Recently, a man I know—a professing Christian, active in ministry—went away to prison for a long, long time. He was found guilty of more than two-dozen counts related to the sexual molestation and abuse of young girls.

My head is spinning. As I’ve tried to get my mind around his actions, their causes, and their ramifications, one thing has become very, very clear: The rocks he threw in the pond have made ripples that will spread far and wide for a long, long time. His choices and actions have ruined relationships, families and individual lives. The reality is that while God’s mercy can result in incremental healing for those who have been victimized by this man either directly or indirectly, every one of them will spend their entire lives—until the day they die—in a boat that rocks on those ripples.

Child sexual abuse is at epidemic proportions. Some experts project that by the time teens reach the age of 16, one out of every three girls and one out of every five boys will have been sexually abused.

If you’re tempted to think this is the kind of stuff that only happens “out there,” think again. Christianity Today magazine recently reported that in the course of the last three years, an average of 23 new articles each day have appeared in secular media sources revealing sexual abuse allegations in Protestant churches in the United States.

It is estimated that there are now 60 million survivors of childhood sexual abuse living in America today. The sexual that steals a survivor’s innocence leaves lots of other junk in the hole once occupied by innocence.

Survivors spend a lifetime struggling with a variety of resultant problems including fear, anxiety, nightmares, sleeplessness, depression, anger, hostility, inappropriate sexual behavior, an inability to love or be loved, poor self-esteem, a tendency toward substance abuse and difficulty with close relationships. It’s likely they will withdraw from friends and family, have difficulty trusting adults, see their bodies as dirty or damaged, refuse to go to school, become secretive or engage in delinquent behavior. Some will go so far as to become unusually aggressive, or even become sexual deviants themselves. Sadly, many become suicidal.

The Reality

Several months ago this was driven home to me when I had a heartbreaking conversation with a high-school student I had just met. He heard me speak about pornography and the role it was playing in teenagers’ lives. Because he was struggling with a pornography addiction, he wanted to talk.

When he was 2, his mother hired a speech therapist to help him with his severe speech impediment. The speech therapist met with him at his house, up in his room—with the door closed. He told me he remembers the therapist helping him off with his clothes. Then the therapist took his own clothes off and proceeded to molest him sexually. This went on for years. He never told anyone. As an innocent and vulnerable child with no reference point, he told me, “I thought this was what all kids did.”