“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man whom the offense comes!” (Matthew 18:6)
The media is a secular organ of society, but it can produce enormous spiritual benefits. In exposing the heinous crimes against little children by grown men it is achieving a blessed good deed for humanity. Who can read the above passage and not feel the emotion of our Lord Jesus? To crush the innocence of God’s little ones is more horrible than anything imaginable. Such sins cannot and must not be hidden. Whoever is the perpetrator, whether he wears trousers or a cassock, he must be exposed and made accountable for his crimes against the little children.
Worse than ironic, I find it macabre that some of us who are entrusted with the shaping of the spiritual principles of children can consider themselves exempt from what has to be the worst sin of all, that of twisting and confusing the virtues taught by Jesus Christ. “Strike the shepherd and the sheep are scattered.” If those men who do such things to boys and girls have any consciences at all, how are they not haunted by them? In a world where the gospel of Christ has undergone a retreat from society at large, it is the voice of the public, the secular agency of information that cries out with alarm at the atrocity against innocent ones.
Jesus is speaking to the men of His culture. They understood what a millstone was—a huge, weighty round stone rolled over a flat sandstone crushing anything placed between them. The grinding stone was so heavy that it took a mule to turn it. This is what Jesus is saying ought to be tied to such sinners, and they then should be drowned in the deepest part of the sea. The sea frightened Jews. Even now there aren’t many Olympic swimming contestants from Israel. For them, Heaven would have no deep water “Now I saw a new heaven…also there was no sea” (Revelation 21:1). Jesus is saying to His own people, it would be better for you to be drowned in the deepest sea, as much as that thought terrorizes you, than for you to face the punishment that awaits you if you should be the cause of a blameless child losing his or her innocence.
He doesn’t promise a sinless society. The weeds go on growing along with the good crops until harvest time. That doesn’t change. The pure and tender will be challenged by vulgarity and cruelty over and over again. It appears inevitable in a world such as ours, where pornographers take every opportunity to gain an advantage over fighters for purity and decency. This enslavement to sin they consider liberation. Those who loathe the permissiveness that calls itself the American way of life feel themselves in retreat. Television has become a cesspool of violence and sexual permissiveness flaunting fornication with every new sitcom and talk show.
But if the schools have long surrendered to the inevitable and the parents are confused, searching desperately for something in society to fasten onto as a sure and steady support system for morals, principles and virtue, where else but in the churches are they to find what their hearts yearn for? Yet when the pastors fail to bear the weight of reason, goodness and sanctity, then hope itself falls victim.
If ever prayers were needed for America’s clergy and spiritual leaders, that time is now. We had for a brief time thought we had recovered our souls. After nine eleven, Americans were reminded who they are, what they stood for, where they came from and where they are headed. Pray God that the recent scandals do not obliterate those gains. Enemies had attacked us from beyond our shores, and we were not conquered. Now another demonic assault is taking place from the heart of society, but only with your prayers and God’s help will we vanquish that satanic force and offer our nation back to Him.