Rewarding Abusers

Houston, we have a problem.

Well, it's much broader than Houston. It cover the entire nation from backwoods, to downtown alleys, to media moguls, to the White House. We keep promoting, encouraging, and honoring men who abuse women.

Sure, Roger Ailes was fired from FOX News as his sexual exploits became too great a burden to bear, but was released with a payout of $40 million, even as the victims of his crimes of sexual aggression were given much smaller amounts as indemnification for their suffering at his hands. Now Bill O'Reilly has been dismissed, but not for his sexual victimization of women. He is being dismissed because of financial issues over pressure from advertisers and subsequent loss of revenue for the media empire. Likely, there will once again be a payout for this latest in a string of high profile men at FOX who victimize women. We would expect this severance package to be greater than the $9 million O'Reilly has paid out to the victims of his abuse.

It's almost like we are more concerned with covering the financial damage to the abusers than we are with actually recognizing their misdeeds as crimes against women. It's like we are actually rewarding them for abusing those under them.

We have a president who claimed to molest women and get away with it because of his celebrity and wealth. We have seen a series of lawsuits against him for sexual violence settled out of court and yet we rewarded him with the highest office in the land. What does that say about all those voices clamoring that we enforce the laws of our land?

FOX is now under investigation for keeping criminal activity against women within its ranks quiet. Where is the uproar against the $2/month cable subscribers pay FOX to keep mistreating women? Where is the demand that laws against sexual violence be enforced against the men who by and large lead our political, economic, and media interests?

I recently read a message from a missionary friend working with a youth recovery home in Guatemala. He was talking about a judge commenting about sending a youth back to his home, hoping they would not beat him too badly, and granting marital right to another so that when he beat his girlfriend it would no longer be an issue that would return to bother him.

We really can't say that we are so far removed from that description of injustice. We keep honoring, promoting, and rewarding men for taking advantage of others as though that were our highest moral value. Perhaps it is. We allow the business community to get away with being economic predators on the poor. We let men in power get away with sexual violence. We allow athletes convicted of rape get off in a way that will not damage their career opportunities.

We are not really concerned about the victims of our violence. We are concerned with maintaining a certain image, instead. It's an odd message.

The wealthy are good. Even when the wealthy are bad, their wealth makes them good. It makes them worthy of greater wealth, for this is our greatest value. We are not really concerned with victims. We are concerned with keeping the powerful in power, giving the wealthy greater resources, and making sure that we do not allow the concept of success and the American dream be tainted by holding those who have risen to the top of the heap accountable.

After all, to get to the top, you have to crack a few eggs. If you get your jollies from it along the way, that's just the price we are willing to let your victims pay. Just be sure that when you get there you are white, male, and a willing representation of the establishment. We'll be sure to reward you and keep a lid on your pool of victims.

Don't worry. We got this.

—©Copyright 2017 Christopher B. Harbin
http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/

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