There is a trend among many Christians that is very disturbing and lacking in empathy.
Many victims and survivors of rape and sexual abuse are being blamed for what was done to them at the hands of their rapist. Steubenville, OH, the women in the military who reported sexual abuse and rape at the hands of their commanding officers, and just offhand comments to women who were raped all point towards absolving the rapist and blaming the victim. There are millions of rapes, every day, and many go unreported. The ones who do report their rapists or the sexual abusers end rapists often never see true justice or they are put on trial. Victim blaming was rampant in both of these instances.
Putting the victim on trial.
Back in March 2013, the verdict was handed down in Steubenville, OH to the boys who raped a young lady that was partying with them. She was drunk and on drugs, and they kept feeding them to her. They then raped her and video taped it.
I do not mention this to make her answerable for her actions, but to point out how vulnerable she was. And these young predators were more than willing to take advantage.
When it was found out what happened and reported, this young lady was put on trial. She was told that she should not have been drunk, that she should not have been doing drugs, that she should not have been partying- it was made to sound like, because she was doing the typical asinine that teenagers do, that she deserved to be raped.
Another instance of women being blamed for their rapes and sexual assault has been the blaming of military women that were raped and assaulted by their commanding officers. One of the survivors reported being told that a chaplain told her, while counseling her, that rape was God’s will. There have been comments from people following the story that this is the reason that women do not need to be in the military.
Christians and Rape.
There have been numerous counts of Republicans basically shrugging off rape and not seeming to care about it.
Here are some examples of what Republicans have said about rape.
- ?Nobody plans to have an accident in a car accident, nobody plans to have their homes flooded. You have to buy extra insurance for those two.?
-Barbara Listing, leader of Right To Life, comparing rape to a car accident. - ?Granted, the percentage of pregnancies due to rape is small because it’s an act of violence, because the body is traumatized. I don’t know what percentage of pregnancies are due to the violence of rape. Because of the trauma the body goes through, I don’t know what percentage of pregnancy results from the act.?
-California GOP assembly President Celeste Greig, saying rape victims don’t get pregnant because it’s a traumatic act. - ?It seems to be, first of all, from what I understand from doctors, it’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down.?
-Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin, claiming that women can shut down the reproductive process during rape to prevent pregnancy.
The truth.
Simply speaking, survivors need support and compassion. A rape victim does not need to be put on trial for what was done to her. When we do that, we do several things.
- We make rape about sex- rape is not about sex, but about power, pure and simple.
- We make it harder for male victims to come forward.
A stand needs to be taken against these people who blame women for rapes, primarily because of their religion. It is not only Christianity that does it but also Islam and Judaism too.
When we blame woman for any violence against her, saying that she should have been dressed more modestly, that she just attracts men who hurt her because of her character,? we are enabling the perpetrators of these acts and making the victim less than human. This is the problem with rape culture, with violence culture and we must put an end to it!
Edited/Published by: SB
