"I was a good person"

Perhaps you have seen some of the coverage of the blonde teacher in Florida who had a sexual affair with her fifteen year old student. The story is a couple of years old, but she has done some recent talking to the press. The part that struck me about the incident is her own perception of herself and the case:

She told Lauer she never thought she was committing rape when she had sex with the teen but realizes now she "made a really, really, really bad choice."

She acknowledges that the case got so much attention -- when similar cases get little or none -- because she is attractive.

"Sex sells," she said.

Lafave said she has a difficult time thinking of herself as a sexual predator, as she is now classified under Florida law.

"I was a kindhearted person who loved children, who would never, you know, do anything to break the law," she said. "I was a good person. And then, now everything has just changed. So it's just really hard for me to accept that."

She is right in drawing attention to the reason the press was drawn to case, "sex sells." This only became a national story because she was young and attractive. Sadly, that is as far at the press takes it, but there are two things disturbing going on here that merit the nation's attention.

First, the scandal of teacher sexual abuse and use of students is in all probability many times more significant than the scandal that rocked the Roman Catholic Church. Sadly, each case is treated as an isolated incident, not as a part of systemic failure.

Second, the convict in the Florida case points out the inevitable result of years of self-esteem building by public and private education and children's television. This past Spring, I was privileged to travel to Walt Disney World with our senior class. While there, I learned from a gaggle of singing princesses that I, too, was a princess and that we are all princesses. That message has hit home for an entire generation of young people who have been taught that they were born into a royal inheritance of self-love and self-respect. Like monarchs of old, nothing must be done to earn one's royal esteem, and all the world is one's due right. One must only believe hard enough and all things are possible, dreams will come true.

This educational model creates a mind that cannot face reality when the world treats one like a peasant, or worse, one acts like a peasant.

Ms. Lafave saw herself as "a good person. And then, now everything has just changed. So it's just really hard for me to accept that." Ms. Lafave thought herself a princess, only to find herself a peasant. For her to accept her disgusting acts will shatter her carefully cultivated self-esteem. She is not alone, and she will not be the first to discover that she is not worthy merely because she exists. I have sat across from countless parents who cannot accept that their child has erred because their child is a "good kid." They have been told so much by his teachers for years, and he has never been caught doing anything illegal. If they accept that their child cheated, or smoked, or did drugs, then the falsely constructed image of their child will collapse like palace of pretty cards. In the typical foggy-headed fashion of American Christians, we deny the doctrine of sin nature without even being aware of it.

We must all learn to accept that, "21But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

Peace