Jul 15
Written By Brandon Durham
Her heart was young and beauty bright,
But in her soul, the darkest night.
He was a man of holy cloth,
With soothing voice and answers soft.
She went to him by faith and whim,
When times were tough and hope was slim.
He held her hand, her heart to earn.
With evil passion his did burn.
Will wool be pulled upon her eyes?
A wolf awaits her in disguise.
The door behind them both he closed.
In his embrace she shared her woes.
Now days and hours turn to weeks.
Her troubled soul more comfort seeks.
She returns to him, the man of god;
Satan in a sheep’s facade.
He says she’s special and that he needs her.
With skillful lips more lies he feeds her.
His promises dispelled her fears.
The months and weeks turned into years.
He pulled the strings of her young heart.
She danced along and played the part.
Let’s build a world, a secret life.
I’ll keep it hidden from my wife.
So now they pray, and then they kiss,
And then they laugh and reminisce.
Even evil seems so right.
An affair feels fair under certain light.
And so they skate upon thin ice
He takes her life and rolls the dice.
But just as quick the deep tide changes
He grows tired of her and then estranges.
She’ll keep it secret all the same
For fear that she will be the blame.
Someone’s sister, daughter, mother
Silent victim of her brother.
He tricked her heart and wrecked her soul,
Then tossed her to the depths below.
His twisted lies, like lead, do sink.
Her demise, it pulled her, to the brink.
Illicit lust leaves innocence lost.
Adam’s Eve pays the cost.
I wrote the above poem, years ago, after the young lady I was dating confided in me that she had been sexually abused by a well-known celebrity Christian Minister.
The prevalence of both clergy abuse and adultery is staggering. We must all wise up!
For men, particularly those in positions of power & authority (bosses, pastors, etc), may we each take to heart the words of the Apostle Paul to Timothy, a man in pastoral leadership: “Treat…younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.” I Timothy 5:1-2
As Acts 20:28-29 reminds us, these are precious “blood-bought” souls, and pastors are entrusted with their well-being. We must set a new example of leadership that seeks to protect those under our care. It begins with watching our own lives. We must live in vital communion with God & His people; accountable to church family, confessing our own sin struggles, and practicing regular repentance, both for our own sake, and for the sake of those we lead.
We must consistently model and teach what it looks like to relate in good and appropriate ways, and build a church culture where even the most cunning perpetrators will be quickly recognized and exposed for their wolfish behavior.
Practically, I believe it is a display of wise and loving leadership when we set a precedent to not meet alone with women behind closed doors. If King David succumbed to the temptation to take advantage of a woman under his care (Bathsheba), what makes us think we’re above faltering in this way? And if Joseph could be falsely accused (and prosecuted) by Potiphar’s wife, so could we!
Lastly, there is such a thing as a willing victim. In 2 Timothy 3:6-7 we read about a character (moral) deficiency which makes some women an easy mark for predators: “weak (gullible) women weighed down with sins, led on by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
The prevalence of such women, in our generation, can be attested to by how sweeping the "#metoo movement has become. Feminism, which is the spirit of our age, makes women easy marks as it weighs them down with various sins (pride, envy, sensuality, immodesty…), and leads many to give full-vent to their lusts. Such a sinful lifestyle invites sexual abuse. Any feminist rhetoric to the contrary is a “blame-shifting” lie that only further contributes to the wide-spread abuse of our day.
I say this in love—If you profess faith in Christ, then it’s time to repent and grow up; trade in your folly for wisdom, and learn to live in glad submission to the Bible. You must be so rooted in the Word of God that even if the “Man of God, Satan in a Sheep’s facade” should seek to entice you away, you can say, soberly, and resolutely, with Joseph (Gen. 39:9) “How could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God!”