Bad Seed or Bad Environment?

Almost a hundred years ago a man was born who later became a drunk, a wife-beater, and raper of little girls. Obviously, Clive didn't start out in life as evil incarnate, but he certainly became evil by his own choices. I know nothing of his childhood homelife, so I have no clue as to what made him become the man he was.

When Clive was a relatively young man, he seduced Ella, the daughter of one of the few financially well-off men in town. She was only 16 and Daddy's girl. Daddy didn't approve of her boyfriend, so she eloped with him. At the time, I'm sure she thought he was wonderful, sophisticated, and handsome. The fact that he came from the "wrong side of the tracks" only made him more mysterious. She was at that age when parents seem narrow-minded and out to steal the joy from their children's lives. She had heavy responsibilities at home. Her mother had essentially abdicated her household responsibilities and placed them on Ella, who cooked, cleaned and cared for the younger children in the home. Compared to the life she was living, Clive's offer looked good, so she took it. She was to regret her choice.

Clive, too, had his regrets. He discovered that being married made it hard to live the kind of free, independent life he wanted. I'm not sure how soon the beatings with the rubber hose began, but it probably wasn't long. Clive liked his whiskey. He liked it much more than Ella thought. When he worked, he liked to spend his money the way he wanted to, and not necessarily the way it needed to be spent, like for food and rent. Within a year a baby girl, Melly, was born, and her needs were not significant to him. She was just another responsibility keeping him from feeling free.

In another two years a boy, Bill, was born and three years after that, little Vicki. With each birth I imagine Clive felt more trapped than before. The bars still beckoned. He still loved his whiskey, and if Ella complained, he just drew out his weapon of choice, the rubber hose. Ella learned not to complain, but it didn't make much difference when he was drinking. She tried to get odd jobs, even picking fruit, to get enough money to feed her children. Somehow they survived. But Clive had begun to use the hose on the children, and she was worried.

When Melly was about 10, Ella had something else to worry about. Melly was tall for a ten-year-old and looked a bit older than she was. One night in his drunken perversity, Clive visited the bedroom of his oldest daughter and robbed her of what could not be replaced, her innocence. How many times he repeated the offense, I don't know, but such an injury, repeated or not, leaves life-long scars.

Not long afterward, however, a miracle happened. Clive was killed in an automobile accident. He could no longer drink up funds, beat his wife and children, and rape his daughter.

Ella, still a young woman, found another man (Jim) who wanted to marry her, even with three children at her heals. He was a difficult man, hard on the children, strict in discipline, and not terribly loving to these young ones. But he was a hard worker; he didn't drink up what he made at work, and he helped this small family survive and eventually prosper. The children all managed to graduate from high school, marry, and go on to lead financially successful lives.

But Clive had left his mark on each of them. Bill and Vicki both became alcoholics. Melly, however, hated alcohol and wanted nothing to do with it or anyone who indulged in it. Their lives would bear out the influence of this bad seed.

Vicki married an alcoholic. Alcohol eventually destroyed their marriage, but not until after two children were born. Those two children were hurt by the constant fighting and the contaminated atmosphere of fear and distrust. After the divorce, these two struggled with their own demons, both choosing never to marry and have children of their own.

Bill bought two liquor stores and decided to make his living by selling a legal, addictive drug in bottles. His wife, also an alcoholic, gave him two children, Bill Jr. and Joan. These two innocents were raised in a home where their father was raging angry most of the time, no doubt a product of the home example he had. He intimidated them and drank before them. Their mother doted on the son but neglected the daughter who so desparately needed genuine affection. They hardly ever saw her without a drink in her hand, even in the early morning. One day, Bill Jr. found his mother lying dead on the couch, half of her body purple from the explosion of her liver, pickled with years of alcohol abuse. Less than five years later, Bill had to clean up his father's remains after they were blasted all over the floor of the liquor store he owned. Two robbers decided that the $40.00 in the register was not enough payback for them.

Bill Jr. struggles today with the same demon as his father and grandfather: alcohol. He doesn't beat his wife, but Clive's influence still reaches out to yet another generation: Billy and his finance, too, are trapped in its grip, a stranglehhold that seems relentless.

Joan created a fantasy life for herself. She couldn't face the demons that her parents actually were, so she created a fantasy memory of love and sainthood to replace the real but tragic memories. Her delusion became psychosis, to the point of disability from her job. In the mean time, she decided that what she needed was a child, but she didn't want to marry. So she checked out the male population and picked one that she thought would make a good contribution to the gene pool. Nine months later Missy was born.

Joan raised Missy in the pattern she saw at home--physical and verbal abuse abounded. There were others to influence that young life, and for a while, she did ok. When she hit her teen years, however, rebellion became too mild a word for her attitude and behavior. All the vices that Joan had hoped to prevent by her control over Missy's life reared their ugly heads--drinking, sex, and drugs. Missy married, but that didn't turn out too well. And one late night, at 23 Missy wrapped her car around a tree and left this earth forever.

And what about Melly, the daughter Clive raped at 10? She married a good man who didn't drink. She bore him three children. But the central influence on her life was not her biological father, but her Heavenly Father. When they were married only a few years, Melly and her husband met Jesus Christ. He transformed their lives and replaced the years of spiritual famine with years of plenty. The path has been filled with fallen branches, weeds, and rough brush, but the seed of faith planted in those hearts also bears fruit today in the lives of their children and grandchildren.