Last night I got blocked from Facebook. Yes me. My friend from my childhood sent me a video of my favorite band from the 70’s. I watched the video and then engaged with him about it in the comments.

My favorite band has always been the Scorpions. They are an old band. They go back as far as the late sixties. In the mid 70’s the band put out an album with a title that for all purposes is quite sexual in nature. In addition, they went through a large controversy with their album cover that was quite inappropriate. I was 4 years old at the time.  

In my early teens I started collecting Scorpions albums. My quest was to own every single one of their albums. I own a copy of the controversial album, but not the one with the inappropriate picture on it. Today, I believe I am only missing some music that was only released in Germany, and a couple re-release albums that may have a new song included. I would guess I own over 95 plus percent of all their music as they are now in their seventies and for the most part, I have not followed any potential new stuff for quite some time.

The controversial album cover was later replaced with just a picture of the band on the cover. In my conversation with my friend on Facebook, my friend referenced how he used to make fun of the goofy picture of the band on the cover from this specific album. There are a couple other pictures of them on other albums in wacky styles as well. I then gave my friend the detail as to why their picture is on the front of the album from 1976. He was unaware of this little-known fact. I went out to google and within milliseconds cut and pasted the inappropriate album cover picture into my chat with my friend to show him. Then I joked with him that I shouldn’t have dropped that in the Facebook platform, as I might get banned for it. With that – boom – I received notice that I am banned from Facebook posting in comments for 3 days.

I obviously meant no harm in my conversation. I will not defend the band for their cover and the concept of their music at that time. I will say, that growing up with the material they wrote and sang in the 1980’s, it was nothing of the sort, with reference to straight up inappropriateness. There is no denying though, that there are certainly sexual references in some of their materials as well as sexualization of women, more specifically in their music videos. There is no defense for this.

In addition, I have no defense. I accept my consequences. Of course, I had a conversation with my buddy offline about it and we both groaned about it, but at the end of the day I am good with it. Good for Facebook, is actually my thinking. Good for the protection of others. I am not exactly a fan of Facebook for many reasons and I share about that here: God’s Book

This is what I want to do today. I want to apologize for my behavior. I want to apologize for the band’s behavior. Sure, I had nothing to do with the band’s behavior, but in conversation, I promoted an inappropriate picture by cutting it and pasting it to show my friend. But you know what I really want to do?

I want to apologize to the girl. I want to say that I am sorry for whatever pain this event caused her in her lifetime. I want to apologize to her for our worldly culture that took advantage of her. I want to apologize to her for showing that picture to my friend even though he told me he was already in search during our discussion. The band has no excuse and I have no excuse.

Prayer

God, today I ask for a prayer for a woman who at 12 years of age, was taken advantage of. For all purposes she was sexually exploited and abused. I pray for her wellbeing with hope that in her lifetime, this event which may have caused harm, was repaired some way by You Lord. Please forgive me for my inadequacies in discernment with regard to this topic and conversation with my friend. As someone who was sexually abused by another, I thank you for healing me from the harm that was done to me. I love you and thank you and I pray that you help and guide me to make better choices as I continue to build my relationship with you.

THERE IS NO EXCUSE.