Mar 20 2008
Librarian Fired for Reporting Child Porn
A librarian in
Fla.-based Christian legal group Liberty Counsel has sent a demand letter to the Tulare County Library in Lindsay, Calif., requesting that officials reinstate library assistant Brenda Biesterfeld.Mathew D. Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel and dean of
“Child pornography is illegal under state and federal laws,” stated Staver. “Brenda Biesterfeld had a moral and a legal responsibility to report to police a library patron whom she observed viewing child pornography.
“Child pornography is a despicable crime against children,” he added. “Our tax dollars should not be used to provide safe havens for sexual perverts to view child pornography.”
Biesterfeld had contacted her supervisor, Judy Hill, after noticing the incident and asked for advice on how to handle the situation.
“I told her I was shocked because I have boys that age, and he might as well have had my youngest one up on that screen,” Biesterfeld recalled telling Hill, according to the Visalia Times Delta. “I told her I was sick to my stomach and angry.”
When Biesterfeld asked if she should call the police, Hill told her only to issue a warning to the man, who was later identified by police as 39-year-old Donny Lynn Chrisle, but not to contact police.
Despite her supervisor’s instructions, Biesterfeld said she later contacted police.
Biesterfeld again called the police when Chrisler came to the library on Mar. 4 asking to use a computer. The man was arrested that day on child-pornography charges.
But two days later, Biesterfeld received a letter signed by County Librarian Brian Lewis saying her probationary status is being “terminated” and her employment ended immediately.
Lewis said there were sound business reasons behind her firing but would not go into detail, reported the Visalia Times Delta.
The incident has also outraged community residents and caught the attention of city officials.
Last Wednesday, Lindsay Mayor Ed Murray and other city council officials sent a letter to the Tulare County Board of Supervisors, criticizing Hill and Lewis over their handling of the child-pornography incident.
The letter also charged Hill with being uncooperative and demanding while talking to police about the matter.
The Tulare County Board of Supervisors was scheduled to hold a session evaluation of Lewis during its meeting Tuesday.
Read about it here.
[From me]
The librarian shoud have gotten a raise and a medal instead being fired! Child Porn is a huge problem in our world. People get arrested for having child porn on their own computers so we sure don’t want it on tax supported computers.
What do you think?
16 responses so far
The librarian should definitely have gotten a medal.
The most heinous part of the crime is perpetrated by the people who take the pictures of the kids posing nude. The people who consume the porn are, for the most part, people who have a sexual disorder, which is exploited by the porn sites. This does not excuse the porn-consumer’s behavior, but it does mitigate their culpability.
Do you think God would take a dimmer view of photographing nude children and posting them on the web for all to see, then say, speeding? Is the first sin worse than the second?
A3,
I knew we would agree on this.
As to your other question. I think that all God sees is separation from Him when we sin. All sin separates us from God. However, some sins have greater consequences. This particular sin is much more damaging than say a person cheating on an expense report.
The law actually drives people to sin where as true grace gives freedom.
Kevin,
After reading your answer, I still can’t tell what you believe with regard to God’s ranking of the 2 sins (child porn vs. speeding). Are you saying that to God, the 2 sins are identical in their gravity? Or are you saying that God thinks that one sin is worse than the other?
A3,
I don’t pretend to speak for God. But from His word. All sin separates us from Him. What I am saying is that in God’s eyes all sin separates us from Him. I don’t think He ranks anything.
The only sin that leads to eternal death is not accepting Him.
A3,
This is similar to the line on the new papal sins. In answer to your question there:
“do you believe that God would be more offended by the sin of mass murder than by the sin of telling an “innocent” lie?”
In short, yes–God is certainly aware and more offended by things like mass murder b/c of the injury caused to others that He loves. I know He is able to see the difference b/c on the flip side, for believers, there are differing “rewards” or “blessings” for faithfulness–we’re created in Christ Jesus to do good works–and He does “keep track” in that sense.
However, knowing that God is more offended by mass murder doesn’t mean that he punishes those people more. The consequence of sin is separation from God and it will never get any worse than that. There is no partial separation or temporary/purgatory notion in Scripture. Even that old line from Dante, “It’s better to rule in hell than serve in heaven” is bogus. There is no ruling by anyone or anything.
God is morally aware and His heart recognizes the suffering our sin causes. In many ways, Satan cannot take on God in direct conflict (already lost) but Satan does know how to “hurt” God and that is by inflicting pain and deception on those God loves. He is not unaware or unconcerned about our suffering.
I am amazed at this story. It seems the old adage about whistleblowers suffering for doing what is right is true in this case. I am saddened by this sad state of affairs.
Kevin,
If God doesn’t rank one sin worse than another, then the fact that some sins cause others to suffer enormously does not effect His feeling toward those sins in the least. That seems to describe a God who is unfeeling and legalistic rather than a God who is perfectly loving.
Kelly,
The notion that God would not punish one sin worse than another seems immoral. The concept of fairness is one of the pillars of morality. We would both agree that it would be morally wrong to lock someone away for life for speeding, but locking someone away for life for first degree murder would not be wrong. In the first case, we judge the punishment to be unfair because the magnitude of the punishment far outweighs the magnitude of the offense. We feel that it would be immoral to treat someone so drastically for speeding. For this same reason, it seems morally right that people should receive rewards in heaven based on their deeds.
A3,
How does that show a God who is unfeeling and legalistic? Legalistic would be ranking sins. Plus when a person accepts Jesus they exchange their old life for a new life. Now I’m a new person and I have a new identity.
Kevin - When you used the scripture Romans 3:23 that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. I don’t think it was meaning to say that all sin is equal but rather to make known to us that we are all sinners in need of a Savior to atone for our sins. When we come to faith in Christ we are justified and there is no more separation between God and man
The Bible speaks a lot about the Day of judgement and I’m curious to find out how you think God will judge sin and will the punishment in Hell be equal?
In Romans 2:5 “But because of your stubborness and your unrepentent heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when His righteous judgement will be revealed.”
In Revelation 20:12 “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.”
In Matthew 10:15 “I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgement than for that town.”
First of all,
I’m not God. I don’t think he ranks sin. All I know for sure is sin separates us from God.
My ultimate question is why does it matter? As Kevin said, there is only one sin that will lead to eternal separation from God. All sin grieves God, that’s biblical. If we as Christians are truly striving to be like Christ as we’re commanded, our sins, no matter how small, should grieve us. Sin is sin. If we start some sort of ranking process we get into that whole “speck in someone’s eye while a plank is in yours” business. Weren’t we warned against that?
Angie - Why does it matter you asked. It matters because if you’re a minister of the gospel you are held to a stricter judgement before God, so you’ve gotta know that what you’re teaching is correct.
All wrongdoing is sin but each sin is judged differently by God. Here are a couple of scriptures. John 19:11 “Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.” Mark 12:40 “They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished more severely.”
My primary focus was on those condemned to Hell and would God punish some sins more severely than others in Hell. I feel sorry for anyone who has a ranking system of sins in their church. We are all at different places in our relationship with God. We are only held accountable to the truths that we know in scripture. Some people haven’t read and understood the Bible to be held accountable to it. It is not our place to judge. Only God knows where we stand.
Kevin,
By “legalistic”, I meant the strict outlook that a person stealing a loaf of bread because he was starving should be treated as harshly as someone whose livelihood was robbing banks. I meant that legalism is the way of prescribing punishment for an infraction without any consideration for magnitude or circumstance; it is the view that “stealing is stealing,” regardless of how much was stolen, how often one steals, or why one steals. Maybe you can think of a better word to describe the sort of black-white thinking that fails to recognize the gray areas in between.
I said that the God you describe is unfeeling because He puts sins that hurt multitudes on equal par with sins that hurt no one (besides perhaps the sinner). A person (whether God or creature), capable of having feelings for others, would despise things that hurt others more than the things that hurt no one. He would be more scandalized, for example, each time a serial killer trapped and tortured a victim to death, then He would be scandalized each time someone told a lie.
When I ask about how God ranks sin, you often respond with a comment about salvation. Perhaps I am missing your point about how comments about salvation explain why God does not rank sin. Or perhaps your point is that someone who is saved does not have to care about how the unsaved are treated - which would presume that you have no feelings for the unsaved and would explain why you might be comfortable with the understanding of a God who doesn’t hate mass murder more than a lie. Could you explain how your comment is pertinent to the question of ranking sin?
Angie,
Do you believe that God considers lying is as bad as mass murder? That would mean that God considers Hitler no better or worse than a little kid who lied about eating candy before dinner. Do you think that God is perfectly just? Justice would require that the lying child be treated less harshly than Hitler.
As one who does not believe in God, I agree that it doesn’t really matter what the Bible says that God thinks - except maybe that it will influence how believers will behave. I’m surprised though that a believer would not care what the Bible reveals about God.
Uknown,
Good verses! Thanks for posting them.
Oops! Sorry Angie. I wasn’t yelling at you - I just messed up the </strong> tag again…
A3,
Again, seeing as how those types of “punishment fits the crime” situations are in the Old Testament legal code shows that God sees and understands the distinctions between those sins you describe. However, I do not believe that the “legal code” or “legal system” in eternity works under the same set of rules. Having never been there to see, and because we get glimpses in Scripture but not the complete and full picture (never could outside our experience) the central thing it comes down to is the Character and Nature of God. Is He trustworthy, is He truly a God of Justice, will He do what is right.
Scripture affirms these things and the life of Jesus, I believe, demonstrates it. I know you are at a different place in answering those questions, so my answer will not likely satisfy. There are many things about God that I do not fully understand, but I believe He will handle all things justly.
Kelly,
It sounds like we agree that God ranks some sin worse then others.
It sounds like we also agree that it would go against the nature of God not to rank some sin worse than others.