The Evil in the Hearts of Men

Back in my early days of being a father, I used to tease my older son Geordie at night by channeling the voice of Frank Readick Jr, who spoke the opening lines for The Shadow radio show. At the time, I just thought it was kind of funny when in my most evil sounding voice, “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?  The Shadow knows!”

And to me at the time it was just sort of humorous. I didn’t think that it might be absolutely horrifying to an eight year old, and in fact, hadn’t given it much thought until it came up recently in a conversation with him.

“That used to scare the crap out of me, dad,” he confided.

And perhaps it was a bit overdone for an impressionable kid at that time. But the sheer reality of it all is that monsters do exist. We are faced with them constantly, and often we don’t even know they are in our midst.

Take for instance the case of Jeffrey Clark, the former youth group leader at a local church.  Time will tell if Mr. Clark is found guilty of the charges against him for aggravated sexual battery, but in my experience these things tend more often to be true.

The incident prompted my church to host a meeting with a sex offender counselor. To say the least, it was an eye opening meeting.  There’s a reason why these people are called predators, and Clark’s case appears to be fit the bill for how these kinds of people operate.

Their intent, first and foremost, is to get “close” to kids. What they do to get there is the predatory part. They develop a personality that makes parents and leaders comfortable, and then turn their wiles toward taking advantage of kids. It’s not just boys that they are after, but it seems that boys are often the targets.

Take for instance the Jerry Sandusky case. No one wanted to believe that he was the sort of person who would take advantage of little boys. And yet…

And yet, that’s exactly how sexual predators work. They ingratiate themselves among the people who ultimately provide them access to that thing they want most of all.

Does that sound scary to you? It does to me. The reality of it is that it should strike fear in every parent.  These people end up in positions to do exactly what they wanted to do. They are predators; there is no better term for it. Everything they do is geared toward getting that one-on-one situation with your child.

There are likely those among the population who think this may be a bit overboard, or that my paranoia may be showing. But the truth is that these situations come up more and more often.

Blame the Internet, the media, or anything else you want to blame, but the truth is that these people are out there. You probably know them and you probably trust them.  That’s how they work, that’s their game, and they are very good at it.

So in the end, who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? No one. Take the time to get to know the people who are taking charge of your children. They are not all saints. In fact, some are as far away from saints as one can be.