[fstdt commenter Snoogins' testimony]
Today seems to be one of the days where I can talk about this without being triggered, so here it goes.
I was very young when I was raped. There is a twelve year age difference between my assailant and myself and he was a minor when he assaulted me. Do the math. The horrible, horrible math. Instead of taking him to the police he was taken in front of the church elders. I never got justice. In fact, I was told that if I did not forgive this monster that God wouldn't forgive me. I was threatened with hellfire and damnation until I stopped talking about it and "forgave" him.
I consider myself lucky. Not only did I survive, I kept partial fertility. Many survivors who were my age when it happened lose the ability to have children. My daughters are my precious jewels.
It gets a little easier to deal with every year. A lot easier since I left the patriarchal, fundementalist church malarkey. My current counselor (an atheist and male feminist) is a blessing. And I have Christian friends I wouldn't trade for the world.
16 comments
Glad you're doing so well with such a horrible burden.
Your parents are awful people. I hope you have divested yourself of them. If this had happened to my daughter, the police would have to be quick to get to the assailant before me.
And this is why Josh Buggar has helped to destroy the Religious Reich: along with Roy Less and the Turdpins of late.
So much for Conservative 'Family Values'. The so-called 'Nuclear' Family is now as toxic as Chernobyl.
You Christains no longer have the right to think of criticising LGBT families; that of Sir Elton John & David Furnish.
The 'Nuclear' Family - certainly that of fundie Christains - is dead. Long live the Fusion & Antimatter families: by definition they have superseded that exemplified by the Buggars & Turdpins.
I've come down to the conclusion that Frummy Religion is merely an excuse for male dominance, violence, greed, rape and noncery and has ZILCH to do with genuine religion, faith, spirituality, ethics or morals.
Why else would those monsters side with a guy after he raped a small child? It goes against all common sense! This "church" actively SUPPORTS AND PROMOTES rape and noncery!
I can offer you nothing but sympathy - and you can definitely have that. I'm sorry you went through all that, and I'm sorry those useless, self-righteous bludgers failed so badly in their duty of care.
It sounds like a story from the recent Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. The final report of that was released in December 2017, just after our Plebiscite, where the No camp were trying to say that SSM was somehow toxic to children. The report didn't show the churches in a good light regarding child protection - and that's putting it mildly.https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/final-report
This is why churches should't "be in the world but not of it". They need to involve the police in these kinds of matters.
OP, I'm glad you're doing so well.
They need to involve the police in these kinds of matters.
Even if he had been convicted, he would have only been tried and convicted as a child. Meaning once he gets out of juvenille hall his record would be sealed. He could work as a schoolteacher and no one would know what he did.
A lot of religious institutions redefine forgiveness explicitly to avoid this dumb attitude. Why should you be condemned to hell because you want an unrepentant monster to pay for his crimes (which, newsflash to anyone who doesn't know, forgiveness does not demand that you refuse to punish the perpetrator, despite what anyone says.), but he doesn't have to suffer any consequences for his crimes? If anyone truly wonders why Christianity is on the ropes, you can look right here.
All I can say is I'm glad you got away from there.
What Some Christian Anon said
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NOW; MY INTERPRETATION OF DIVINE FORGIVENESS....USING CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES....
* Forgiveness should only apply to the genuinely remorseful rather than wasted on the unrepentant.
....Therefore; It's still perfectly Christ-like to to forgive an unrepentant evil person (though you still need to love them as people and pray for them). Also; A person's repentance needs to be show not just said. A person needs to prove they are genuinely sorry....
....For example; An abusive spouse would admit they are abusers, allow the abused spouse to leave, receive extensive therapy for their abusive nastiness, donate to domestic violence shelters and pay child support. A guy just glibly saying "I'm sorry" and give flowers is not enough and that is always merely a trick and manipulation.
This church should've sided with Snoogins and sent that perverted freak boy to prison! They could still express "Christian Love" for that evil boy. Calling out a slimeball's sliminess is a part of love! The guy must be held accountable!
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My heart goes out to Snoogins. I hope she's a regular, here. We can be a great circle of friends, here. WELCOME TO FSTDT, SNOOGS!
I hope this monster has eventually got his reward.
@Philbert McAdamia
Do the math. The horrible, horrible math.
Stop using algebra.
The Monster was a minor, so aM<=18. There were a difference of 12 years between Snoogins's age and his, and she was the youngest, so aS=aM-12; given what I early said, it gives aS<=18-12=6.
I don't know who's worse, the rapist or the guys telling a 6-years-old she might burn forever if the doesn't pardon this rapist.
@ Some Christian Anon
The idea of forgiveness can be rather disgustingly flexible to some people, can't it? Some will tell you that you need to spend the rest of your life asking for it, some will curse you to hell for not granting it for even the most horrific transgressions, some expect it with such certainty they don't think they need to ask in the first place and in their minds stripping away the wrongness of whatever they do before they even do it making the concept meaningless.
And some people take all three stances as it suits them. With seemingly no rhyme or reason except that they are in the position to decide who must do what.
And then what does it mean to forgive? Is it anything but conceit to offer - or in this case oblige - forgiveness to the utterly unrepentant and those who continue to transgress? Does any sort of forgiveness have meaning when it is pressured out of someone? The craven slimeballs who set themselves on Snoogins demanded that forgiveness be taking on the burden of guilt and sin herself, never to breathe a word lest she be the villain. But what does forgiveness mean to those same wretches with the silence broken? A true get out of jail free card for one and a no-win scenario for the other. Forgiving someone shouldn't mean shielding them from their own wrongdoings. For some forgiveness means forgetting as though it had never happened, but I can't accept that. Burying those mistakes and the things we aren't proud of means forgetting what we learned from them. And what then when those we tried to forgive repeat those mistakes and transgressions? Must forgiveness be absolute and final?
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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