Barbara Streisand Comments on Michael Jackson Accusers

Barbara Streisand Comments on Michael Jackson Accusers March 23, 2019

Barbara Streisand came under severe criticism due an interview she gave Friday with the Times of London about Wade Robson and James Safechuck accusing Michael Jackson of sexually molesting them over an extended period of time when they were young boys during the late 1980s and early 1990s, at ages 7 and 9, respectively. They testify often in a two-part, four-hour documentary film entitled “Leaving Neverland.” It first showed at the Sundance Film Festival last year and won honors. Then, HBO showed it last month. The Jackson Estate is now suing HBO for $100 million. Robson and Safechuck are so believable in the film, and thus the indictment against Jackson is so convincing, that Oprah Winfrey has recommended it. Jackson was accused of such behavior many years ago and evaded being found guilty in a court of law.

Streisand said she believes the two accusers, Robson and Safechuck, in the film. Yet she defended Michael Jackson by saying the two boys “were thrilled to be there” with the King of Pop and that what he did to them sexually “didn’t kill them.” She said of Michael Jackson, “His sexual needs were his sexual needs coming from whatever childhood he has or whatever DNA he has.” That statement approves of what he did. Would she say the same about angry people who murder?

The first murder recorded in the Bible is Cain murdering his brother Abel who were sons of the two first parents, Adam and Eve. God then said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it” (Genesis 4.6-7).

This is a universal truth about humankind. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. And everyone is different about these things. But when it comes to our weaknesses, we need to do what God says and try to master them. If not, they will control us, and the results of that failing can be devastating. That is why God gives parameters in the Bible about what kind of human behavior is unacceptable.

Pedophilia is such a grievous sin that it isn’t even specifically mentioned in the Bible. The nearest the Bible comes to condemning it would be the condemnation of porneia (1 Corinthians 6.9). It means a wide range of sexual sins, and it is often translated “fornication.” When Jesus condemned porneia, he said it in the context of marriage between a man and a women (Matthew 19.9. Thus, he likely was referring mostly to adultery (moichao), which he mentioned near the end of the verse.

However, I think pedophilia definitely qualifies as behavior that Jesus condemned when he said of children, “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matthew 18.6). All these Catholic priests who have been pedophiles should tremble in their boots.


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