You need to wait for all the facts

Why are you jumping to conclusions when you don’t have all the facts?

The fact is that we’ll never have all the facts.

But try to imagine any scenario in your life in which you wait for all the facts before drawing a conclusion.

No, when you need to draw a conclusion, you begin gathering evidence, sometimes through research, and then when the evidence begin to form a pattern, you begin to cautiously draw a conclusion. As more and more evidences come in matching the same pattern, you become more firm in your conclusion.

This is what happened to William Wilberforce. He was opposed to the slave trade in theory from the beginning, just as everyone we know is opposed to sexual abuse in theory. As he learned more and more, he became increasingly impassioned and spoke out more and more vigorously. He knew this was God’s calling for him.

Did he have all the facts? No, at no point. But he had enough to draw a conclusion and speak out with conviction based on Biblical principles.

The place where we are now isn’t a place that we sought; it is a place we were compelled to, through hearing one horrific story after another. These stories–from people who didn’t know each other, so there’s no way they could be colluding—began to form a very disturbing pattern. How can we not speak out when such wrongs are being done?

Actual irrefutable facts will be hard to come by in allegations such as these, but the evidence in the voices of the victimized themselves is very compelling. When you get to meet with them in person, as some of us have, it’s even more compelling.

Friends, the facts won’t be handed to you on a silver platter. Be willing to look at the evidence-—and above all, listen to the ones who were victimized—before determining that you’ll refuse to draw conclusions until you have all the facts.