From time to time I see a movie so horrific, so unjust, that it defies the imagination. Today I saw an o movie made in 2002 called The Magdalene Sisters. It was the story of three young ladies who committed "mortal sins" in the eyes of the deluded Catholic men and women of Ireland. One girl was at a wedding where her "cousin" violated her as she begged him to leave her alone, knocking her to the ground with his hand over her mouth, so she could not scream. The irony of the situation is that when she told a friend about what happened, who informed the priests and other sainted men and her parents, she was banished to this house of horrors to work off her "sins" in a sweat house laundry asylum run by demented, perverted nuns where she was scoffed, further abused, and debased in every way. The man was never corrected, as men are the innocent ones.
Another young girl who lived in an orphanage was merely speaking to some young boys at the gate along with other young girls, but she was singled out as a harlot, and also unjustly sent away to the same cesspool. The third girl committed the "mortal sin" of having a child out of wedlock, which I know even in my day was gruesomely rewarded, but during the earlier years it was even more a shame and reproach.
At the house of penitence a cognitively challenged young girl who had also had a child out of wedlock, but whose sister had taken the child to raise, was made to repent by being made to believe she should perform "acts" of penitence for her priest. Since she was impaired mentally she never doubted the veracity of these actions, but later when an unexpected public event made her realize he was not a man of God after all, she was locked away in a mental asylum, where she eventually died of anorexia. I can only imagine from my knowledge of mental health institutions what atrocities she faced.
At the house of penitence a cognitively challenged young girl who had also had a child out of wedlock, but whose sister had taken the child to raise, was made to repent by being made to believe she should perform "acts" of penitence for her priest. Since she was impaired mentally she never doubted the veracity of these actions, but later when an unexpected public event made her realize he was not a man of God after all, she was locked away in a mental asylum, where she eventually died of anorexia. I can only imagine from my knowledge of mental health institutions what atrocities she faced.
According to a story I read, Magdalene asylums, also known as Magdalene laundries, were institutions from the 18th to the late 20th centuries ostensibly to house 'fallen women'.... Asylums operated throughout Europe and North America for much of the nineteenth and well into the twentieth century, the last one closing in 1996." The institutions were named after the Biblical figure Mary Magdalene whom Jesus pardoned of her sins, and she became a very close follower redeemed by His blood and free of all guilt and shame. I think it quite ironic that a woman honored by Jesus, the first one to see Him after His resurrection, would be regarded in such low esteem by nuns and priests devoted to the service of their Lord.
Judgment of others continues to this day under the guise of prophetic ministry. Rather than breeze through the scriptures and pick and choose those that fit personal theology, I much prefer to read the words of Jesus, who on the Sermon of the Mount made His position quite clear.
While speaking to the crowds in the 7th Chapter of Matthew He begins by saying, "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." Later in the same chapter He continues His message by teaching on the subject of prayer - asking, seeking, knocking, and He ends His thought by saying, "In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets." Did you notice He said "everything," and did you note what His ending words were?
I am particularly upset not so much by this movie or angry towards a sect, religion or philosophy, rather I am disturbed that still, to this day, up to this moment of time, there are those who are preaching judgment on others. Why is it that people are so determined to point out that the world is going to hell, pointing out "signs" while totally missing the truth Jesus spoke so clearly about His return for a purified church?! According to my reading, my life, and the lives of everyone who has ever lived on this earth and who will live on this earth, we have ALL SINNED and fallen short of the glory of God.
I am not trying to justify anything. I am simply asking everyone to read the word. God does not want us prophesying judgment. He wants us, in the words of Jesus to go into all the world and make disciples of all men. He wants us to spread the Good News of salvation, forgiveness of sin, deliverance of perverse lifestyles of any nature. The only way to win a soul is to show compassion for that one regardless of the sin, because belittling, condemning, ridiculing and otherwise screaming does not work. Ask yourself, would it win you if you were not a believer and follower of Jesus? Love, His Love, is the key.
The battle is not against flesh and blood, it is against principalities, powers, evil in high places. The enemy is satan, and the battle is the Lord's. It has already been won. Death has been defeated according to the scriptures, but because satan's time on this earth is not finished we need to expose His lies and defeat Him by praying for each other, not judging. We have given the tools, and He has given us His orders. Hell is a place reserved for satan and his followers who fell from heaven. God is merciful, and He would have no one perish. So pray and stand, armored against the true enemy, rather than your fallen neighbors, because before you came to Christ, you also were in the same place.
"Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers
and sisters of mine, you did for me."
Matthew 25:40
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