Co-conspirators

TRAFFICKING

As a virgin young woman, graduating high school, I started to work. There had been a woman that said a black man "really liked" me. I believed it. He had been looking at me with agreeable nods. And one evening he said he had friends that required their girlfriends to have sex with their friends to prove loyalty. I ended my interest. And learned of another woman. I had been about eighteen. I knew she had been maybe fourteen. I had been a senior the year before, prior to the time she had been a freshman. And the man had been in his twenties best I knew.

I grew up with some Church of Christ upbringing, strict, monogamous.[1] I went to school after graduating, studied art, graduated with honors, lived in a ladies dormitory adjacent to a Catholic church, quiet, safe. It had a parlor. I graduated and went to work. And again there had been a man making overtures. I had taken him seriously. So I was startled by the advances when I heard he was married. And one day he offered to set me up as "pretty baby"--it brought a quick end. I was nearly suicidal with grief that my standards were so violated. Sexual harassment is preying on another employee. I was a young woman fresh out of school, an honors graduate, looking to build a life and successful relationship. What I encountered at times were more akin to predators.[2]

There had been those that attempted to obligate me as a surrogate sexually for their relationships. I said no.[3]

Always monogamous, I never had any intention but to meet and marry a respectable spouse.


RELATED ARTICLE, PREYING ON SINGLE YOUNG WOMEN:

"Dangers children face online: Dateline hidden camera investigation turns spotlight on Internet predators," Dateline NBC--"Steve, 35, thinks he's got a hot date with a 14-year-old girl. Instead he'll be meeting Dateline NBC correspondent Chris Hansen." MSNBC.com


GUARDING YOUR GARDEN

In recent years I once planted a garden for my mother to enjoy while I had been caring for her during the summer. I removed all the old remains of dead weeds overgrown from last year. And I removed all the old and new dandelions appearing. I dug out the old brick patio areas and laid new ones, adding peat moss and fresh dirt to replace some of the hardened soil. I made neat rows and planted many seeds for herbs, vegetables, morning glories, and flowers. And I put in a fish pool to be enjoyable for watching. I had an enjoyable time before and after.

But the wicked-looking neighbor cats defiling my new tended garden were not "happening." Their remains were evicted right back in their direction where they belonged. It was NOT his garden. I did not want defilers in my garden.

I don't want no cat in my garden. The remains he might leave wearing.

SIDING WITH AHAB AND JEZEBEL

I don't want defilement in my garden. I do not agree.

I remember the story of Ahab. He had kept his mouth shut when Jezebel had arranged the murder of Naboth (I Kings 21:5-15). Naboth had refused to sell his garden, a vineyard (I Kings 21:3). Ahab acquiesced to the way of his wife (I Kings 21:16). It was the moment judgment came to Ahab (I Kings 21:17-19, II Kings 9:26) God desired for Ahab to be His representative, to represent His standards. But Naboth the innocent man was killed, by slander (I Kings 21:13).

Ahab was king and should have protected God's interests. Instead he acquiesced to the evil of Jezebel and God condemned Ahab first (I Kings 21:17-22, I Peter 4:17).

They were stabbing God in the back. Isn't that the way God saw Ahab? Ahab and Jezebel slandered the godly holy man tending his vineyard (I Kings 21:10). Ahab was king and should have protected God's interests. Instead he acquiesced to the evil of Jezebel and God condemned Ahab first (I Kings 21:17-22, I Peter 4:17). God expects His servants to speak up for His standards.

"If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works?" PROVERBS 24:11-12.

God will not only judge the idolatrous, He will judge silent compromisers.

A LESSON IN GARDENING

I am learning in gardening. In life sometimes there is a lot of dirt slinging. We are working in rows along side some who seem to be getting manure on our side of the line a whole lot more often than it seems to be getting on their's. And getting around those kind of folk you can down right find yourself in knee deep. It can be "defiling." But remember manure can be fertilizer. They are rowing and hoeing and whose knowing? And it can get pretty deep. It can make you feel like gladiolus bulbs down in the end of summer. It can get dark down in there. Those slinging dirt and manure consider you dead and buried.

But flowers resurface. And it doesn't take a lot of discernment to tell the difference between the manure, the dirt and the flowers.


[1] F.L. Cross & E.A. Livingstone, The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd. ed., Oxford: University Press, 2005), 1013, 934, 1383; Patrick K. O'Brien, Encyclopedia of World History (New York: Facts On File, 2000), 247; Daniel G. Reid, Dictionary of Christianity in America (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1990), 2, 3, 6, 7, 277. In 1517 Martin Luther nailed the “Ninety-five Theses” to the church door in Wittenberg (Cross, 1013), in 1607 Jamestown had been established (Reid, 2), and the King James Bible had not been published until 1611 (Cross, 934). The Protestant Reformation had made the way for the translation (Cross, 1383). Later Pilgrims settled at Plymouth in 1620 (Reid, 3), the American Revolution began in 1775 (Reid, 6), and the Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States by 1803 (O'Brien, 247). Colonization had established a myriad of churches in America by the 1800's--Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, Anabaptist forms (Reid, 2), and the Second Great Awakening occurred, 1800-1861 (Reid, 7). The Churches of Christ were formed as a result of the Restoration Movement, were first recognized as a group at the time of the census in 1906, and were noted by Alexander Campbell in Millennial Harbinger (Reid, 277).
[2] "What Is Sexual Harassment: Examples of Sexually Harassing Behaviors," Ohio.gov; available from http://das.ohio.gov/eod/AAEEOWhatIs.htm; Internet; accessed 30 April 2008; "A Regional Comparative Legal Analysis of Sex Trafficking and Sex Tourism," The Protection Project; available from http://www.protectionproject.org/commentary/st.htm; Internet; accessed 30 April 2008; "Legal Definition of Accessory," Black's Law Dictionary, 6th ed.; available from http://adlusa.us/accessory_definition.htm; Internet; accessed 30 April 2008.
[3] Threat from predators preying on singles, teens, similarly was cited by Dateline. Chris Hansen, "Dangers children face online: Dateline hidden camera investigation turns spotlight on Internet predators," Dateline NBC; available from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6083442/; Internet; accessed 1 May 2008.