Lynn Green

Author: Lynn Green

  • What to do with Paedophiles

    What to do with Paedophiles

     

    **This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**

    Stories of sexual abuse of children are in the press every day now.  The term covers a very wide range of abuses, from rich and powerful men thinking they can get away with anything, so they manipulate underage teenagers to have sex with them, or at the other end of the scale, deeply warped men (almost always men) who rape toddlers and babies.  Is this deviancy spreading, or are we just more alert to it because the news media are particularly on the lookout for cases of paedophilia?

    It must be a bit of both.  My guess is that rich and powerful men, whose ambition and pride lead them to abandon self-discipline, have been sexual predators in every generation because they think they are too powerful to be held to account. More often than not, they were right.  That is a tragic reality for the countless victims.

    Deviant sexual desires toward children are another matter, and here I think the number of people involved is growing exponentially.  There is an undeniable explanation for my assertion.

    Nearly all paedophiles have been victims as children. That is not to say that every child who is sexually abused is destined to become a paedophile, but many do.  Evidence at trials and my own experience of talking to abusers confirms that nearly all of them have multiple victims and some manage to abuse hundreds.  In light of that, the reason for the explosive growth and the high risk to children today is to be expected, though we fervently wish it were not so.

    A recent short news clip on the BBC addressed the pressing question, “What do we do with the growing number of convicted paedophiles?”  They highlighted a mother and her teenage daughter who are running a “name-and-shame” website and network.  They are deeply concerned about the risk to children when convicted abusers are settled in a neighbourhood without the knowledge of local families.  They want everyone to know when a convicted abuser moves into their neighbourhood, so they can keep their children safe.

    Then they interviewed a convicted abuser who has had a “support and accountability circle” whilst in prison.  He is worth quoting.  “I did it just because I wanted to.  I never thought about the parents or even the child.  I just wanted to, so I did.  Without the circle, I would be released and do it again.  But I would never do that again now.”  They also talked briefly on camera to a member of the circle.  He was a volunteer who cared enough to so something that him cost time and effort.  And he had confidence that the convict was no longer a danger

    The website and network has a “one-size-fits-all” label—paedophile.  It implies that they are all dangerous and need to be publicly exposed and humiliated for life.  This would apply equally to the 18 year-old boy who was sexually intimate with his 17 year-old girlfriend and her family prosecuted him, and to the manipulative, repeat-offending, older man who preys on young school children.  Public exclusion, discrimination and humiliation have no redemptive effect.  It is likely that people so treated will be hardened in their behaviour and find ways to reoffend or commit other crimes as they come to hate their persecutors.

    The support and accountability group treats each person as an individual and, in the context of a relationship that develops over years, can predict with some accuracy whether or not they are still a risk to children.  (We must take into account that no person is completely predictable because we are free will agents.)

    The law is not much help here.  By its nature, law cannot treat people as individuals.  The 18 year old and the abuser with countless child victims both go on the sex-offender register.  By contrast, personal pastoral care, by its very nature approaches each person as they are.

    Can any nation afford to provide a support circle for each sex offender?  Of course not!  Once again we are confronted by the impotence of the law and of government.  We consistently overload government with expectations it can never meet and then we complain about government intrusion and growth with the consequent increase in taxation.

    So there is a great need for people of faith, who have both the heart-motivation to help and the moral framework to help, to develop outreach to the growing number of abused abusers.  By helping them, you could prevent countless other life-destroying crimes. The expertise is available to be acquired, so you don’t have to be an expert to get started.  Are you one of those?

  • Leader, Know Thyself!   

    Leader, Know Thyself!   

    **This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**

    How well to you know yourself?  You may say “Very well; I live in here”.

    Actually we are all aware that getting to know who we are, what strengths we have, the skills we should develop and what weaknesses we have, is a process;  one that is sometimes fulfilling and exciting, and sometimes discouraging and painful.  It happens intensely for most people during their twenties, with quite a lot of that intensity carrying on into their thirties.  By mid-forties most people should have a pretty good idea of their strengths, weaknesses, abilities and their spiritual gifts.

    Wise people and teams have written numerous books on the importance of discovering what you are good at, and then developing your strengths and gifts until you become highly skilled.  The converse of that is to know your weaknesses, and recognise that you will need others alongside you who have strengths where you are weak.  It was a great help to me when, a few years ago, someone pointed out a serious flaw in our society, and especially our educational processes, which tend to highlight our weaknesses; then we are encouraged to work on improving where we are weakest.

    I was never much good at art.  I just don’t have the fine motor skills to draw paint or sculpt.  No matter how hard I worked at school, I was never going to be an A student in art.  (When Tracey Emin’s “Bed” became famous, I thought I could do that, so perhaps I could be an artist after all.  But that is another subject.)

    I don’t need to be good at art, because other people are and I am designed to work in teams, adding my strengths to the strengths of others and overcoming our weaknesses in the process.  When I need a webpage design I can get someone else to provide it!

    So, none of us can “do it all”, even though some people give the appearance that they can.  We can each focus on our strengths.

    But what happens when a person is sure they have particular strengths, but really they don’t?  Or perhaps they are ambitious to develop skills where they just don’t have the strengths to do that.  I worked with a person who was an outstanding organiser.  She was especially good at managing large events.  She made very difficult tasks seem easy, but she, for some reason, seemed to despise those abilities and rather wanted to be the person up front.  In the end, this outstanding organiser became the senior leader of a small group of people, which gradually declined until nothing was left.

    What do you do when you are convinced you can do something well, or can at least learn to do it well, but others see you don’t have the aptitude, or strengths to do that role well?  This is such a difficult question!

    On the one hand, it is possible that for one reason or other those others don’t like us, or have some prejudice against us, and with malicious intent they seek to tear us down.  Perhaps they are ambitious, and we are seen as a competitor.

    On the other hand, there aren’t many people like that, and we are likely to have others who will speak to us honestly and truthfully. So we should be eager to listen to those who know us and can give us helpful advice about our strengths and weaknesses.

    However, even when good feedback is available there are a few people who just don’t know themselves.  Their own opinion of themselves is seriously at variance with who they really are.  I won’t attempt to analyse why it happens, because I think there are a great many reasons why a person may try to develop in a direction for which they are not equipped.  When it happens, that person can waste years of their life, and end up having failure after failure.   Or at best they will keep working at a role, especially in leadership, that doesn’t suit their strengths.

    Here are some signs that a person might be ambitious in the wrong direction:

    1. You find yourself under tremendous stress, and consistently wondering if you are doing OK.
    2. Quite a number of reasonably trustworthy people try to point you in another direction, or perhaps you sense that they are not fully satisfied with your performance.
    3. If you have reviews, they are not encouraging.
    4. You find yourself fending off those negative reviews or criticisms by attempting to discredit those who produce them.
    5. You find your life is not going in the direction you want, but you genuinely feel it is other people’s fault.
    6. You begin to wonder why it seems that everyone is prejudiced against you.

    Joy Dawson, one of the people who helped lay the foundations of Youth With a Mission, once said that;

    “humility is being willing to be known for who you are”. 

    I believe that; but we often know things about ourselves only as we see then through the eyes of others.  We were actually designed to live in open and honest families and communities.  However, it takes a deep humility to hear and believe others when what they are saying is different than we want to hear.

    The really excellent news is that each of us is designed wonderfully with unique strengths.  As we discover those, sometimes by trusting the eyes of others, we can live joy-filled, productive lives.  We were created for harmonious relationships and when we unselfishly work in our strengths to help others and they compensate for our weaknesses, we function like a healthy body.  And that is the way it is meant to be!

  • ARE MUSLIMS THEIR OWN WORST ENEMIES?

    ARE MUSLIMS THEIR OWN WORST ENEMIES?

     

    **This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**

    Okay, so I am writing on a subject that has been written on by journalists and academics all over the world.  Still, I think I have some helpful things to say.

    Anyone who knows me knows that I have Muslim friends, have advocated on their behalf, have apologised to Muslims for the atrocities of the Crusades and the way Christianity has misrepresented Jesus, and have pointed out that the extremists do not represent the majority or even a statistically significant minority.  I do not believe that they are a true representation of Islam today.

    However, the Muslim community does have a problem.  They are being represented by that very small minority; at least partly because our press trains the cameras on them and holds the microphones to their mouths.  But it is not all the fault of our press; Muslims have also failed to understand and implement their most important priority in this time of great danger.

    Muslims turned out in their hundreds of thousands in many nations to demonstrate against the cartoons of Charlie Hebdo. At the same time, in the week or so that elapsed between the massacre at the offices of the satirical newspaper and its next edition, a number of horrific and highly offensive events occurred:  Muslim extremists executed, by stoning, women accused of adultery—and videoed it for the world to see.  They threw two men accused of being homosexuals from the top of a building, with a baying crowd watching below.  They cold-heartedly executed more prisoners of the war they initiated and, in at least one case, the executioner was a child.  The Saudi Arabian authorities continued with the weekly instalments of lashes of a cane to the back of a man who dared to criticise Islam and the Saudi Royal Family.  His sentence was prison and 1,000 lashes!

    But there were no demonstrations against any of these acts of terror.

    So what incensed them so much against the cartoons of Charlie Hebdo and the Danish cartoons published a few years ago?  They have a very strong aversion to any depiction of Mohammed.  It is very similar to the Jews and the Old Testament commandment that they should make no image of God.  This is very important to them.  It is a sin as heinous as making an idol was to the Jews.

    I understand that as a Christian.  I was very offended quite a long time ago when play writes and film-makers seemed to be doing their best to offend Christians by depicting Jesus in various degrading ways.  At the time, we had blasphemy laws in the UK, but the “entertainers” seemed to know that they had powerful figures in the establishment on their side so they fought their indictments for blasphemy right up to the highest courts and had the result they had aimed for from the start—the blasphemy laws were struck down.

    I wrote letters, I contacted my elected representative, I signed petitions, but we lost.  Part of me is now okay with that because it is very hard for the law to define what language is acceptable and what is not.  When the law begins to describe what we can say and what we can’t, we are liable to lose important freedoms and to give more power to the state than we should.  Of course, there are some words and subjects that “the powers that be” have decided are currently off limits.

    For example, when I was a child we had a little saying when we were playing a game that needed someone to be “it”.  Eenie meanie, minie mo, catch a ni***r by the toe….  It was all very innocent and actually did not affect our attitudes towards African Americans in our school.  Notice that I can’t write that word now.  (I can write the F-word, which I could not write then, but I would rather not.)  Political correctness changes constantly because….well, that will have to be saved for another blog.

    So, should there be laws against depicting Mohammed?  If so, surely we should reinstate the blasphemy laws that applied to the Christian faith. But, with the benefit of hindsight, I would rather we did not have blasphemy laws, so I don’t want a law against depicting Mohammed.  In the effort to stop offensive speech, we can easily create laws that end up giving away precious freedoms.

    There are, however, many things that we are wise to avoid, even though they are legal.  I do not approve of this current issue of Charlie Hebdo, with its drawing of Mohammed.  It exacerbates already strained relations between Muslims and most citizens of Western nations.  In a civilized society, those who have the privilege of a public voice should not use it to intentionally offend a large segment of society that already feels marginalised.

    But, I said that Muslims have a problem.  Indeed, they do.  Though the majority deeply disapprove of the violence being done in the name of Islam, they have not managed to get their voice heard.  That is partly the fault of the press that we all read, listen to and watch.  But it seems to me that it is also a case of misplaced loyalty.  There is a deep sense of commitment that Muslims should stand with Muslims whenever there are accusations or attacks from outside the Ummah (the global Muslim community).

    But Truth trumps loyalty, at least it should do.  When we are loyal to those whom we know to be wrong, we become promoters of wickedness.

    My hope and prayer is that non-violent Muslims all over the world will face the fact that their failure to get their voice heard is not only too bad, but it is a great threat to them.  I deplore the idea that Western citizens should rise up against Muslims, but voices like mine can’t really accomplish very much.  We need to see hundreds of thousands of Muslims taking to the streets all over the world to demonstrate in condemnation of Islamic State, of Boko Haram, of Al Shabbab, Al Qaeda and all the other splinter groups whose violent depravity, expressed in the name of Allah is causing so much pain, loss and global anxiety.

    When they do, our press must cover it and make it high profile news!

  • Paris shooting – Contrast of Kingdoms

    Paris shooting – Contrast of Kingdoms

     

    **This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**

    By the time you read this, perhaps the two gunmen who killed so many of the staff of a satirical newspaper in Paris will have been captured or killed.  But as I write, they are believed to be in a building that is surrounded by police.

    Will this event serve to light the fire of anti-Muslim violence in Europe?  Will it increase the willingness of our nations to use their superior military power to punish Muslim nations?  Will tens of thousands more Muslims die or be deported or suffer from hatred  in their home towns?  If so, what will you think and feel about that?

    Wait a minute!  Don’t stop reading because you think I am just another misinformed person claiming that “Islam is a religion of peace”.  That statement has been made ad nauseam by many of our public figures, beginning with George Bush not long after 9/11.  Islam is not a religion of peace.  If judged by history, neither is Christianity (nor Buddhism nor Hinduism for that matter).  All religions have been co-opted into men’s violent ambitions.  Violent ambition has only been adequately remedied once—by God’s incarnation and surrender to death at the hands of violently ambitious men.  But it was followed by resurrection!

    Does that help make my position clearer?

    If you know any Muslims, whether in Muslim-majority nations or in “Christian/secular” nations you will know how frightened and discouraged the vast majority are.  They feel that their religion has been hijacked by a small percentage of their faith who are mostly angry young men.  What makes it all the worse is that they condemn the actions of the violent few, but no one is listening to them.  Our press continues to train the cameras on, and hold the microphones in front of, the violent minority.  To compound it further, some of our public figures have used the situation to make comments that increase fear and hatred and strengthen stereotypes.

    The consequences of this are potentially much more deadly than all the terrorist attacks put together.  The 20th Century was the most deadly in history and the majority of the premature, violent deaths were the consequence of “Christian” nations going to war against other “Christian” nations in Europe and then drawing the rest of the world into the disaster.  Our democratic nations can only go to war when most of the population is convinced that it is necessary.  When fear and hatred are cultivated sufficiently, war becomes the “will of the people”.  This cycle has happened again and again and the only people who “win” are the banks and bankers that fund our national debts.

    Just a few weeks before Christmas Marti and I were in a gathering in Jerusalem where Jewish and Arab follower of Jesus made a high-profile, public covenant to stand together in unity—come what may.  It was a very dangerous thing to do!  They were well aware that their commitment ran against the tone of the communities in which they live.  Most Arabs and Jews in the Middle East are ready and willing to go to war against the other, whom they see has implacable enemies.  But the Spirit of Jesus can change that hatred and fear, even when it seems too strong to be challenged.  I will write more about this later.

    In this past year, similar commitments have been made by Chinese and Japanese followers of Jesus and by a great number of other nationalities and ethnic groups that have been enemies for decades or centuries.

    As fear and hatred grow and the world seems to become darker, the Kingdom of Light is also growing.  It rarely gets the headlines, but the growth is steady and momentum is increasing.

    Recent events, with the Paris terror being the latest, will provoke our nations to restrict international movement.  Governmental authorities will tend to feel that they have a mandate to alleviate their citizens fears with tighter and more invasive controls. They may feel that they are ramping up for all-out war.  But Jesus told his followers to GO to all nations.  That means his followers from all nations going to all nations.  Closed borders, fear of others based upon nationality, religion or ethnicity has no place in the Kingdom of God.  As His followers, we really do possess the antidote to the current fear and hatred.

    Where is your citizenship?