Rescue the Innocent Child/Adult

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Music for the Soul Ministry (MFS) launched Innocentchild.net this week with the release of its latest documentary film, Innocent Child: Healing for Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse.

“This topic is critically serious,” MFS founder Steve Siler told AFA The Stand, “and our new film is about hope and healing.”

Past Trauma

The issue has infected the culture for countless generations. Thus, many adult victims of child sexual abuse have suffered in silence for years, some for decades.

Siler emphasizes that Innocent Child will help these victims regain self-respect and get a grasp on the reality that they did nothing wrong. Only the perpetrator was at fault.

Innocent Child invites these adult survivors to come in childlike faith for healing through the touch of Jesus. Remember, when the disciples wanted to shoo children away from Jesus, He reprimanded them:

“Permit the children to come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all” (Luke 18:16-17).

Siler said Innocent Child helps victims and families grasp the depth of this depravity and discover that there is hope for deliverance from the stranglehold it has held on their lives.

He also created music and lyrics for a song of the same title. It opens with these tender, encouraging words:

Precious one,
I know you’ve been sad for so long.
Don’t blame yourself;
You didn’t do anything wrong.
Every child needs attention,
But you didn’t ask for this pain.
You are as pure as a flower
In the cleansing rain.

Present Truth

Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that one in four girls and one in twenty boys experience child sexual abuse — but even those numbers are likely underreported. In fact, some research indicates that the number is much higher among boys.

“Look at it like this,” said Siler. “You walk into a room with 100 people, and as many as 12 to 15 of them have probably been victims.”

Common challenges keep most victims from coming forward to report the abuse. The child has a sense that it is not right and feels shame or guilt.

“This is real love,” the perpetrator will say. “It’s our special secret.” Or the child is threatened to keep the secret.

Through the decades, a number of myths about the issue have muddied the waters of truth. Many believe only strangers are child abusers. For example, some parents declare, “We keep close tabs on our kids; they’re never around anyone who would do such awful things.” No, not true. Don’t miss this:

Ninety percent of abused children know their abusers.

Other parents are adamant that they have a solid, no-secrets relationship with their offspring. “Our son would tell us if anything like that happened to him,” they insist. Not true. Questionable at best.

Most sexually abused children don’t tell anyone.

These truths were common in generations past, as verified by women interviewed in Innocent Child. The same truths are common still today.

Future Tool

Today’s degenerating moral and social decline has allowed this demonic specter to continue its wide impact on the nation’s children. But one warrior, Erin Merryn, has raised a standard for tackling the issue.

While in high school, Merryn journaled her own experience of sexual abuse in the 1990s by a neighbor and an older cousin. She then published it as a book. More books followed, and she eventually created a tool called Erin’s Law to combat the evil.

Erin’s Law is a template that a state can adopt to mandate that its public schools use age-appropriate curricula to teach students how to tell a trusted adult if anyone touches or attempts to touch their private parts. In 2013, Illinois Gov. Patrick Quinn signed the first Erin’s Law into effect.

Today, 38 states have passed some version of Erin’s Law. That’s encouraging, but implementation and enforcement of Erin’s Law challenge schools to fulfill one more requirement to crowded school days. It is one more element likely to fall through the cracks. (Learn more at https://www.erinslaw.org.)

MFS’s Innocent Child is a professionally produced, gospel-centric treasure in the arsenal of advocates to completely expel child sexual abuse from the nation. Specifically, it can help free adult victims from years of shame, fear, depression, and self-doubt.

MSF has created a library of more than 40 biblically based music and documentary resources offering hope to families and victims. Issues they cover include abortion recovery, fear, addictions, cancer, sex trafficking, pornography, eating disorders, grief, and anxiety. AFA has reviewed and recommended many MFS resources since its founding in 2001.

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