Thread by @ladyjessicahaze

There are so many ways to deceive without technically lying.

Facts are not the same as the truth.

My abuser lied, but much more frequently he wielded facts and omissions to gaslight me.

@The_ACNA comms team reminds me much more of Mark Rivera than they remind me of Jesus.

https://twitter.com/alethia24689/status/1567910716275068930

[collective gasp]

“How can you compare ACNA leadership to a serial sexual predator?!”

Because it was not the sexual assaults, per se, that nearly destroyed my soul.

It was the pervasive co-optation of my reality.

The theft of my lived experience.

The erasure of my humanity.

These are the parts of the abuse that institutions replicate when they tell survivors that we don’t know what we need, they know better, stay quiet, play nice.

When they say we consented, we’re equal partners with them, they love us and just want what’s best for us.

.@The_ACNA could never gaslight me like Mark Rivera gaslit me, because they lacked the personal relational leverage and I had also gained a strong analysis of how it all works.

But they can still gaslight the public, just as Mark gaslit his community.

They can still write the narrative in a way that uses mostly facts but mangles the truth.

That concedes errors made but never truly apologizes for harm done.

That continues to treat victims as situations to be managed rather than human beings with dignity, who deserve agency.

So no, I do not make the comparison to Mark Rivera lightly. Or totally. There is a difference between a seasoned abuser and seasoned image management professionals.

But the dynamics are all too similar, and survivors can feel it in our souls, in our bones, in our very beings.

.@The_ACNA probably can’t harm me personally too much more, but their perpetual gaslighting of me and other survivors harms abuse survivors everywhere in their denomination.

And that is the real tragedy.

I see no Jesus in this.

But I do see some Mark Rivera.

#ACNAtoo