Thread by @ChristaBrown777

I'm so weary of those who persist in minimizing the sexual predations of pastors as "sexual sin." I wrote about this in 2008 & sadly, it's still just as relevant today. 1/7
#ChurchToo #SBCtoo
goodfaithmedia.org/its-not-about-…

2/ When you combine the tactic of sexual assault...the authority of a pastor & the weapon of God’s word, dehumanization of the victim is complete.

There is no weapon more powerful than the word of God in the hands of a perverse pastoral con man who traps true believers as prey.

3/ How should I have known to run from the word of God? How should I have known that Bible verses could be transformed into weapons?

With the coercion of God’s word, I didn’t see it as a weapon. My every instinct was to feel safe in the word of God & safe in the house of God.

4/ Like a fish in a barrel, there was no escape from the boundaries of my own self-identity.

How do you run from the faith that you hold in your own head? How do you run from a faith so strong that it’s the very core of who you are? How do you run from your own soul?

5/ We are people who have been violated and degraded not only physically, emotionally and psychologically but also spiritually. The very essence of who we are–our very souls–are sullied, stomped, stripped and subjugated.

#ChurchToo #SBCtoo

6/ And how are we to heal when our primary resource for healing–our faith–is something we can no longer trust? How are we to heal when the part of our brain that held our faith is now the scorched land of the predator, and our instinct is now to run from it?

#ChurchToo #SBCtoo

7/ Why do Baptist leaders persist in acting as though clergy sex abuse is about sex?

Perhaps it’s because it allows them to perceive their clergy colleagues as men who have merely “fallen into sexual sin” instead of as predators who have wielded faith as a weapon for assault.