Ashley Judd’s recent surprising comments on Harvey Weinstein offers us a kind of silver lining to this otherwise horrid story of this alleged serial sexual predator. Judd told "Good Morning America" that her message to Weinstein is one of compassion not hate: “What I would say to Harvey is, I love you and I understand that you are sick and suffering. And there is help for a guy like you, too, and it’s entirely up to you to get that help.”

Such a sentiment for a man accused by 60 (and counting!) women of sexual harassment and sexual violation – including sexual harassment and the threat of sexual violation of Judd – is one of those Christian sentiments (you know, of the “love your enemies” variety) that we don’t seem to believe anymore, preferring to roast our enemies in whatever way makes them suffer the most.

In terms of the latter, think about President Donald Trump and his proclamation that torture “absolutely works” and those Republicans who, during a presidential debate, cheered on the idea of letting an uninsured man “die," to name just two examples of many. Of course, the understandable desire by victims of Weinstein to see him suffer is of a different type: Who could blame these women who have suffered at the hands of Weinstein if they want to inflict cathartic pain on him! (And, hey, I share this impulse to roast the guy!)

Weinstein is sick, not evil

That is why Judd's comments are so remarkable. The deeper implication of Judd’s sentiment is that she can see that Weinstein is not “evil” but rather “sick,” and that makes him an individual who should be pitied, a way of thinking that is Christ-like in its benevolence, which does indeed come from Judd's faith in God and redemption.

In this context, her sentiment sharply contrasts the sea of depressing, hate-filled headlines in the news these days (like the two I cited above) that suggests just the opposite – e.g., a devolved way of being. Judd’s evolved sentiments give me hope that even in the face of a monster such as Weinstein, we can still muster up humane compassion for a "sick" man who became a “monster,” an affirmation of at least the hope that we are still on track for a benevolent and enlightened (evolved) humanity.

Monsters are created not born

And that gets to the even deeper implication of Judd's words, an understanding that monsters are created not born. That is, in understanding that a man like Weinstein is “sick” we can see that in being “sick,” his condition itself can be understood and thus prevented. More pointedly, if we can figure out why Weinstein became so “sick,” why he became a sexual predator, we can end begin to understand why men (and some women) become sexual predators and perhaps end this heinous sickness of Sexual Predation once and for all.
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