We are better than this

As I was driving in to work today listening to NPR, I kept hearing about the election in Alabama. I wanted to scream at the radio and the world that we shouldn't be surprised by this. We shouldn't be surprised that powerful men in powerful positions are being accused of sexual harassment and assault. We shouldn't be surprised that our country cares more about party lines than survivors. We shouldn't be surprised yet we still are. And later tonight and tomorrow morning when Roy Moore likely wins the Alabama Senate seat we will again act surprised.

We live in a country where our very own President has been accused of sexual harassment and assault by many women. Where high power Congressmen, Judges and News Anchors have been accused of similar acts and only some of them have either stepped down from their role or been asked to.

We live in a country where we focus more on party lines then the lives of the people that live in it.

In our very own city, for many years, the judge that presided over Kansas City domestic violence court was convicted of domestic violence just a few years ago. For years I couldn't understand why he would let abusers off so easily and then it made sense.

We have made this okay. We have made it okay to treat women as "less than". To allow powerful men to still remain in power even after they have taken advantage of a young vulnerable woman or child. And why do we do this? We do this because we live in fear of what would happen if we didn't. What would happen if we had help President Trump accountable for his actions? What would happen if we stood up to the bullies and people we fear?

What is strange, is that our whole world could change. Our way of viewing men and women. Our way of speaking to our kids about right and wrong. As women, our fear of walking alone in a parking lot, our fear of being targeted by someone that is going to stalk or abuse us and our fear of being raped could possibly be less. 

What if. What if we lived in a world that actually held abusers accountable. What if we lived in a world that actually demanded, not suggested, that men in powerful positions be TERMINATED for sexually harassing or abusing a woman. 

We would have a world that felt safer. We would have a world that actually lives out the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A world of love. A world that stands up to our oppressors and a world that is committed to changing the way in which we value a woman's worth.

I am not surprised by the amount of men being accused of sexual harassment and assault. I am not surprised because it happens every day in the work place. Maybe you don't even notice it. We say such things as "boys will be boys" or we laugh off something that makes us uncomfortable because that person has more power than us. 

That is not the world I want either of my children to grow up in and it is not the world that I want to live in.

I may not be able to change much but what I can do is preach the Gospel of Jesus. To agree with this picture that Jesus would not vote for the child molester, instead he would want him held accountable and then address the reasons why he is this way. Offer that person a different way of living and possibly help to change the way in which we raise our men to think this is okay. 

Jesus came into this world to offer hope and light to all of God's people. By allowing someone to hold an office of power that has been accused of such horrible acts goes against everything Jesus stood for. It allows the others to win and we are better than that. At least I have to believe we are.