In the midst of the “#MeToo movement” and other feminists’ gibberish, politicians and pundits may have at last found the supreme insult/put-down (literally) for adversaries: There is a special place in hell for them.
For example, those who sexually abuse children or harass women – or didn’t vote for Hillary. Jesus agrees on the children abusers, the millstoners: “It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea …” Scripture is silent on Hillary non-voters but the issue of sexual harassers, and their place in hell, is more complicated.
Slander and calumny are covered at No. 8 in the Big 10 under bearing false witness. Less well covered are detractors, traducers, vile creatures who deliberately, and without other motive, seek to destroy the reputation of another even by telling the truth or what the detractor believes to be true.
There can be no doubt that unwanted physical contact can be evil, but verbal comments, verbal sexual harassments, are often left to the ear of the accuser. Feminists have removed this allegation from sound rules of justice – intent, motive (of both sides), due process and presumption of innocence – once bulwarks of our legal system. The accused is guilty because the accuser said so, period. And we often see cowardly males piling on the accused and ignoring due process because they’re fearful that females, or female voters, will find in them a lack of sensitivity or accuse them of not caring or hiding similar behavior.
Does anyone believe events that occurred many years ago – and only surface on the eve of an election – are honorably motivated by anything other than an evil intent to destroy the reputation of a fellow human being, or for a monetary payoff?
Sadly, there is no downside to false accusations in many sexual harassment cases. These people are a special kind of coward.
Consider the example of Crystal Mangum of Duke LaCrosse infamy. She ruined many lives, a horrible thing to do, but there were no consequences after her lies were exposed. Mangum had to commit murder before the law caught up with her.
There can be no doubt that many males who have been accused of sexual harassment had no intent to offend. Some may have thought they were being complimentary.
Does anyone really believe that former President George H.W. Bush, age 92, intended to sexually harass any female he patted on the backside?
God help anyone who suggests that some women seek to take advantage of the weaker sex –sexually that is – males, through deliberate and provocative dress and manner and by objectifying themselves. And God help anyone who suggests some women act dishonestly after being scorned or found incompetent.
We could go on and on about special places in hell for sexual harassers, but let’s go to an expert. Dante Alighieri may be the closest judge we have on special places in hell. In his classic divine comedy, “Dante’s Inferno,” he defines the denizens of nine circles of hell and describes their punishment in each circle more horrible than the former. At the bottom, the second circle, are those who sin through lust. Here we find the fornicators and sexual hedonists, probably including those who derive sexual pleasure from harassing others.
As Dante travels through the ascending circles of gluttony, greed, wrath, heresy, violence and fraud, each increasingly more horrible, he comes to the center of hell, the ninth circle, which he defines as treachery against those with whom they had a special relationship – traitors, betrayers (somehow Anita Hill comes to mind). There we find Satan, a three-headed monster with premier historical traitors, Brutus, Cassius and Judas, perpetually mangled in his fangs. There is quite a distance between those who lust and those who betray.
It is not hard to imagine a special place in Dante’s ninth circle for the detractors, a Mangum section. Of all the damage we can do to our enemies, destroying their good name may be the worst. We can make good on other evils, but not so much on destroyed reputations. And perhaps the largest section in the ninth circle is reserved for those who routinely, and with nothing but malice, denounce others as racists. Surely there is room for the opposition researchers, many politicians and others who make a living destroying the reputation of others. How about the media?
It would be hard to move Satan, but I think he could take Brutus, Judas and Cassius and form a 10th circle for the media. Hollywood abounds with the millstoners Jesus condemned. Much of the rest of the media live and die to destroy and misinform their fellow Americans with whom they have a “special relationship.” Because they are essential to our freedoms, that is betrayal of the highest order. Someone with more talent than I could have a ball populating, and devising punishments, in a 10th circle of “Dante’s Inferno” for media people who have damaged others unjustly – and our children.
I would add that there is a special place in heaven for good people in the media who tell us the truth and protect our freedoms.
