A viral video in which a woman confronts her pastor in an independent Christian church for sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager. A TV documentary that reveals the sexual abuse of children in the communities of Amish and Mennonite. You can call it #ChurchToo 2.0. Survivors of sexual assault in ecclesiastical settings and their supporters have been urging churches for years to acknowledge the extent of the abuse among them and to implement reforms. In 2017 this movement acquired the hashtag #ChurchToo, which comes from the wider #MeToo movement, which called it sexual predators in many sectors of society. In recent weeks, #ChurchToo has seen a particularly intense set of revelations in denominations and ministries, reaching a huge audience in the headlines and on the screen with a message that activists have been trying to get across for a long time. “For us, it’s just a confirmation of what we’ve been saying all these years,” said Jimmy Hinton, an abuse advocate and minister of Christ Church in Somerset, Penn. “There is an absolute epidemic of abuse in the church, in religious places.” Calls for reform will be prominent this week in Anaheim, California, when the Assembly of Southern Baptists convenes its annual meeting following an external report concluding that its leaders mishandled abuse cases and stoned victims. The May 22 report was released the same day that an independent church in Indiana was facing its own account. Moments after his pastor, John B. Lowe II, confessed to years of “adultery,” longtime Bobi Gephart member picked up the microphone to tell the rest of the story: He was just 16 when he started, he said. The video of the controversy has garnered nearly 1 million views on Facebook. Lowe later resigned from the New Life Christian Church & World Outreach in Warsaw. In an interview, Gephart said she was not surprised that so many cases are coming out now. He has received words of encouragement from around the world, with people sharing their own “heartbreaking” stories of abuse. “Things are relaxing,” Gephart said. “I really feel like God is trying to fix things.” For many churches, he said, “All it has to do is cover up, ‘Let’s keep the show going.’ There are people who get hurt, and that’s not right. “I still do not believe that many in the church understand that.” Hinton – who testified against his father, a former minister now in prison for a serious obscene attack – said the viral video demonstrated the power of survivors to tell their own stories. “Survivors have a lot more power than they ever imagined,” he told the Speaking Out podcast on Sex Abuse. The #ChurchToo revelations have arisen in all sorts of ecclesiastical groups, including liberal dogmas that proclaim gender equality and portray the sexual misconduct of clergy as an abuse of power. The Episcopal Church broadcast stories from survivors at the 2018 General Assembly, and an archbishop in the Anglican Church of Canada resigned in April amid allegations of sexual abuse. Many recent calculations, however, occur in conservative Protestant settings where a “culture of chastity” has prevailed in recent decades – emphasizing male dominance and female modesty and discouraging traditional courtship dating. On May 25, reality star Josh Dagar was sentenced in Arkansas to more than 12 years in prison for child pornography. Dagar was a former lobbyist for a conservative Christian organization and appeared on TLC’s then-canceled “19 Kids and Counting” with a family of home students who emphasized purity and traditional courtship. Prosecutors said Dugar had “a deep, diffuse and violent sexual interest in the children.” On May 26, Springfield (Missouri) News-Leader reported a series of sexual assault cases involving workers at Kanakuk Kamps, a large ministry of evangelical camps. Emily Joy Allison, whose abuse story started the #ChurchToo movement, said the sexual morality preached in many conservative churches – and the shame and silence it breeds – is part of the problem. She claims that in her book, “#ChurchToo: How Purity Culture Upholds Abuse and How to Find Healing”. Allison told the Associated Press that tackling abuse requires a change in both church policy and theology. But he knows the latter is unlikely on SBC. “They need to undergo a transformation so radical that they would be unrecognizable in the end. And that will not happen,” Allison said. Reform work focused on “harm reduction” is a more realistic approach, he said. Some advocates hope that a forward-looking focus on abuse could lead to permanent reforms – if not in the churches, then in the law. Misty Griffin, an advocate for colleagues who have survived sexual assault in Amish communities, recently launched a petition seeking a “Child Rights Act” in Congress. As of early June, it had amassed more than 5,000 signatures. It would require all teachers, including those in religious schools and home schools, to be educated about child abuse and neglect and subject to age-appropriate instructions, and would also require age-appropriate prevention guidelines. of abuse for students. Griffin said such legislation is vital because in authoritarian religious systems, victims often do not know that help is available or how to obtain it. “Without it, nothing is going to change,” said Griffin, a production consultant on the documentary Sins of the Amish. The two-episode documentary, which premiered on Peacock TV in May, examines endemic abuse in the Amish and Mennonite communities, saying it is triggered by a patriarchal power structure, with an emphasis on forgiving offenders and a reluctance to report wrongdoing to authorities. of law. The Southern Baptist Convention, whose doctrine also requires male leadership in churches and families, has been particularly shaken by the #ChurchToo movement after years of allegations that the leadership failed to care for the survivors and hold the perpetrators accountable. At its annual meeting, the SBC will consider proposals to set up a task force to oversee a list of clergy who are credibly accused of abuse. But the survivors have criticized this proposal and are calling for a stronger and more independent committee to carry out this task and also to look into allegations of abuse and cover-up. They are also looking for a “survivors’ rehabilitation fund” and a monument dedicated to the survivors. The momentum for change increased as survivors such as Jules Woodson, who went public in 2018 with a sexual assault charge against her former pastor, were encouraged to tell their stories. “I felt like, ‘Thank God, there’s a place where we can tell these stories,’” Woodson said. Such accounts led to the independent investigation, whose 288-page report describes how the SBC Executive Committee prioritized protecting the institution over victims’ well-being and preventing abuse. The commission apologized and released a long-standing secret list of ministers accused of abuse. Woodson said seeing the bully’s name made me feel like a double-edged sword. “It was kind of a confirmation that my perpetrator was there, but it was also devastating to see that they knew and yet no one on SBC spoke to warn others,” he said. Woodson added that she was still waiting for a substantial change: “They have offered few words acknowledging the problem, but they have offered zero reform and real action that would show genuine repentance or care and concern for survivors or vulnerable people who have not yet done so. he was abused “. —— The Associated Press’s religious coverage is supported through the AP’s partnership with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
