A Wolf in Saints clothing.
I just read an article in the New York Times entitled: “Noted Humanitarian Charged With Child Rape in Nepal, Stunning a Village."
Now some of you might be aware of the whistleblowing struggle I and a number of people have been involved with in the last year. Some might say: "Ah…. I think he’s trying to draw a parallel.”
This New York Times Story chronicles the revelations that noted humanitarian, Peter Dalglish who has done all manner of incredible and beautiful humanitarian acts, is being charged with child rape. Full story here by Kai Schultz and Rajneesh Bhandari: https://nyti.ms/2G5Ehjj
Why is this interesting to me? Well, when revelations such as this come out, some people simply cannot fathom how this is possible. It’s as though the underlying darkness is too much for them to cope with, in their psyche. They begin looking for clues as to when the person took a turn towards the dark side. As though, at first, there was some kind of purity which later began eroding.
They might defend the entire debacle by pointing to all the good that was done. All the gifts, all the kindness, all the attention, the education, the ideas, the pious behavior (at least publicly). The one thing they cannot seem to parse is the idea that a person with malevolent intent may have used a mask of sweet honey for many, many years. That seems impossible to them. It’s impossible because they themselves would never do it. And so... they end up inadvertently, defending evil. Searching DESPERATELY for some scrap of goodness to hold onto.
There WAS goodness. The appearance and allure of goodness. Otherwise their prey would never have been enchanted or attracted or interested or compelled. To use a metaphor. The appearance of goodness is at the outer rim of the funnel. But, where the funnel leads, is into the depths of a darkness.
Wolves in Saints clothing keep getting away with it because good, well-meaning people defend the Wolf with their own balmy blanket of protective avoidance. They can’t allow this to be true or it will shatter their psyche.
They might look at the fallen ‘Saint’ as having contributed SO MUCH to people lives. They might look at his writings, his ‘tools’, some redeeming goodness independent of his fall. They might look at the community around him and say it was all because of him.
Perhaps.
Or perhaps, good people rallied around an idea they loved. THEIR idea of goodness. THEIR hopes and dreams. Buried deep inside their own beautiful 'soul'. Transposed onto the ‘Saint’. This masquerade is alarmingly common in our world.
“Peter Dalglish’s arrest should be a ‘teachable moment’ for the humanitarian community to understand and recognize how predators exploit the cover of ‘heroism’ to commit crimes,” Lori Handrahan, a veteran humanitarian worker, wrote in an essay published on Medium. “Let’s be clear. Peter Dalglish is not a hero. He never was.”
My advice? Stop searching desperately for the goodness. It was there… but used as bait. See it for what it is. Recognize the betrayal.
Find your own goodness.
Mark Vicente ©2018