Go Beyond

This past Sunday afternoon, my youngest daughter and I went to the theater to see “Despicable Me.” This is a delightful and witty tale about a super-villain named Gru who hatches a plot to steal the moon. Working from his laboratory hidden deep beneath his suburban home, Gru and his little yellow minions set their diabolical plan in motion. However, everything changes when Gru meets three orphaned girls named Margo, Edith, and Agnes. These three little girls see in Gru what no one else has ever seen: a potential Dad. I encourage you to see the movie to discover how the power of love transformed Gru’s despicable life. This is a movie with a great message and definitely worth seeing.

I wish that all stories about despicable people had a happy ending. Alas, that is not the case. While traveling home from Dubai last week, a friend showed me a story printed in the July 16 edition of the Khaleej Times — the English language newspaper published in Dubai, UAE. The story was entitled “Four Charged with Human Trafficking.” This brief story clearly illustrates the tactics used by the despicable people who plot to steal the innocence of young girls in order to make a profit. Here is my quick analysis of this article.

First, despicable people use strength to overpower the weak. Injustice is essentially the abuse of power by taking from others what God has given them. The news story says that a gang of four men “allegedly assaulted a woman, held her captive in an apartment and forced her into prostitution.” Psalm 10 describes how the strong prey on the weak: “He waits in ambush near the villages; he kills the innocent in secret places; his eyes are on the lookout for the helpless” (Ps. 10:8). Every day, people abuse power and strength in order to take advantage of the young, innocent, and helpless. God hates this despicable practice and calls us to “seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow” (Isa. 1:17).

Second, despicable people use deception to lure the innocent into their nets. The news article relates that the four men offered the young woman “the job of a domestic helper.” Many young girls are lured away from their impoverished families by false promises like this. Promised that they will be taken to do honest work that will enable them to help support their families, these innocent girls leave their homes with altruistic intentions. The writer of Psalm 10 had observed this kind of deception in his own day: “He lurks in secret like a lion in a thicket. He lurks in order to seize the afflicted. He seizes the afflicted and drags him in his net” (Ps. 10:9). God hates this despicable practice.

Third, despicable people rob the innocent of their self-esteem. The news article reports that the young woman’s captors “took her to an apartment in Deira. They forced her to have sex with men.” In most cases, abductors take their young victims to private residences where they repeatedly rape them. Every act of rape violently rips away one more layer of self-esteem and obscures any feelings of self-worth. And then, they tell these violated girls that they are not worth anything and that no one will ever want them. Thus begins their sad descent into a world where they are repeatedly raped for profit in filthy brothels. This kind of abuse is a despicable practice.

Finally, despicable people use violence and intimidation to keep their victims in line. The news article says that the young girl “resisted at first but was beaten up.” I have heard several accounts of young girls who were beaten because they refused to service a client or because they tried to escape. The strong will not hesitate to raise their arm against the weak — a despicable act. That’s why the Psalmist prayed, “Break the arm of the wicked and evil person; call his wickedness into account until nothing remains of it” (Ps. 10:15). Thankfully, the despicable men who abused the young girl were arrested. My prayer is that they will be locked up for a long time so that they “may terrify no more” (Ps. 10:18).