What is the worst thing going on in the world right now? And what is the church doing about it? No, it’s not the crisis in Egypt, although nothing good can come out of that. It is not the war in Syria, nor is it even war in general. It is not slavery which continues to this day. It is what is happening to 20% of all girls in the world and 8% of all boys. It is sexual abuse by adults.
At one third of a billion children being abused every 18 years, the number far exceeds the number of dead and wounded in war. In the 20th century, the number of deaths from war was approximately 100 million. This includes the deaths of civilians from diseases (except for the Spanish Flu), famine, etc., as well as deaths of soldiers in battle, it also includes massacres and genocide.
The number of wounded during most 20th century wars was similar to the number of deaths, so we will assume another 100 million seriously wounded. That is 200 million casualties from war, famine, disease epidemics and genocide. If we add 75 million from the Spanish Flu then the total becomes 275 million casualties during the 20th century. That’s fewer than the number of children being sexually abused every 18 years.
How many children were sexually molested involving physical contact in the 20th century? At 330 million every 18 years, that means more than 1.8 billion children were sexually abused during the last century - almost 7 times as many victims as there were in all the wars, genocides and epidemics of the 20th century.
Do you understand why I call it the worst atrocity that mankind has ever afflicted upon itself? Remember most of them are repeatedly abused, many of them thousands of times. Most of them will never fully recover from the effects of the abuse (See: Save A Child from Sexual Abuse for a list of the effects).
Many of the children will become disillusioned, bitter, angry, untrusting people. Many of the boys will grow up to be child molesters themselves. Few will ever be able to learn to trust in a loving Father.
And what is the church doing about it? Are we praying? Are we raising the issue? If we are doing nothing, we are part of the problem. At the very least we can pray something like my 3:15PM prayer, and we can do what we have to to raise this issue to a much, much higher profile. It will not go away by ignoring it. YOU must do something!
At one third of a billion children being abused every 18 years, the number far exceeds the number of dead and wounded in war. In the 20th century, the number of deaths from war was approximately 100 million. This includes the deaths of civilians from diseases (except for the Spanish Flu), famine, etc., as well as deaths of soldiers in battle, it also includes massacres and genocide.
The number of wounded during most 20th century wars was similar to the number of deaths, so we will assume another 100 million seriously wounded. That is 200 million casualties from war, famine, disease epidemics and genocide. If we add 75 million from the Spanish Flu then the total becomes 275 million casualties during the 20th century. That’s fewer than the number of children being sexually abused every 18 years.
How many children were sexually molested involving physical contact in the 20th century? At 330 million every 18 years, that means more than 1.8 billion children were sexually abused during the last century - almost 7 times as many victims as there were in all the wars, genocides and epidemics of the 20th century.
Do you understand why I call it the worst atrocity that mankind has ever afflicted upon itself? Remember most of them are repeatedly abused, many of them thousands of times. Most of them will never fully recover from the effects of the abuse (See: Save A Child from Sexual Abuse for a list of the effects).
Many of the children will become disillusioned, bitter, angry, untrusting people. Many of the boys will grow up to be child molesters themselves. Few will ever be able to learn to trust in a loving Father.
And what is the church doing about it? Are we praying? Are we raising the issue? If we are doing nothing, we are part of the problem. At the very least we can pray something like my 3:15PM prayer, and we can do what we have to to raise this issue to a much, much higher profile. It will not go away by ignoring it. YOU must do something!
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