Imagine Being In Someone Else's Shoes

 I think... our culture teaches us to judge others more than try to put ourselves in their shoes.  Sometimes it pays to use a little imagination.  I have an example.

I was on Twitter, and I saw that some woman was complaining bitterly about child sex dolls.  Now am I a fan of child sex dolls?  NO.  Am I glad they exist?  Well, as I'm about to explain, I have decidedly mixed feelings about them.  Anyhow, this person was under the impression that people use child sex dolls as a like a... 'gateway drug" to pedophilia.  Me, I have a hard time imagining a teenage boy with sexual feelings purchasing a child sex doll because they want to see what it's like being a pedophile.  I'm pretty sure very few, if any, child sex predators are born this way.  More likely though, I see a guy who has already gone to prison for sex crimes against minors thinking "I don't want this to happen again.  How do I make sure I never have sex with a minor again?"  And then the lightbulb goes off- what if they had sex with a doll instead?  And then they go and buy a doll, and then when they have the craving for this horrible thing, rather than having sex with a child, which would be horrible, instead they have sex with a doll.  Is this good?  No.  But is it better than the criminal attacking a child?  Decidedly yes!  

When we are thinking about subjects like this, I think we need to try to put ourselves in other's shoes.  I think we're so focused on what something looks like that we forget what it is.  We think a convicted sex offender buying a doll off the internet is horrible, except it prevents actual sex crimes, which would be much worse.  We are worried about teenage girls having abortions, but it prevents teenage girls from raising children that add to the criminal population.  We care about what it looks like, more than what a thing actually is.  I think... we as Christians ought to learn to see the world through other's lenses and really try to put ourselves in other's shoes, or we'll make laws that are unjust and treat people as subhuman.  That was never Jesus's way.  Jesus cared about people where they were at, and tried to work with what people struggled with.  We need to be the same way.