Imagine the scene.
You've been a victim for years. You wake in the morning stiff and bruised, the recipient of repeated beatings and verbal assaults. You struggle with feelings of inferiority and insecurity.
Then one day a knight in shining armor comes on the scene and plucks you from your misery. A respected police officer, he takes you to his home and you become part of a family. For the first time in your life you experience the balm of encouragement, love, and protection. You find a home where you can be open and vulnerable. You can be yourself and still be accepted and loved. For three years you bask in the warmth of this environment, soaking it all up, drinking in the attention and security. There is talk of them adopting you... it seems too good to be true.
And it is.
In time, your "knight" becomes more friendly. You wonder if he's hinting at desiring something more than the comfortable "father-daughter" relationship. Soon you don't have to wonder. He becomes even more flirtatious, and things go way beyond the limits of normalcy. In one fell swoop your world has gone from heaven to hell. Your protector has become your predator.
"You're ok with this, right?" he asks. You say nothing, afraid that if you resist, the adoption plans might be abandoned. And yet you feel so betrayed... violated.
It gets better. You go to your pastor, seeking help. Instead of the help you so desperately need, you receive cold stares from other parishioners as rumors of the abuse begin circulating through the church.
You find yourself in a downward spiral, contemplating suicide. Eventually you run away from home... if it can even be called that.
Talk about a nightmare. Sadly, this is a true story (see link).
A police sergeant and his wife took a girl of 13 into their home, rescuing her from an abusive home. They had plans to adopt her... and then the sergeant turned molestor.
A recent plea agreement was reached. 11 counts of felonious sexual assault were reduced to three misdemeanor charges. Am I the only one that thinks this is ludicrous? I understand that a plea was agreed to in order to spare the victim the humiliation she would surely endure as a result of going to trial. Defense attorneys can be brutal. Still.... this disgusts me.
The victim says that more than jail time, she simply wanted this man to admit what he had done -- and he has. It's a good thing that's what she's concerned with, because he's only getting 12 months in the county jail. 12 months. A kid selling pot brownies at school would be facing up to 15 YEARS. Maybe it's just me, but I think this picture is skewed... I am livid.
My prayers go out to this young woman (who is now 23 years old) and I wish her all the best. I pray that she finds peace and happiness in her life... that she is finally able to one day truly feel safe. I pray that she will one day find a church family that will love and support her, rather than spread gossip and inuendo, using her suffering as fodder for their rumor mill. I pray also for the man who perpetrated this crime. It sounds as though he knows what he did was wrong, and that he is sorry. I pray that's true, and that he is somehow able to find God's grace in the midst of all this. But desiring God's grace for him doesn't mean that I don't think his sentence should have been different.