAYS be aware of men’s fallen nature, regardless of position. We should always hold each other accountable and to high standards of conduct. What’s more, a leader that is offended by transparency should be removed.
You’re right Anthony about it being out of our hands to protect our children at all times. Fear about this can be debilitating. This is why it is so great to be able to rest in the Lord. The fear goes and confidence and trust provided through the Holy Spirit comes to take its place. Sexual predators will work under our noses. An example that I have personal experience with was when an usher was showing a man and a crying, screaming, kicking, young boy to the washroom in the Sunday school area of the church I attended. I just happened to have stayed behind longer in the classroom doing some things when I looked out to see what was happening. When the child did not stop crying and screaming I went to the boy’s bathroom door and opened it, asking if everything was ok. There was silence. I walked into the bathroom. Both the man and the boy were in a single stall. When I left it was only a couple of minutes or less before the man and the boy left the washroom. All crying had stopped abruptly in the few minutes before they left. Several weeks later the church discovered that this man was known as a sexual predator. His picture was sent to the church by authorities warning about what he was doing and someone recognized him. He had befriended a young single mother attending services at the church and therefore was trusted with access to her son.
My story demonstrates how easily sexual assault happens right in a venue or church. The predator used the church usher to give everyone noticing the screaming child the assurance that the matter was being taken care of. The predator had asked the usher for the use of a private bathroom because he said the boy is upset and he ( the predator) doesn’t want to disturb others who might use the public washroom. The usher was only too happy to accommodate and accompanied the man and the boy all the way to the washroom door at the end of a corridor with empty classrooms. It’s clear that this predator scoped out this Sunday school area beforehand and knew that no one would be there.
Tragic.