So in Kokomo there's a heck-of-a hullabaloo about the flood of lewd crime that will ensue in public restrooms if a LGBT ordinance passes.
Christian people are seriously freaked out about this. What I've mostly heard is they're ok with the LGBT community having their rights protected, they're just not ready for the crime spree of public restroom unspeakablness that they say will surely follow.
This is my personal response to that supposition.
I don't know about you, but from the time I was a little kid, we always heard that public restrooms were sketchy. Statistically, whether they were or not, we took care and were cautious. For instance, my brother and I were instructed to go together if we had to go to the restroom in a public park.
(For the record, growing up I never had a scary incident in a public restroom, nor did any of my friends or acquaintances.)
Much later, as a dad raising a family, my wife and I always escorted our kids into public restrooms, stood in front of their stall--you know, all that good protective parenting stuff. We did this in the mall, in town, out of town, wherever.
So my question is, if they pass that LGBT thing, would my behavior in a public restroom as a parent be any different now? No. I'd run the same play. My kids would be as safe as before.
Isn't that true for all of us? Do any of us send our kids into public restrooms alone now? No.
Here's where I'm at: I live in a world that has sketchy people in it. Sketchy people doing sketchy things includes all kinds of people. It's life. It's not a new phenomenon. Sketchy goes back to the beginning of time.
So do you know what I do? Every day I try to be careful and observant. When I'm in a parking lot, a restaurant, anywhere there are people, I pay attention. Why? Sketchy people exist. And do you know where the sketchy people are? Potentially, everywhere.
That's right. Sketchy people are everywhere, but we keep doing life.
It doesn't keep us from driving our cars even though sketchy people might drink too much and crash into nice people like us.
It doesn't keep us from going to the mall, even though sketchy people might try to make off with your wallet or purse.
It doesn't keep us from going to the bank even though sketchy people occasionally show up there with a gun to hold it up.
Do you know why we risk sketchy things happening to us?
Because there's way more nice people than sketchy people. We watch the news and know things like car accidents, purse-snatchings and bank robberies are rare occurrences and they aren't worth us obsessing over.
I'd guess right about now, someone reading this has pulled up a story about some guy who's done something bad in a restroom and that person's now feeling victorious.
If that's so, let's have a contest: you pull up all the bathroom crimes you can and I'll pull up all the people killed in America yesterday by drunk drivers.
In light of the grim statistics, I bet that doesn't keep you or me from driving tomorrow. (By the way that was 27.5 people a day in 2013.) My point is, let's not make bathroom crime a spree when it's far from it.
(By the way, if you Google "Crime in public restrooms" you won't get stories and statistics from credible news sources like CNN, Fox, etc, you'll get websites that look like news pages that are really propaganda either for or against this issue. Be leery of stats and stories on websites you've never heard of.)
As a pastor I am aware that our world isn't safe. Since we left the garden, it hasn't been. At some point, either at a national, state or local level, the LGBT community will be protected from discrimination, it seems inevitable. Whenever that happens, we need not fear taking our chances in the public restrooms, our cars, the malls, parking lots...everywhere. Since we left the garden, we're all risk-takers.
"For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline." 2 Timothy 1:7
