Current Events & Trends: Sexual abuse, rape widespread in America
We are so far from the true sexual intimacy men and women were divinely intended to experience in godly marriage!
USA Today reported these shocking statistics at the end of last year: "Sexual violence is a widespread problem in the USA that strikes the majority of its victims early in life, according to a major government study released Wednesday. Nearly 1 in 5 women...report being raped in their lifetime," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Janice Lloyd, "Study: Sexual Violence 'Widespread,’" Dec. 16, 2011).
In 2009 there were just over 155 million females in the United States, and probably somewhere near 160 million presently. Some 32 million women residing in America (ideally the land of the free and the home of the brave) have been raped at least once in their lifetime. These numbers are horrendous beyond words—and our sexually obsessed media culture bears a heavy responsibility.
"The study is the first to examine the prevalence of rape, sexual violence other than rape, stalking and intimate partner violence, and to report the damaging health consequences that last a lifetime," the article continued.
What callous and unfeeling men do to very young women and girls can only be called horrific and unconscionable. "Among female victims, 30% report being first raped when they were between 11 and 17 years old; 12% were 10 or younger." Clearly child abuse, especially of teenagers and very young girls, is a staggering problem in the United States.
Further, "nearly 1 in 2 women (44.6%) and 1 in 5 men (22.2%) experienced sexual violence other than rape at some point in their lives." How far from the true sexual intimacy men and women were divinely intended to experience in godly marriage! The master deceiver, Satan the devil, has turned what was meant by God to be the most pleasurable of human experiences between a husband and a wife into a living nightmare for the victims while inciting the brutality of callous perpetrators (see Revelation 12:9; 2 Timothy 3:1-4).
If you have been a victim of any type of sexual abuse, your life can be turned around by a genuine encounter with the living God. Read our free Bible study aid booklets Who Is God? and Marriage and Family: The Missing Dimension plus the PDF article "Dealing with Abuse." (Source: USA Today.)
An Article from:
Good News Magazine: March - April 2012
Course Content
Jerold Aust
Jerold Aust has served in the ministry for 52 years, as a public speaker for 58 years, a published writer for 38 years, and is employed by UCG’s Media and Communications Services. He is a Senior Writer, interviewer, and editor for Beyond Today Magazine and has taught Speech Communication for UCG’s ministerial online program and the Book of Revelation for ABC.
Jerold holds a BA in theology from Ambassador College, Pasadena (1968), an MA in Communication from California State University, Fullerton (1995), a distance-learning Ph.D (2006), and a Famous Writers School diploma in non-fiction writing (1973). Additionally, he studied post-grad communication at University of Southern California (1995), radio, TV, voice-overs, and Public Relations at Fullerton College (1995-1996), and graduate communication at Wichita State University (1978). Jerold has taught communication at the University of South Alabama (7 years) and ABC (17 years). His published works include, Ronald Reagan’s Rhetoric: Metaphor as Persuasion and EZSpeakers: Public Speaking Made Easy in 7 Steps. Jerold's overarching goal is to share with humankind its incredible destiny!
John Ross Schroeder
John died on March 8, 2014, in Oxford, England, four days after suffering cardiac arrest while returning home from a press event in London. John was 77 and still going strong.
Some of John's work for The Good News appeared under his byline, but much didn't. He wrote more than a thousand articles over the years, but also wrote the Questions and Answers section of the magazine, compiled our Letters From Our Readers, and wrote many of the items in the Current Events and Trends section. He also contributed greatly to a number of our study guides and Bible Study Course lessons. His writing has touched the lives of literally millions of people over the years.
John traveled widely over the years as an accredited journalist, especially in Europe. His knowledge of European and Middle East history added a great deal to his articles on history and Bible prophecy.
In his later years he also pastored congregations in Northern Ireland and East Sussex, and that experience added another dimension to his writing. He and his wife Jan were an effective team in our British Isles office near their home.
John was a humble servant who dedicated his life to sharing the gospel—the good news—of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God to all the world, and his work was known to readers in nearly every country of the world.
