I learned some news, recently, that bothered me. First, I learned that a woman named Virginia Giuffre had died in Australia. As the story expanded, police and reporters claimed that she had died from suicide. Also, we were told that she was married, forty-one years old, and a mother of three children. 

It’s all sad, but you might know the rest of the story. Virginia Giuffre was a victim of Jeffrey Epstein, on an island in the Caribbean. She also alleged that she was molested by Britain’s Prince Andrew, and was allegedly recruited by Ghislaine Maxwell, a close friend of Jeffrey Epstein. Also, Prince Andrew denied doing anything wrong, but he settled a lawsuit with Virginia Giuffre for an undisclosed amount of money.

At least one person, that I know, does not believe that she died by suicide. There are many people who don’t believe that Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide, in a jail in New York. We know he died, and it was reported as suicide. I will leave the speculation to other people.

We do know, that Virginia Giuffre was abused by some wealthy and powerful people and the same abuse was given to many other young girls. It’s a terrible story.

Virginia Giuffre was one of the leading witnesses when those powerful people were arrested and punished for what they did. She is a hero.

This story is all about appetites. The people who abused young girls, on a private island, were feeding and indulging themselves. The unpopular word “sin” fits into this story. People who wanted to enjoy an experience, with young girls, apparently had the money and the organization to make that happen. Feeding their appetites meant ruining the lives of the victims, but they probably put some enjoyment into their own lives.

Now, a husband has lost his wife, and children have lost their mother. The abusive behavior of some important and wealthy people brought destruction into the lives of the people that they used. In the Bible, we are told about the “world” that is very different from God:

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, because all that is in the world the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the arrogance produced by material possessions is not from the Father, but is from the world.  (1 John 2:15-16)

Like most people in my generation, I was raised by strict and religious parents. It was common for neighbors and school teachers to have strong ideas about how we should behave, I suspect now, that many adults were honest with themselves about how dangerous the world could be for naive young people, like me. If I ever feel like complaining, I can see what they protected me from. 

In my circle of friends, when I was a graduate student in a university, one woman told us some things about herself. This woman was intelligent and attractive, but something was not right in her life. Success, in her personal life, seemed to disappear, too often. She told us, that she was a private and secret alcoholic, and I suspect that she also used drugs.

The story that I learned, was that here family had problems, and she made friends some local boys, who came from a wealthy family in our city. This probably happened when she was a young teenager. The boys would give her alcohol, and then they would use her physically. What I heard was disgusting, without learning the details. The boys did what they could because their families were rich and important, in our city.

The girl grew to become a woman, and her friends knew that she was mentally scarred. Someone mentioned to me the name of a mental condition that is common in victims of abuse “Borderline Personality Disorder”. I can’t judge, but our friend was unhappy about something. She moved away, and we didn’t have contact with her, but I used to track a few of my friends, with Internet searches. It was interesting to see where my old friends were going, with their careers.

Our disturbed and unsuccessful friend continued with the same pattern, in her life. She moved to a city far away, and her new career didn’t seem to work for her. I didn’t pry, but I am a Christian, and I could pray and ask God to help her. 

I don’t know how to pray for her now. She has gone blank, on the Internet and she seems to be invisible to any search. I think we all know what that means; she is almost certainly dead, with no obituary.

God knows where she is now, and I will probably never know.

If I was like my parents generation, I could deliver a stern message about morals and sin, but for me, the news is sad. The selfish choices that some people make bring destruction and sadness into the lives of the people that they used. “Sin” might be an old religious word, and it’s not popular now, but it describes some very real sadness.

I hope we can all see this, and feel it.

Envying, murder, drunkenness, carousing, and similar things. I am warning you, as I had warned you before: Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God! But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:21-23