I’ve been following the case of Rifqa Bary since it hit the press last year. I feel sorry the girl. She does not realize how long the scars from her conversion will last. Nor does she realize how quickly she became a pawn of the unscrupulous men who took up her cause. Pastor Blake Lorenz is a good example. He’s busy explaining why he did not contact Ohio authorities when he knew Rifqa Bary had run away.
Smith, who had worked as an administrator at Global Revolution, filed a sworn statement last week with an Ohio court that accused Lorenz of refusing to call the Florida Department of Children and Families even though legal experts had informed him to report that Rifqa was living in his home.
“My lawyer explained to me that they were in violation of several laws and to immediately hang up, call Blake and tell him to call DCF immediately,” Smith said in his statement. “She quoted several laws to me and the seriousness of them.
“I called Blake and informed him of what the lawyer said,” Smith continued. “I implored him to call DCF immediately. He said he wouldn’t because they would just return her to her parents.”
Pastor Lorenz denies the allegations. He calls Smith a “disgruntled former employee.” Of course, that is what all men do when somebody shines a light on their misdeeds, they shift the blame. It’s the dance of the guilty.
I grew up expecting Christian leaders to be different. To be a shining example that others can follow. When you look closely, you find they are just weak men playacting in a role that is too big for them. They don’t live up to their potential. Instead the play politics with a young girls future instead of acting in her best interest. Rifqa Bary may not hate pastor Lorenze now, but trust me, a few years from now her attitude will be very different.
