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Sat 21 Jun, 2014 07:28 am
Bob Jones University told rape victims to repent and look for ‘root sin’ that caused their attack
By Tom Boggioni
Wednesday, June 18, 2014 19:02 EDT
According to an investigative report from Al Jazeera America, rape victims searching for help at Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C., were told to repent and seek out their own “root sin” that caused them to be raped.
Within the past year BJU has opened its own investigation into sexual abuse and rape, and now former students who were victimized are coming forward to tell their stories about life on a campus where they were shamed and told to keep their stories to themselves.
Coming from a conservative Mennonite family, Katie Landry, who at age 19 had never even held hands with a boy, was raped multiple times by her supervisor at her summer job. Two years later, haunted by the attacks, and attending Bob Jones University, she sought help from then dean of students, Jim Berg.
According to Landry, Berg asked whether she’d been drinking or smoking pot and if she had been “impure.” He then brought up her “root sin.”
“He goes, ‘Well, there’s always a sin under other sin. There’s a root sin,’” Landry explained. “And he said, ‘We have to find the sin in your life that caused your rape.’ And I just ran.”
“He just confirmed my worst nightmare,” she added. “It was something I had done. It was something about me. It was my fault.”
Landry eventually withdrew from the school and didn’t tell anyone else for five more years.
In interviews with Al Jazeera, other victims of abuse related how Biblical scripture was used to lay blame for the rapes on their own sins, and that their trauma was a sign that they were fighting God and would never be at peace until they forgave their rapists.
Called the “Fortress of Fundamentalism, ” Bob Jones University’s philosophical approach to almost all mental problems, beyond medical issues, is that they are the result of sin.
In a 1996 book, ‘Becoming an Effective Christian Counselor,’ written by former BJU Dean of Education Walter Fremont and his wife, counselors are instructed to emphasize that the blame lies with the abuser. However, the authors also state that being sexually assaulted is not an excuse for “sinful feelings” of discontentment, hate, fear, and especially, bitterness; calling unresolved anger “rebellion and bitterness against God.”
Previously Al Jazeera reported on a BJU student named identified only as Lydia, who had been raped off campus and, seeking help, reported it to the school authorities only to eventually be expelled for dwelling upon it and questioning the schools handling of the incident.
[Girl cry on Shutterstock]
Those people ought to be gang raped themselves. I bet they would dig a little deeper and possibly even repent.
@bobsal u1553115,
Well obviously people are apalled by the illogic, that people are thinking logically and they don't literally know what the religious fathers have done; on a larger scale all religious "fathers" or patriarchs have dished out responsibility in morality, that women are 100% responsible for sex sins including crimes. I think that's the religious father's perspective of all churches. I think if this is true that's why he said that, because he wants them to know that religious fathers do hold women responsible for all sexual sins and how dangerous that is for women in a fornication society at all, if they want to go to Heaven. The sin obviously is "provocation." Arabia's solution is to put women in a "bat suit" and I don't really know if that helps either. I don't know if the fathers need to revise their innocence laws or not, I'm well aware of them though. She actually needs to repent. Men don't go to Hell for sex sins with women only women. I'm well aware of men's beliefs, and their fatherhood churches.
@kiuku,
that's the problem, if men are responsible for society, then their laws do revise, because it's the centerpiece of mastering society. Maybe one day they will revise.
I copied and pasted this article late last night in the topic entitled "Hey, Can A Woman 'Ask To Get Raped'?" (I had in mind a particular rape enabler who posts regularly in that topic.) As a Christian, I feel like screaming at the top of my lungs about these vile "blame the victim" hypocrites!
I could weep after getting sick to my stomach!
Incidentally, Bob Jones University was founded by a spokesman for the Ku Klux Klan. So, consider the source. Talk about a poisoned well!
And to think that in every presidential election year, Republican primary candidates flock to this vile institution to seek their approval!
How can any honest person in this country deny that a rape culture exists?
@edgarblythe,
Those people are vile, despicable monsters! They bring more reproach upon their religion more than anyone else could possibly do.
I can say no more about this. I'm too upset about it!
@wmwcjr,
Meantime I need to engage on one of maxcondona's rape mixed with anti fem threads.
I am just about never in the mood.
You know, mood - women have those.
A ******* university - what a hideous joke that place is.
@wmwcjr,
Quote:Those people are vile, despicable monsters! They bring more reproach upon their religion more than anyone else could possibly do.
I know a very fundamentalist woman who was raped as a kid while her father was a missionary in Tanzania, she went through a program much like the one talked about at BJU, and she said it was a great help. She is incredulous about how victim culture treats rape, she told me that if she had never found this program in the church she would have suffered alone rather than deal with the promoters of victim culture.
It is not my cup of tea to be sure, but i am not the one who was hurt and was looking for help either. If this is what works for her, is what she wanted, then so be it.
@hawkeye10,
Operative words - very fundamentalist.
@JTT,
JTT wrote:
Operative words - very fundamentalist.
Her husband and I were very close friends for a lot of years, but his religion eventually came between us. They tend to only hang with like minded people as much as can be done.
Re Rochelle: the therapist was 50ish, was a rape survivor and was a member of a church somewhat aligned with Rochelle's church. The very first day she too got told that she needed to own up to her responsibility in the rape, that she had a duty to God to work on working this out with God, and that between the four of them, God, Rochelle, her husband and the therapist peace could certainly be found. Her husband did not go to all of the meetings, about one in four I think.
In the mainstream Joyce Meyer comes close to the philosophy outlined in the sexual abuse ministry, a mix of compassion and tough love demanding work to reach God.
@hawkeye10,
Quote: They tend to only hang with like minded people as much as can be done.
Y'all do that a lot too. You don't want to hear uncomfortable truths.
It's nuts to expect people to accept blame for things they didn't do.
@JTT,
Quote:It's nuts to expect people to accept blame for things they didn't do.
I dont agree. Sometimes there was nothing the victim could do to avoid the work of the devil (putting this is Christian terminology) , but this is rare. It is well known that victims are not chosen at random, abusers pick out from the crowd the ones who are natural victims. Being a natural victim is the rape victims fault. Putting oneself in a position where the abuser could get them is also their fault. Sometimes not fighting off the one filled with the devil is the victims fault. Rochelle learned that she has a responsibility to keep her body from being defiled by the devil, and that while God forgives her for letting her guard down in the future she needs to do better.
I think it should now be very clear how abruptly the Fundamentalist Evangelical sexual abuse ministry diverts from the mainstream Feminist theories on abuse and abuse recovery. I have seen both work, but the feminist way tends to keep the abuse lingering, it tends to make victims permanent bitter victims...the abuse runs their lives till the end of their days. There are spiritual paths for those on the left that work very well too, the main place where they divert from the feminists is that they start from the position that victims will not be tolerated...heal, and anything that gets in the way of healing has to go overboard, the first thing that has to go is adopting the victim identity. Would be victims get told this the first day. Again, a mix of compassion and a demand for work....if you the victim want to scream and shrivel up and die inside then go elsewhere, healing is for those who want to move on.
@hawkeye10,
Quote:if you the victim want to scream and/or shrivel up and die inside and/or lash out in anger then go elsewhere, healing is for those who want to move on.
fixed.
I broke with the survivor community because of my insistence that if a victim has not forgiven their abuser then they are not fully healed. In todays victim culture dominated society this does not fly.
@hawkeye10,
You really are one of the vilest people I've ever come across - on or offline. I'm sorry for whatever it was in your life that made you this way- it's very sad and even sadder if you're inflicting the same kind of damage on the people around you.
@Pearlylustre,
Quote:You really are one of the vilest people I've ever come across - on or offline.
That is about as interesting as if you were to tell me that you find pizza revolting. Besides, in this thread almost every word from me has been reporting from the field. You might not like what is being reported, but that is not my problem. I deal in truth, not appetites.
@hawkeye10,
It was just a comment and not made only on the basis of this thread or your repugnant views on rape. I wasn't even expecting you to respond. Even if everyone you came across told you how vile you really are I doubt it would make any difference. People in your offline life probably don't tell you anyway because I can imagine you're a bully.
@Pearlylustre,
My views on sexual abuse come from living in a majorly abusive home as a child, my wife and kids being survivors of sexual abuse, watching people heal from sexual abuse in the BDSM community, and for years being an online counselor for childhood sexual abuse survivors and their partners. As a bonus my wife now has combat PTSD. I have never been hung up on the theories of the day, I follow what I see working, what other people tell me helps them.
If what I report as having a record of working in my observance offends you I really dont give a ****. The track record of main line therapists working with sexual abuse victims is so abysmal that you apparently buying into their theories hook line and sinker throws great doubt on your judgement. It does not matter how good a theory sounds, what matters is how well it tracks with reality...and does it work to solve the problems of the day.
@hawkeye10,
I have no idea what theories 'main line therapists' have. I don't work in that field and my impression of you isn't based on any professional viewpoint or the 'theories of the day'. On a purely human level I see a shocking lack of compassion and empathy in many of your views in various threads - not just regarding rape.
@Pearlylustre,
Quote: I see a shocking lack of compassion and empathy in many of your views in various threads - not just regarding rape.
I use A2K for the exploration of ideas, my views are aligned with reality, they are not intended to be aligned with the human need for empathy and compassion. I care about understanding people here and I can do that because I have a great deal of empathy, but I have no desire to try to make people feel good. The combat of ideas is a blood sport.
If you saw me in real life, or if I was working with you online in abuse recovery then you would see a completely different side of me. You will just have to take my word for it. You will also have to take my word for it that I own a successful restaurant, and that a major reason why it is successful is that I take care of my crew and I take care of my customers. My crew has almost all been with me at least a year now which is unheard of in this business, and they are sticking around because they like working for a guy who cares about them and a for a guy who knows how to lead to success. They have for instance seen me hold a job for a month woman who had a mental breakdown because her Bipolar drugs were not right...even though she walked off the job in the middle of her shift. I never let someone who walks off back in, but I had compassion for her medical situation and did. They know that I will bend over backwards, even work the line myself if need be, to get them a particular day off that means a lot to them. and so on and so on.
A2K is an artificial place, do not mistake this for real life.
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