Memphis pastor named Andy Savage confessed to his congregation on Jan. 7 about the sexual incident he had with a minor, only to receive a standing ovation from his peers.

The idea of confessing our sins is to seek forgiveness for our flaws and our unfaithfulness towards the teachings of being respectful towards one another.

The reaction of Savage’s confession, however, is inappropriate and would encourage others to commit the same crime he did 20 years ago.

Standing ovations are always implied overall support of the cause, performance, or the individual as a whole. People give standing ovations for ceremonies, shows and movies such as “Hamilton” or “The Avengers” and great speeches that bring awareness to a national issue such as the words from the late Dr. Martin Luther King when he fought for civil rights.

Applauding for sexual assault against a minor is not one of the things individuals should embrace in our society today.

One might say they are only applauding for the fact that he took responsibility for the incident. In reality, he should have taken responsibility 20 years ago and not in 2018.

Another counterargument to this might be that it took a lot of courage for him to admit the sexual encounter and, thus, should be applauded.

Well, it’s not. Only a coward would try to bury their actions into the dark regions of their mind. With the #MeToo movement expanding into 2018, it was only a matter of time until Savage had to “confess” about the 1998 sexual assault case.

It is unfortunate and despicable that the guilty party are beginning to confess due to the #MeToo movement, knowing it would be a matter of time until the dark truth would be exposed to the world.

Using the “confession” card, they would manipulate others to give them sympathy; causing them to blindly support them while forgetting about the incident all together. It will also give the accused the ability to falsify any other accounts, casting a negative light towards the victim.

Giving Savage a standing ovation about his crime not only insults the teaching and practices of forgiving and learning from our mistakes, but also gives support to sexual predators everywhere.