Americans have an almost universal revulsion towards child molesters. Even among prisoners, some of whom are guilty of the heinous crime of murder, pedophiles are viewed with such disgust that their very lives are forfeit. They are considered the lowest of the low.

That innate revulsion also arises among our military when mere children are raped. Sexually abusing and torturing kids is something that sickens and enrages even the most battle-hardened American soldiers. It is something our military has always found absolutely intolerable. That is why the revelation that U.S. soldiers have been ordered to stand down and do nothing when they hear little boys screaming as they are sodomized by Afghani military personnel is virtually incomprehensible.

The official rationale behind it?  The NY Times reports:

“The American policy of nonintervention is intended to maintain good relations with the Afghan police and militia units the United States has trained to fight the Taliban. It also reflects a reluctance to impose cultural values in a country where pederasty is rife, particularly among powerful men, for whom being surrounded by young teenagers can be a mark of social status.”

It is hard to think of a more serious case indicating the complete moral breakdown of the leftist theology that is multiculturalism. If the rape of boys cannot be reproached but must be tolerated as a cultural practice, just what might evoke justifiable moral outrage? 

But of course, tolerance of any sexual behavior, including tolerance of pederasts, is perhaps to be expected from the extreme Left, which has long made sexual absolutism its primary doctrine of faith. Maintaining moral paralysis despite screaming kids now appears to be the standard to hold to -- if one can call it a “standard.” 

Such moral turpitude has not always been the response among soldiers of the West when they have been faced with intolerable moral horrors. Charles Napier, the British Army’s Commander-in-Chief in India, was presented with the contemporary equivalent of multiculturalist arguments. He was told by locals that suttee, the burning alive of widows on their dead husbands’ funeral pyres, was a local custom.  He replied:

“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And we will follow ours.”

It was evangelical British Christians, including William Carey and William Wilberforce, who led the fight against suttee. There was no moral paralysis in their minds. There was no hesitation in proclaiming the practice anathema. Love of God and love of the Indian people led them to work to ban the “custom.” 

Amy Carmichael, who at the end of the nineteenth century went to India, found child temple prostitution rampant. She did not think it was an acceptable cultural custom for grown men to have sex with little girls, some of whom did not survive the ordeal, and some of whom suffered injuries so terrible they were cripples for life. She couldn’t stand the horrors, and worked to put an end to the practice. She loved God and she loved those little girls, working to rescue them from a fate worse than death. (From her biography: A Time to Die.)

What would in turn, be the loving thing to do for the little boys who are being raped by our so-called military allies? Stand by and do nothing or rescue them?  The answer is obvious to all but the most morally degraded.

Pope Francis is visiting the United States this week. He is expected to address Congress. The Catholic Church recently faced sex scandals of unprecedented proportions. The Church was shaken by revelations that priests had been sexually abusing children and that the Church structure was protecting many of those who were pedophiles. There was an eruption of outrage. The Left in particular seized on the opportunity to publicize the scandals. Lawsuits were filed and millions in reparations were given to the victims. Some dioceses were forced to close schools and churches. The Church suffered an exodus of parishioners who were horrified at the corruption, abuse, and cover-ups.    

The pope may address the scandals while he is here. As well he should. It was a terrible thing for the Church to delay so long in exposing and dealing with pedophilia. It is to be hoped the Catholic Church has completely reformed its ways.

But how ironic is it that the same Left which salivated over the pedophile scandal of the Catholic Church, which cited the immorality of pedophilia and which reveled in using the scandal to tear down the Church in any way they could is now advocating the U.S. military turn a blind eye to the rape of little boys? Why, suddenly, is there such moral turpitude on the part of the Left? Where are the vociferous protests? Where are the calls for a firm and principled stand against pederasty?

Let’s hazard a guess or two.

The Left, which still follows the example of their patron saint Voltaire, who was invested in the total destruction of the Catholic Church, is not interested in consistency. It is, however, interested in the complete destruction of Christianity. The fact pederasty existed within the Catholic Church provided the Left with an opportunity to destroy the Church. Leftists were not interested in reform, but in total destruction of an institution that has represented everything they are opposed to. 

But along with the desire to destroy Christian institutions such as the Catholic Church, leftists are also interested in destroying the individual who has a Christian conscience or one resembling it. They are after the breakdown of individuals’ morality. The direct order to stand down as children are raped and abused overrides our soldiers’ consciences. It creates a moral tension that is inherently destructive to an individual’s faith. It is very nearly the equivalent of barbarians who rape wives in front of their husbands. The idea is to create a nervous breakdown of the conscience and heart of the man.

In sum, not content with destruction of Christian institutions, leftists wish to destroy Christian belief itself. That is why they target Christian bakers. That is why they are determined to tear down monuments with the Ten Commandments inscribed on them. That is why they attack the celebration of Christmas. That is why they forbid reading of the Bible in public schools; and that is why they seek to silence Christians in academia, the media and in politics. 

That is also why our soldiers in Afghanistan were given orders by leftist theologians, who using the flimsy multiculturalist doctrine of “tolerance,” ordered brave men of conscience to stand down.

Thanks be to God for those soldiers who did not tolerate the barbarities they saw and heard. Their actions hark back to the U.S. military codes of honor that reflect America’s Judeo/Christian heritage. Those codes demand the protection of the innocent from predators and are the reason American soldiers have fought and continue to fight. 

Those codes still exist. It is time for them to be revered and reinforced. 

It is well past time to honor, not to punish, the heroes of conscience who stand by them.

Fay Voshell is a frequent contributor to American Thinker. Her articles have appeared in many other publications, among them CNS, National Review and RealClearReligion. She holds a M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, which awarded her a prize for excellence in systematic theology. She may be reached at fvoshell@yahoo.com