How you teach gender roles, and how you talk about women, how you sexualize them as temptations or dangers, matters. It can be life and death.
The way you indirectly blame women for abuse, lust, assault, "temptation", can be life and death.
This is happening in your pulpits, in your seminaries, in your counseling programs. It is in your marriage books, your books on womanhood and manhood, it is in your counseling sessions. It is in your purity books and discussions. It is in your social media.
It is in the way you treated and criticized Beth Moore, Aimee Byrd, Rachel Green Miller. Me. It is in how you defamed Jen Lyell, refused to hear Jules Woodson. It is how Paige Patterson treated Megan and "Jane". It is in how "Jane" was treated by John McArthur.
We have been pleading with you and begging you to see and hear what you are really communicating and the very real dangers it poses to women - the way it enables and minimizes abuse, and even encourages violence in unhinged people who take your positions to extreme conclusions.
But you turn a deaf ear, and further malign the advocates and women raising their voices.
Your words, your teachings, your actions matter. The messages you send and imply and the culture it creates, matters. Real people pay the price.
I am devastated.
(Got derailed by some business meetings. . .cont:) We also have to grapple with the intersection of race here. Minority communities are particularly vulnerable to exploitation and violence, and bear an even higher cost for these types of teachings. It matters. It's dangerous.
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I have known some of the people involved in this story and the call for accountability for almost 8 yrs. We assisted them in dynamics that crossed into my current work before my own case. Others I connected with years ago as well.
I know conservative Christian therapists in the area who, while tightly protecting confidentiality, have likewise expressed serious concern at what they have seen in their professional sphere, from students coming out of HLS.
The words of those who have spoken out are worth heeding. Read them for yourself.
This is not a political effort (this story has been in the works for around 2 years) and it's not a move to destroy Christianity, Classical Education, or Christian education. In fact...
"We’re saying the answer to the politician’s question, “What is the optimum moment at which to come back from a big sex scandal, and how do I do it?” is this:
“You are asking the wrong question.”
The right questions would go something like: “What can I do to stop being greedy for power, attention and adulation? How can I come to understand that the question is not the public’s capacity to forgive, but my own capacity to exercise sound judgment and regard for others?
Repentance starts with confession - telling the truth about what happened. Check your pastor and elders words. Is this repentance?
This is described as a "morally inappropriate relationship" with a "young women"...
But in fact, it was an adult having sexual contact with a minor and pre-teen CHILD.
This is felony level child sexual assault.
And it didn't happen because she was "flirtatious".
It happened because a grown man was sexually aroused and gratified himself with a pre-teen child
Morris' own words, your elders own words, right now, in this moment, are neither confession nor repentance, because it isn't even beginning with the minimum threshold of telling the truth.
Qualified immunity has created a system in which those with the most power, have the least accountability.
The reason the Nassar settlement with the FBI is so significant is because qualified immunity is essentially a complete bar to restitution for any malfeasance.
It doesn't just protect law enforcement. It is typically interpreted to protect ANY government actor.
MSU had immunity against all the Nassar survivors because they are a state university and Larry and everyone who covered for him, was a state employee.
We received a measure of justice and forced some change only due to extreme public pressure. The law said MSU had full protection no matter what.
When we tried to lift QI in sex abuse cases, state universities, public schools and government lobby turned out in force, including
On Larry Nassar and Paul Pressler, Michigan State University, USAG and the SBC, and all the ways they are different…
There are so many unsung heroes in my case. . .people that lent their voices, provided pieces of the puzzle, helped put away a predator, that no one knows about.
But they meant everything to me back then, and they still do.
1 – An MSU employee for the medical clinic who reached out to say “I don’t know Rachael. But I can tell you he’s not following the chaperone policies. None of us even knew he was supposed to be chaperoned.”
It didn’t prove I was telling the truth, but it showed that he was pushing the rules and boundaries. That he was disregarding the warnings he was given in 2014 about sexual assault. That he wasn’t following accepted practices regarding privacy and appropriate contact.
No, it doesn't mean "innocent" or "didn't do anything wrong". It means people or entities who didn't personally commit the crime, but includes those who may have:
1. Violated mandatory reporting. 2. Knew and did nothing. 3. Intentionally hid it.
And more.
So for example:
Catholic Priest John Geoghan, who raped at least 130 boys, is the perpetrator.
The Catholic Church who systematically hid the knowledge of his rape of children and put him in new parishes, allowing him to keep raping children, is the "non-offending third party".