(Students for Life/R.J. McVeigh) You can imagine my shock. About a month ago, a saw a post on social media from a friend in my neighborhood, Laura, claiming that the father in the house three houses down from me, Marcus, is brutally beating his four-year-old son in rage.

At first, I didn’t believe it. Laura has always hated Marcus for no good reason and has been out to get him any way she can. But then, she claimed she had an audio recordings proving Marcus is beating his son. Suddenly, all sorts of people on social media started sharing her posts, and the story even made it on local news. It became a local frenzy, and I couldn’t go five minutes on Facebook without seeing something about it.

I haven’t actually listened to the recordings. Because I don’t want to dignify the propaganda with my attention, especially if it is from such a biased source. And because I know Marcus – he’s a friend and I trust him. But eventually, Marcus responded to the accusations; and I was shocked again when he admitted the recordings were true! I couldn’t believe it! But then he explained further, and I began to feel a lot better…

He said he isn’t beating his son out of rage – he’s beating his son out of love and care. Because, you see, Marcus is a physical therapist. He helps people heal and rehabilitate when they are injured. When he injures his son, he studies the way his body heals itself back together. He takes notes of the way the blood in his bruises clots. He tests the motion and orientation of the bones as they fuse back together. He does this all so he can be a better physical therapist to his other patients. He explained that he’s even made some huge breakthroughs for physical therapy as a result of his studies.

Marcus’ explanation made me feel a lot better. I was so happy to hear about this great, healing work he was doing. And it turns out that I was right to have been skeptical of the source of these recordings. Marcus explained that the audio recordings of him beating his son had been altered by adjusting the volume at particular points to make it sound worse. He said it doesn’t sound like rage when the volume is lower – and that makes a lot of sense to me.

The Marcus haters kept at it, though. Even though they started producing more and more recordings of Marcus, I started to tune them out. They were just trying to use the recordings as a political stunt to pass stricter laws against child abuse.

The real outrage about the whole situation is Laura’s dishonesty. Secretly recording a physical therapist who just wants to help people is outrageous and deceiving. Nothing can justify that.

Look – I don’t like child abuse. But the truth is, child abuse is going to happen. It has been proven that laws against child abuse do not stop it from happening. Child abuse still happens every day in every country of the world. Since it is going to happen whether we want it to or not, it might as well be done by those like Marcus who can use it for research to help people heal. This research is key to unlocking life-saving methods of rehabilitation that physical therapists around the world can use. Marcus is a hero, and he is there for people in need.

The good of the research outweighs the bad done to Marcus’ son, Emmett. After all, he’s just another boy.

That’s why I #StandWithMarcus.

… Except that’s not true. I don’t #StandWithMarcus. Marcus is made-up and doesn’t exist. But if he did, I would think his actions are despicable, and I would do everything in my power to stop him. Would you #StandWithMarcus?

Would it change anything if Marcus is named Planned Parenthood?

Would you #StandWithPP?

(R.J. McVeigh is Great Lakes Regional Director and SFLA Apologetics Director. This article originally appeared at studentsforlife.org and is reprinted here with permission.)

(Students for Life/R.J. McVeigh) You can imagine my shock. About a month ago, a saw a post on social media from a friend in my neighborhood, Laura, claiming that the father in the house three houses down from me, Marcus, is brutally beating his four-year-old son in rage.

At first, I didn’t believe it. Laura has always hated Marcus for no good reason and has been out to get him any way she can. But then, she claimed she had an audio recordings proving Marcus is beating his son. Suddenly, all sorts of people on social media started sharing her posts, and the story even made it on local news. It became a local frenzy, and I couldn’t go five minutes on Facebook without seeing something about it.

I haven’t actually listened to the recordings. Because I don’t want to dignify the propaganda with my attention, especially if it is from such a biased source. And because I know Marcus – he’s a friend and I trust him. But eventually, Marcus responded to the accusations; and I was shocked again when he admitted the recordings were true! I couldn’t believe it! But then he explained further, and I began to feel a lot better…

He said he isn’t beating his son out of rage – he’s beating his son out of love and care. Because, you see, Marcus is a physical therapist. He helps people heal and rehabilitate when they are injured. When he injures his son, he studies the way his body heals itself back together. He takes notes of the way the blood in his bruises clots. He tests the motion and orientation of the bones as they fuse back together. He does this all so he can be a better physical therapist to his other patients. He explained that he’s even made some huge breakthroughs for physical therapy as a result of his studies.

Marcus’ explanation made me feel a lot better. I was so happy to hear about this great, healing work he was doing. And it turns out that I was right to have been skeptical of the source of these recordings. Marcus explained that the audio recordings of him beating his son had been altered by adjusting the volume at particular points to make it sound worse. He said it doesn’t sound like rage when the volume is lower – and that makes a lot of sense to me.

The Marcus haters kept at it, though. Even though they started producing more and more recordings of Marcus, I started to tune them out. They were just trying to use the recordings as a political stunt to pass stricter laws against child abuse.

The real outrage about the whole situation is Laura’s dishonesty. Secretly recording a physical therapist who just wants to help people is outrageous and deceiving. Nothing can justify that.

Look – I don’t like child abuse. But the truth is, child abuse is going to happen. It has been proven that laws against child abuse do not stop it from happening. Child abuse still happens every day in every country of the world. Since it is going to happen whether we want it to or not, it might as well be done by those like Marcus who can use it for research to help people heal. This research is key to unlocking life-saving methods of rehabilitation that physical therapists around the world can use. Marcus is a hero, and he is there for people in need.

The good of the research outweighs the bad done to Marcus’ son, Emmett. After all, he’s just another boy.

That’s why I #StandWithMarcus.

… Except that’s not true. I don’t #StandWithMarcus. Marcus is made-up and doesn’t exist. But if he did, I would think his actions are despicable, and I would do everything in my power to stop him. Would you #StandWithMarcus?

Would it change anything if Marcus is named Planned Parenthood?

Would you #StandWithPP?

(R.J. McVeigh is Great Lakes Regional Director and SFLA Apologetics Director. This article originally appeared at studentsforlife.org and is reprinted here with permission.)