Should Rape Be Forgiven?

Political leaders and entertainers around the world are clamoring for film director Roman Polanski to be freed. Polanski, a resident of France, was en route to the Zurich Film Festival on Saturday when Swiss authorities arrested him on a California court warrant.

Polanski fled the United States in 1977 after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. American investigators say Polanski slipped a13-year-old model a hypnotic sedative, gave her champagne, then engaged in various sex acts with her.

His defenders, including 138 in the film industry who signed a petition against the arrest, are proclaiming that Polanski is a victim, that efforts to extradite him would “take away his freedom.” The signatories, including Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese, expressed “dismay” that Polanski would be detained at a film festival in a “neutral” country. The petition demands the “immediate release” of “a renowned and international artist.”

I won’t deny that Polanski is a gifted director. I particularly enjoyed his 1980 movie Tess, for which he received an Academy Award nomination, and his 2002 work The Pianist, for which he won the Oscar. The latter alludes to Polanski’s personal trauma in surviving the Holocaust (his mother died in a Nazi concentration camp). Polanski also experienced excruciating grief when Charles Manson’s gang murdered his eight-months-pregnant wife Sharon Tate in 1969.

Beyond arguments that he is a fine filmmaker who has suffered, some defenders contend that Polanski should be forgiven for the crime because of his age (76), it happened 32 years ago and his victim wants to forget the whole ordeal.

But these excuses all miss the point. Polanski committed a horrific crime, confessed and fled. To allow him — or anyone less famous — to walk away free sends a message that sexually abusing young teenage girls is no big deal. That’s a message that is wrong, whether it’s 1977 or 2009.

Credit Card Heroes?

Some business analysts and consumer groups are hailing a new credit card plan by JPMorgan Chase as a means for customers to keep a better handle on debt. I think the new Chase Blueprint card is merely a ploy to get consumers to put more on their card that they really can’t afford to pay back.

The unique feature of the card is that it allows customers to avoid paying interest on everyday items such as groceries. The kicker, though, is that cardholders must designate what constitutes everyday items in advance and that amount still must be paid in full every month to avoid interest fees. Meanwhile, debt keeps racking up on other charged goods.

Such a plan gives customers a false sense of security. Few would choose to charge food if they had enough cash in their bank account. Odds are they won’t have the required amount a month later when the bill comes due.

I speak from experience. In the 1990s I put groceries on a credit card month after month — along with clothes, gasoline, dining out and furniture. Pretty soon I found myself $25,000 in debt.

If lenders really wanted to help strapped Americans they wouldn’t have repeatedly raised interest rates during the past year.

Preaching Standards

While hearing a preacher deliver a sermon away from my home church a couple of weeks ago I thought it sounded awfully familiar. My wife did some checking and discovered that paragraph after paragraph of the talk had been taken almost verbatim from a recent article in a ministerial journal.

This wasn’t a backwater preacher we heard. He’s a published author and nationally recognized church leader. Unfortunately, it’s become common practice for many time-strapped pastors to lift material from other sources and stand in the pulpit as though the words are their own. I know pastors have many pressing duties beyond delivering the Word every week. There’s nothing wrong with borrowing a few sentences from another source — as long as there is attribution.

I find it disturbing that many ministers freely appropriate the works of others (and there is a burgeoning market out there to sell such fare) in a profession that is supposed to be teaching ethics and righteousness. Silly me. I thought maybe those who are close to God might be able to provide fresh insights of their own.

Certainly in my profession of journalism there’s no tolerance for plagiarism. I once discovered a writer had incorporated quotes from a newspaper from a source he couldn’t reach himself and slapped his byline on it. The writer didn’t get paid for the article he submitted and I’ve never used him again.

Most every profession is stressed these days, but we shouldn’t give in to temptations to take shortcuts. I don’t have as much time to spend writing now because our staff has downsized. Yet I still have to interview people myself. I can’t be lazy and steal the published articles of others.

The ultimate paradox of the plagiarizing pastor is the topic of his sermon: How we no longer can tell the standards of the church apart from the world’s standards.

Crazy Love

Our small group at church just wrapped up a 10-week study of Francis Chan’s book Crazy Love. It’s been both a challenging and depressing journey. I felt deflated every week by the end of the chapter at how far below God’s expectations I fall. Yet I’m encouraged that books like this are being written and, more importantly, read.

Crazy Love is the first book written by Chan, founding pastor of Corner Church in Simi Valley, Calif. The book struck a chord, selling more than 350,000 copies since its release last year. Chan is donating the royalties to a ministry that fights human trafficking.

The point of Chan’s book is that most Christians don’t live Christ-like lives. We’re off base because we measure our morals by the people around us rather than by Scripture. It’s a theme repeated in two other new books I’ve just read: 10 Things I Hate About Christianity (which is the next subject of our small group) by Jason Berggren and Losing My Religion by William Lobdell. If Christianity is supposed to change the way we think and act, why do we look so much like those who have no faith? Why are we so preoccupied with our own comforts? Why don’t we have compassion for other people? Ultimately Crazy Love shows how much our society — and many of our churches — has drifted away from biblical principles.

A Strange Brew

I went to see a couple of baseball games in St. Louis last week. The marketing gurus of the Cardinals had been working overtime. Already there were plenty of John Smoltz shirts for sale in the stadium’s team store, even though the veteran pitcher had only made two starts for the team and may not be around after next month.

The economics of major league baseball dictates a revolving door of players. Only five of the 25 ballplayers on the 2006 World Championship squad are still on the team. And by observing the dozens of jerseys in the stands bearing the names of Eckstein, Rolen, Edmonds and a host of others, apparently fans aren’t shy about shelling out $30 to $180 bucks to wear the name of a player who will be traded away or not resigned soon after achieving glory in the Gateway City.

But the real eye-opener for me came in where we sat for the Thursday afternoon game, in the back row of a section that is in front of a fully stocked bar. Hundreds of people, who presumably have paid anywhere from $20 to $100 for a ticket to watch the game, spent the entire afternoon drinking. It’s a custom I don’t quite understand. I comprehend the socializing aspect of hanging out at a bar, but why do so many people — most of them affluent, good-looking young people — feel the need to spend $7.75 on beer after beer at a ballgame that they don’t even care about?

Occasionally people would glance up at one of the ubiquitous TV screens located above the bar. But only when Albert Pujols came up with the bases loaded in the eighth inning did anyone really pay attention.

I understand why the ballpark tolerates it. There are tremendous profits to be made, even deducting for paying a police officer to stand guard in case a riot breaks out.

Loss of Power

The electricity inexplicably went out at 8:15 last Thursday night at my house, in the neighborhood and indeed, I later found out, for miles around. Just a summer power outage on a calm night without any storms.

Naturally, a 21st century American reacts with indignation when the house goes dark. What an inconvenience to be deprived of the ballgame on the TV or chatting on my computer! Or, in my case, to be deprived of the book I had just settled down to read. Even with several candles going it proved too dim to see.

The power failure showed me how dependent I am on electricity. Seemingly I can’t eat, learn or communicate without devices plugged into an outlet to help me along.

But the darkness also provided a welcome respite. There in the stillness of the night, without even the time on the clock glowing or the refrigerator humming, I had time to pray to the One who is the ultimate power source, the Creator of everything.