Rachael Denhollander
Justice, truth, forgiveness, and accountability must co-exist.
February, 2018
News outlets spent a great deal of time this month discussing the sentencing of a serial child molester. Larry Nassar preyed on young women involved with gymnastics at Michigan State University. The driving force behind his trial and conviction was the work of one particular victim, Rachael Denhollander. While the media reported on her statement, the last given prior to her abuser's sentencing, the real impact of her words might have gone unnoticed.
Denhollander's commentary was powerful, razor-sharp, and transcendent. She not only overwhelmed those who abused her, and eviscerated those who enabled abuse, she cut to the core of many other societal ills. And she summarized it all with a glorious, impassioned presentation of the gospel. What may have gone missed, by many who read or heard her words, are how her references to truth and evil challenged modern culture. They also confronted our human tendency to "cover up," rather than "speak out," when we hear about abuse.
Denhollander's words should convict those who defend societal evils such as abortion, and embarrass those who pursue perversion at the cost of other people. She pointedly and rightfully shamed those who ignore abuse reports for the sake of reputation. Her crystal clarity on the meaning and availability of the gospel—even to a serial predator—ought to inspire Christians to examine how well we balance righteousness, forgiveness, and tact in our daily lives.
Perhaps most easily overlooked, her approach also demonstrated how the Christian ideals of forgiveness and mercy are not meant to eliminate justice and righteousness. Rather, we ought to pursue what is good, and right, including consequences for those who do evil—not in spite of our Christian faith, but very much because of it.
In my office is a book of "great American speeches." The transcript of Rachael Denhollander's testimony will be printed and folded into that book, on principle alone. I hope we can look back on her words as a watershed moment in American law, American culture, and American Christianity. If you think that sounds exaggerated, please consider a few selected quotes from her statement, below.
Denhollander summarized how a selfish, seared conscience renders a person incapable of legitimate love:
"When a person can harm another human being, especially a child, without true guilt, they have lost the ability to truly love."
She aptly pointed out that it's wicked—not "problematic," or "challenging," but evil—to chase pleasure at the cost of others:
"You have become a man ruled by selfish and perverted desires, a man defined by his daily choices repeatedly to feed that selfishness and perversion. You chose to pursue your wickedness no matter what it cost others and the opposite of what you have done is for me to choose to love sacrificially, no matter what it costs me."
Most poignantly, Denhollander demonstrated how truth, guilt, forgiveness, consequences, and the gospel of grace can all coexist, despite what the world might claim. Above all, she did so by upending the fatal flaw of modern culture: noting that we can only call something evil when we know what "goodness" truly is:
"You spoke of praying for forgiveness. But Larry, if you have read the Bible you carry, you know forgiveness does not come from doing good things, as if good deeds can erase what you have done. It comes from repentance which requires facing and acknowledging the truth about what you have done in all of its utter depravity and horror without mitigation, without excuse, without acting as if good deeds can erase what you have seen this courtroom today."[The] Bible you carry says it is better for a stone to be thrown around your neck and you throw into a lake than for you to make even one child stumble. And you have damaged hundreds.
"The Bible you [carry speaks of] a final judgment where all of God's wrath and eternal terror is poured out on men like you. Should you ever reach the point of truly facing what you have done, the guilt will be crushing. And that is what makes the gospel of Christ so sweet. Because it extends grace and hope and mercy where none should be found. And it will be there for you.
"I pray you experience the soul crushing weight of guilt so you may someday experience true repentance and true forgiveness from God, which you need far more than forgiveness from me -- though I extend that to you as well.
"Throughout this process, I have clung to a quote by C.S. Lewis, where he says, 'my argument against God was that the universe seems so cruel and unjust. But how did I get this idea of just, unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he first has some idea of straight. What was I comparing the universe to when I called it unjust?'
"Larry, I can call what you did evil and wicked because it was. And I know it was evil and wicked because the straight line exists. The straight line is not measured based on your perception or anyone else's perception, and this means I can speak the truth about my abuse without minimization or mitigation. And I can call it evil because I know what goodness is. And this is why I pity you. Because when a person loses the ability to define good and evil, when they cannot define evil, they can no longer define and enjoy what is truly good."
My sincere hope is that our culture takes her words to heart, and realizes how crucial it is to know what is "truly good." We will never turn back growing darkness by ignoring the Light, and the only way to spread that light effectively is to do as Denhollander resolved: to love, sacrificially, no matter the personal cost. And to never, ever, confuse "forgiveness" with "indifference" when the wicked prey on the weak.
You can find a complete transcript of Rachael Denhollander's statement at the link below:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/24/us/rachael-denhollander-full-statement/
-- Editor
