[Vision2020] condemning rape

[Sue Hovey]

Keely,  I appreciate that you read Dale's blog and keep us in the loop.  It's important we are called upon to remember a significant number of people in this community are willing to twist a tragic issue and use it as a bludgeon to attack those of us who define ourselves as liberal.  I think we shouldn't be surprised this would be his issue now.  He's  representative of a group of patriarchial men, willing to tolerate, even protect, males in their congregation who are sexual predators.   

Sue H.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: keely emerinemix 
  To: vision2020 at moscow.com 
  Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2008 3:16 PM
  Subject: [Vision2020] condemning rape


  Visionaires,

  The Everlasting Blogstalker, Dale Courtney, laments today on his Right-Mind blog that Moscow's liberals are quick to jump on the bandwagon of disapproval of the recent revelations that young girls in the FLDS polygamist cult in West Texas are routinely forced into sexual relationships with older men who believe that these polygamous "celestial marriages" are essential to the practice of their faith, while remaining silent about things like young girls being forced to "marry" older men in some Muslim cultures.  Dale believes that the shameful tolerance his liberal foes exhibit toward the behavior of some Muslims is hypocritical in light of their disgust over offshoot-Mormon group practices, and he, like a good "Christian" libertarian man of chest, must make note of it.  It seems that we liberals just can't muster any disapproval of Islam, so busy are we, I suppose, hating groups that call themselves Christian.  

  Certainly Dale's worldview is energized by the thought that he and his pals are witnesses to the persecution of the Church from their vantage point of those suffering under it.  It's a silly assertion, of course, as is his smug denouncement of feminized, morally bankrupt liberals who pick and choose their objects of outrage from a tortured position of ethical spinelessness.  I am a liberal; I know of no one, liberal or conservative, who isn't disgusted by the reality of adult men who engage in sex with children.  I'm not aware of anyone who thinks that religion excuses the horrors that men visit upon their victims, whether that religion is a perversion of Christianity or a perversion of Islam.  Because most of the people I know are rational, decent people, they are angered by child rape and outraged that it can be, and is, committed as a sort of religious expression.  Atheists and the religious are united in believing that no God would be honored by inflicting horror on the little ones he created.

  I don't know if Muhammed had a sexual relationship with a nine-year-old girl, as Dale asserts, just as I don't know if Joseph Smith slept with underage girls.  My not being Muslim or Mormon, or part of any group that claims to be the "true expression" of either, has nothing to do with the sexual sin of the men each faith reveres as prophets.  I am much more concerned about my own faith and the men who claim it, and who, as Christians, perpetuate patriarchy, hierarchy, power, manipulation and sexism in their homes, churches, and relationships.   If, for example, there were a Christian church in town that had witnessed one or two specific instances of their men preying on young children or teenage girls, I would expect that that church would reflect on any connection between the rape committed by their young students of patriarchy and power, sexism and sexuality, and the practices and teaching that the predators received from their teachers.  I would expect that that church would publicly repent of any gender-based arrogance, hierarchy, or wielding of power it had exhibited.  I would hope that its leaders would examine a theology that has as its origin the reality of a post-Fall seizing of ungodly power and descent into violence, rather than the redemptive, radical justice and equality ushered in by the Savior they claim to worship.  I would pray that such a church would see that its elevation of male power and privilege, its defense of patriarchy, its practice of gender hierarchy and unilateral submission, and its defensive clinging to the ways of the world and not the fruit of the Spirit are sinful, reflecting the depotism of evil and not the gentleness of Christlike love.  I would expect that.  

  I would be disappointed.

  And so I will lead the charge, if that is indeed  what Dale's asking for, by announcing that this middle-aged, progressive, evangelical homemaker, and everyone she knows, thinks men who sleep with girls are evil.  There.  Now that the totality of liberal condemnation of rape and pedophilia has been thusly offered to this erstwhile elder, let's see if he and his other patriarchal heads of household pause and examine if the perpetuation of sexual violence on the weak in the name of religion has more to do with bad theology, teaching, and practice than with the perceived indifference of Moscow's liberals.  It could be the start of an incredible spiritual renewal, revolutionary in scope and profound in effect.  Or, Dale could just write this off as the emotional blather of someone who just doesn't know her place, a position that is probably a lot easier to undertake while enjoying the Sabbath with other puny patriarchs.  

  I guess we'll see . . . 

  Keely






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