Washington Post: The sin of silence - The epidemic of denial about sexual abuse in the evangelical church
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I agree.
Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.
….are united by the factor of people keeping the allegations inside and not releasing evidence of sexual assault to the police. It is true that one involves an internal (non-student) actor and the other does not.
I view these sad situations as indicative of a larger problem simply because of the outsized influence of both institutions in our circles. You can hardly swing a dead cat around at many churches without hitting a BJU grad or ABWE missionary, no? For that matter, we’re (rightly except for recent events I think) getting closer with SEBTS and SWBTS.
Regarding the absolute incidence, sorry, but I’m not going to wait six years for someone to get their sociology Ph.D proving that the incidence of tolerance of this kind of abuse is higher, lower, or about the same as society as a whole. I simply have to note that (a) a few very important institutions in fundamentalism and conservative evangelicalism have been caught in huge issues along these lines and (b) if we’re even a factor of ten lower than the culture at large, we have a huge issue. Why not get ahead of the curve instead of waiting for it to hit us upside the head?
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
BJU isn’t the same as ABWE, for sure, but I don’t think that minimizing what did happen at BJU helps anyone or makes the issue any better. Do I really need to pull out the findings of the GRACE report again to remind everyone on SI what happened there, and how badly some of their missteps were? Do we really want Don’s church to be swept up in allegations before it becomes serious/significant enough to discuss and learn from? Are we so stupid as to believe that someone has to be led away in handcuffs before we can respond to claims like this as having some kind of factual basis?
The position of some seems to be that we can ignore any allegations and then not discuss it when the problems strike in our circles because it’s not MY church and it’s not MY friend. That…doesn’t seem terribly wise to me.
Good luck trying to explain to a sexual assault victim that what happened at BJU is different from what happened at ABWE. You’ll need it.
Maybe we should pioneer our own counter-hashtag: #notmyproblem. That’d be helpful, right?
"Our task today is to tell people — who no longer know what sin is...no longer see themselves as sinners, and no longer have room for these categories — that Christ died for sins of which they do not think they’re guilty." - David Wells
No available data means the Washington Post is making up their accusation of an “epidemic” out of NOTHING.
you can be part of the hysterical crowd if you want, but the fact is, the “story” is a non-story.
Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
Don, how many victims would Donn Ketcham and BJU have had to have had, and how many staffers at ABWE would have had to be “in the know” for you to think this is more than a non-story? Just askin’. Maybe if it was over 300 like at Michigan State, or over 400 like at USC? Maybe a few thousand or something?
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
I’ll humor you, Don and agree with you for argument’s sake that it is not an “epidemic”. Is it a systemic problem? Is it even a problem or do we just blow it off as #notmyproblem?
"Our task today is to tell people — who no longer know what sin is...no longer see themselves as sinners, and no longer have room for these categories — that Christ died for sins of which they do not think they’re guilty." - David Wells
You guys are in the wrong thread. This one isn’t about ABWE or BJU. It isn’t about anything systemic or epidemic to evangelicalism. It’s about the Washington Post non-story.
Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
I read a great deal of the Grace report regarding BJU. It was critical, but I don’t remember any evidence that an employee of BJU sexually assaulted a student and was not reported to the authorities. Am I mistaken? (I asked the same question earlier on this thread, and received several critical comments about BJU, but no evidence of an unreported sexual assault by an employee. Again, have I missed something?)
G. N. Barkman
[Don Johnson]You guys are in the wrong thread. This one isn’t about ABWE or BJU. It isn’t about anything systemic or epidemic to evangelicalism. It’s about the Washington Post non-story.
Non-story? Perhaps (I already made some comments about the use of “epidemic”). One value of the article is that it portrays how the Washington Post views us. And because the WAPO is influential:
- We need to know about it AND
- Be prepared to respond (the next person you present Christ to may have read this article)
[Don Johnson]You guys are in the wrong thread. This one isn’t about ABWE or BJU. It isn’t about anything systemic or epidemic to evangelicalism. It’s about the Washington Post non-story.
ABWE, BJU, SWBTS, SEBTS, SGM, and New Tribes are not part of the broader evangelical movement? It has absolutely nothing to do with whether we have problems we ought to address?
Keep those blinders on, Don. Keep them on!
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
[Jim]Don Johnson wrote:
You guys are in the wrong thread. This one isn’t about ABWE or BJU. It isn’t about anything systemic or epidemic to evangelicalism. It’s about the Washington Post non-story.
Non-story? Perhaps (I already made some comments about the use of “epidemic”). One value of the article is that it portrays how the Washington Post views us. And because the WAPO is influential:
- We need to know about it AND
- Be prepared to respond (the next person you present Christ to may have read this article)
yes, I agree with that. It is worth noting, but the hysterical want to make it proof of their thesis
Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
Closing the thread.
See comments here: https://sharperiron.org/comment/100900#comment-100900
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
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