Thread by @vhobbs5

If I can find the time, I'd like to write about the application of critiques of carceral feminism* to the over-reliance on church courts/processes to reckon w/ abusers. #ChurchToo

*“law-and-order responses to sexual and gendered
violence"

Carceral feminism ofc has a history in Christian thought, esp evangelical (ex. anti-trafficking laws of the late 90s)
This ties into radical libertarianism, w/its emphasis on the state as judge. Elizabeth Bernstein calls this "a drift from the welfare state to the carceral state"

So many times, I've seen church courts -as manifestations of status quo power structures - operate as mechanisms to distract from/neglect a critique of the theology/practices that fuel injustice & render women & minorities so vulnerable to racism, sexism, exploitation and abuse

Ann Terwiel writes that "most powerful community justice initiatives both affirm the injury of sexual [and other forms of] violence and refuse to depict the state [or church] as [white] masculine protector."

Truly, if we are to see a genuine reckoning of #ChurchToo, we will need to:
1. confront the widespread understanding of faith-based violence in individualist rather than structural terms.
AND ...

2. "see a vision of abolition that strategically enlists [adapted court] systems to address immediate concerns while engaging in a longer-term project of transforming communities to decrease both the prevalence of ... violence & the perceived need for [punitive action]."

I'm thinking esp of a NAPARC woman who told me she needed a "champion man" w/procedural knowledge to take up her abuse case.
This cuts deep as an example of how certain parts of the Christian church depict women as powerless, in need of punitive courts as a masculine protector.

Also thinking of the times I've seen court officers (& other stake-holding men/women) bristle at any woman who offers anything but undying gratitude.
We have so much work to do.
We must be willing to look forward, beyond punitive response, to reform, to what lies next.