Virtual Violation

Proverbs 29:22-27 “A hot-tempered person starts fights and gets into all kinds of sin. Pride ends in humiliation, while humility brings honor. If you assist a thief, you are only hurting yourself. You will be punished if you report the crime, but you will be cursed if you don’t. Fearing people is a dangerous trap, but to trust the LORD means safety. Many seek the ruler’s favor, but justice comes from the LORD. The godly despise the wicked; the wicked despise the godly.” (NLT)

I discovered today that I have been the victim of violation. It has been happening unbeknownst to me for an unknown length of time, as a matter of fact.

A few years ago, I entered a love poetry contest sponsored by a Christian website devoted to keeping the marriage bed pure. The sonnet I had written my husband back when we were newlyweds as my Valentine’s Day present to him did not win the contest, but was good enough to be posted as a finalist on their site. This was, in my heart and mind, a sacred work, inspired by the Spirit to show my pure affection for the beloved man the Lord had given me in holy wedlock. I was honored it was chosen to help inspire other married couples to pursue the romance, unity and sanctity of their nuptials.

I was horrified when I learned that a less reputable site, one that panders, shall we say, “naughty” pictures and video, had been using my poem and MY NAME without my permission under a title about learning to “make a girl fall in love” with the reader. I was outraged and sickened! I felt abused, exposed and violated!

You shake your head and think, “Shana, it’s not that bad really?” Do you believe I do a disservice to survivors of sexual assault with such a reaction? Then you don’t know me and should read my survivor article at Hubpages and poems at Helium.

You also may not be familiar with the workings of the mind of sexual predators. They wish to use sex as a weapon, an instrument of humiliation to make them feel superior in some way to those they see as powerless to stop them. It has nothing to do with the act of sex itself and everything to do with an abuse of innocence, trying to degrade the victim to the level the perpetrator secretly or subconsciously perceives himself. In a twisted way, he tries to replace something he has lost by forcefully taking it from others, unaware he only hollows out the emptiness inside himself even larger until it swallows him whole, a gaping pit that is never satisfied.

I’ve seen that pit from inside my own addictions and depression and I can verify it is hell on earth. There is no way a person can climb out alone. Even with the help of people in this life, a respite is only temporary. The abyss always waits to devour again. The only permanent solution granted us is to accept the lifeline of Love held out by the only sinless man to ever walk this mortal coil: Holy God Incarnate, Y’shua HaMessiach, Christ Jesus. He filled that chasm with His blood, covering the multitude of our sins from view. I realized to deny that was ungrateful, rude and self-destructive. So I grabbed hold of Him and have believed His promise ever since that the enemy can never do anything to pull me back down.

Perhaps at times, I place myself in a position of vulnerability through my own pride. It is one of the lessons I come back around to once or twice every decade. I learn through some difficult events that life can be a hard path to walk when we think we are the most experienced guide. But I’ve never claimed to be perfect, only forgiven.

I spent several hours researching steps to take about plagiarism and then doing my best to follow them. The easiest article to follow was by a fellow writer on Helium in the number one slot under the category: How You Can Fight Online Plagiarism.

Did you know if you want Google to remove a webpage from a search they will not do it directly over copyright issues because they do not think they should get involved in such a sticky legal matter? Lawyers! Why are they always mucking simple things up? However, in my instance, I could request the page be removed as spam, since it listed my full name on an adult site without permission and involved another content issue that violates their regulations. I’ll try with other search engines, as well.

I also contacted the webhosting site to request the page be removed and if possible the offender be banned from their services. Of course, since the host is in another country and is known for hosting primarily adult sites, it is unlikely they will be willing to lose a paying customer over something that may not be illegal there. I indicated, though, that I would prefer to resolve the matter amicably rather than resort to lawyers if possible. So let’s hope that at least gets the page deleted.

And now I’ve tried to inform other people about plagiarism. Isn’t it amazing in our world, how the victims are the ones who have to spend so much of their precious time fixing the wrongs committed against them. I am getting further behind on the projects I had planned to complete by the end of the month because of these injustices that have appeared this week and the resulting myriad of little inconveniences that clamor for speedy resolution. Regardless, I cling tightly to the promise Jesus made: “Judgment will come because the prince of this world has already been judged.” (John 16:11 NLT)