Apathy & Commitment Summer 1989

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My wife and I strolled along hand in hand. It wasn't often we took a break from our four kids to enjoy one another. We walked past the local movie theater, and I waved to some people I knew. This is the beauty of living in a small town; you know at least half the people you run into.

"Hey Mike, can I talk to you a minute?" a voice called from behind me. I recognized Gary's voice. Our local social worker, he attended our church and we'd collaborated many times.

"What's up, Gary?"

"Has Steve come to talk to you?"

"No. I haven't spoken to him for weeks."

Gary paused. Internal alarm bells began sounding as I watched his tremulous expression. Obviously he wanted to say something serious but didn't know how.

"Is Steve in trouble, Gary?"

"He sure is! I mean, this is really big, Mike." My wife looked back at us a few paces behind her. Gary noticed her and nodded a greeting. Then he drew me close. "He's been charged with sexually abusing his foster daughter-ten separate incidents. He could be put away for five years."

"It can't be true," I said in disbelief. "Has anyone checked out her story? She was abused before, you know, and she could have . . ."

"He already admitted it, Mike."

As my wife and I walked away from that deadening disclosure, I thought back to my first association with child sexual abuse. A woman in our church phoned one night after supper, wanting to talk about sexual abuse. She queried me to find out what I knew on the subject. Within three minutes I had given her all I knew, and most of that was bluffing.

"Would you like to know more, Pastor?" Ah, the golden question! I'd used it in sharing the gospel. Now it worked with me.

"I guess it would be helpful to know more about sexual abuse," I admitted.

Edythe ...

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