A response to an abusive mother beating her son in a fit of rage stated, “There’s two sides to every story.” This parroted response is not surprising as it is very common when a victim begins to speak about the abuse they endured.
This reaction came in response to a video of the Cottage Hill “Christian” mother abusing her son. Somehow, even with evidence, there are avoidant witnesses who still want to see it as a mere allegation.
Suggesting this in response to unjust treatment implies there would somehow be just cause for a mother to treat her child this way, which takes the focus off of what is being revealed – that she’s an angry person who clearly pretends to follow Christ while consistently using her children as her punching bag.
I’m starting to believe that people could watch someone get murdered and still say this. In churches, especially, this has become a default avoidant response when people don’t want to see abuse because it goes against what they believe and want to be true.
They want to believe every circumstance is give and take or a two-way street. They want to believe evil doesn’t exist and people only act like that when there’s a good reason, so when confronted with abuse, they jump to nitpicking the victim, contemplating how stressed the abuser must be, or how the abuser must not know better from a difficult childhood,
but many people go through really hard things and don’t abuse others. They choose to heal. They choose to learn. They choose to break the chains.
The truth is right there in scripture that evil does exist and everyone has the opportunity to do evil fleshly things. No one makes someone abuse them. It’s a choice the abusive person makes regardless of the situation.
There is righteous justice, yes, but any time there is unjustified punishment, there is a straying away from righteousness into rebellion. Biblical accountability is not in avoiding or trying to find a reason to justify evil behavior, but in acknowledging that humans make choices and there are just consequences for those choices.
It’s one thing to listen and investigate a situation. It’s quite another to ignore the reality right in front of you because you’d rather believe in a delusion to protect yourself than see and hear the truth.
He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord. – Proverbs 17:15
Like a muddied spring or a polluted fountain is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked. – Proverbs 25:26
Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the Lord understand it completely. – Proverbs 28:5
Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. – Psalm 82:4
If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame. – Proverbs 18:13
Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. – Ephesians 5:11-12
