By Joseph Rembert

Pastor of New Beginnings Christian Center

 

It has been difficult to ignore the question posed by The Selma Times Journal relative to the possible need to scrutinize the current leadership at Selma High School after the revelations about alleged inappropriate actions of a teacher with her students.

I cannot understand how the alleged actions of one person can cause a blanket indictment on the administration at SHS, unless there was some tangible evidence of participation and/or cover-up by school leaders.

If we’re going to play the blame game, let’s be honest enough to admit that our society as a whole may have culpability in the incident(s) and the many unscrupulous acts that have occurred on school campuses before the accused in the current situation was born.

We live in a society where sex is used to sell everything from toothpaste, thick burgers to automobiles. Television shows are rated to warn parents of violence, drama, or sexual content in order to preclude their children being exposed to mature subject matter.

Unfortunately these ratings merely notify children that this may be something to view, as few parents monitor what their children watch. Children can download pornographic materials from the internet faster than they can mix kool-aid in a bottle of water.

When I was loading a U-Haul truck to move church furniture to Montgomery, I secured the aid of one of my teenage church members and one of my students that I taught during the first semester of this year. While I was on the truck packing things tightly, these young men were inside the parsonage dismantling a dining room table. I noticed that my laptop had been moved, but assumed that it was done to prevent it from getting damaged.

A few days later, I turned the computer on in Montgomery. Up pops a porn site with graphic sex acts between a man and a woman. Somebody had typed in the search engine, “All of the nude pics of Rihanna.” I suspect that the older young man had tampered with my computer and I was a bit bothered that the porn site was now a record of my computer use. What bothered me later was the fact that it took several days for me to get those pictures out of my mind. Was I trying hard enough? It was only through prayer that I was able keep good thoughts and avoid vain imaginations that would lead me to a place that I didn’t desire to return to.

I heard Evangelist Billy Graham say that he would never turn the television on when he stayed in a hotel because he might be tempted to watch inappropriate programming. Graham was one of the few who openly admitted that the worst of us still exists to some degree in the best of us and that without due diligence in guarding our hearts and minds, any of us can fall prey to the snares of the devil.

We live in a society where the church does not merely give tacit approval to things which were once considered unnatural and unacceptable, but now has become a leading agent for change.

Some polls conclude that a majority of Americans believe that people can love and live with whomever they want to, regardless of gender. Don’t be surprised that the next argument is that people ought to be able to love and live with whomever they want to, regardless of age.

Apparently the preacher, like the president, is looking at the polls and making decisions accordingly. Our definition of leadership is to find out which way they’re going and outrun everybody. Consequently, our children and adults will continue to get trapped in the snare and the rest of us will continue ignore the fact that but by the grace of God…