Feed a Monster and it will eat you

Here’s the latest thing to get me going. They just arrested a man for trying to abduct a fourteen year old girl. Now you would expect this guy to be some kind of low life living in squalor and drinking or using drugs all the time but nooo. This guy was a former mayor, a county commissioner, a volunteer at the 4H club, a good Christian, well respected, and on and on. Not at all what you would think a pervert would be. I was fascinated to see the reactions of those who knew him in the small towns of Hamler and Napoleon. Now let me put this in perspective.
Two girls are walking home from school and they notice a guy in a red Mustang following them. He drove around the block four times to come past them again and again. This freaked them out so she ran home. There she changed clothes and left to go to a friend’s house a half hour later. Gee, here’s this guy again. He follows her and at a nearby food market gets out of his car and calls to her “Come here little girl”. She ran and he chased her on foot for a short distance.
This girl is smart and appears to have learned how to act in such circumstances. She called 911 and was able to give a description of the guy, his car, and the license plate number. With that the police were able to obtain his picture and the girl was able to immediately pick it out from a line up of ten or so pictures. That sounds pretty concrete to me.
So here’s the deal. I was amazed at the number of people who knew him and refused to believe he did this. One nice old lady said “I think it’s a scam. He’s a nice Christian man. He can’t do something like this”. Another said in disbelief “Why would someone go to Toledo and chase a girl he didn’t know? That doesn’t make sense. No one would do that” insinuating this was a ridiculous story someone made up. Of course there were many who understood this guy probably was guilty but it still was hard for them to accept.
The fact is you never know what is under the surface. I have written before about the false face most present to the world. Every one of us has secrets. Deception is a part of all cultures. We all espouse the virtues of honesty but few practice what they preach. I am amazed by how few of us can see the reality that’s right in front of our eyes. We choose to see the world the way we want it to be or the way we were told it is. Despite all the evidence many are refusing to believe this man did this.
I would bet a thousand dollars that if they checked this guy, Steven Baden’s computer it would be full of porn. Now I’m a guy and like most guys it is hard for me not to look at stuff, especially when it’s everywhere on the internet. I do but fight it as much as I can. This is because I understand that if you feed a monster it grows stronger. One of the problems is you know that no one is looking so you can do this and nobody knows. There is the first deceit. Once you start doing something in hiding you are lying, you are putting up that false front. It starts out small. You know, it’s not a big deal, I’m not hurting anyone. When I said you are lying I mean you are lying to yourself. Then it moves easily to “I’m going to do this because I want to. No one will know and I don’t care. I like it”. The process can take years, even decades, but you are programming your brain. Soon you can’t look at a girl without your imagination going to work.
Steve Baden is a married man with two young boys. Who knows how long he fed his monster but it grew till it began to control him. Now he acts on this desire he has been nurturing. I would hope his being exposed, uncovered, will open his eyes to what he has allowed himself to become but I know this demon will not go away. If he doesn’t beat it down and starve it by self control it will grow strong and consume him again. Openness and honesty are the most powerful weapons we have. Think about it. If you knew there was a camera on you and the whole world was watching you would you act differently. We all put our best face forward when in a crowd. Nah, not really. We act to fit in with whatever crowd we are around and then change when with a different group. In my past I would go to church and be all religious and then go to the bar and be a very different person.
Since I died, was in a coma, and woke up I have revised my thinking and changed my priorities. I see things differently and I think allot more clearly. At least I think I do but who knows. What do you think?