Church is one of the least safe places to acknowledge abuse because . .

How would you complete the title?

I've never heard of Rachael Denhollander. She would be one of the billions of people on earth who I never meet and never hear of. Except she did something that made her stand out from the crowd of billions. She spoke up. You see, Rachael was one of those young women who was being abused by Larry Nasser - a Gymnastics team doctor. When she eventually gained the courage to speak up, the ensuing court action revealed Nasser had abused at least 150 young women. He has now been sentenced for 175 years.

Her testimony was the last to be shared in the courtroom. In it she speaks of forgiveness and hope that is found in Jesus Christ. As such, many Christian news services picked up on the story with great enthusiasm. But if you read the article in Christianity Today, you see that there is much more to her story than just forgiveness. The heading of the article reveals as such:

My Larry Nassar Testimony Went Viral. But There’s More to the Gospel Than Forgiveness.

I encourage you to read the interview and see how she responds to questions with grace and with conviction. That would be better than me summarising.

What I do want to do is to bring out a few things she says and consider the implications of them for church leaders across the world.

1. How do we respond?

"Church is one of the least safe places to acknowledge abuse because the way it is counseled is, more often than not, damaging to the victim."

Ouch. This is a confronting statement to many of us, because this is not our aim. We want to help the victim, but we also want to help the accused, particularly if he/she is a member of our Christian community. What can we do?

Learn.

Learn how to counsel people when they disclose the abuse they have received.

Learn how abusers act. It's distressing, but we can't hide under ignorance anymore.

2. Does theology matter?

 "One of the dynamics that you see in a Christian church that is particularly devastating is poor theology."

We're not talking about baptism or worship or music here. This is about the theology that leads us to fail to help victims of abuse. Denhollander is gracious and comments, "often, if not always, people are motivated by poor theology and a poor understanding of grace and repentance and that causes them to handle sexual assault in a way where that a lot of predators go unchecked, often for decades."

Does your theology allow for justice to be sought for people like Rachael Denhollander? Or are you one who thinks that she and people like her should just forgive her attacker and forget it ever happened?  If so, what does that say about the many (countless even) others who are also abused?

3. Waiting to act can have devastating consequences.

"out of the seven days’ worth of hearings, the vast, vast majority of us came after those first reports of abuse in 1997."

So many girls were abused by Nasser because the first reports weren't acted on. Now, I know that the attitudes of 2018 are very, very different to the attitudes of 1997. I know that many things that weren't reported or acted on in 1997 would be acted on now. But to imagine how many girls and families could have been spared the horror of abuse if that first report had been acted on must now weigh heavily on those who chose not to do anything in 1997.

May God give them hope.

4. How much is a little girl worth?

 "From a Christian worldview, she’s made in the image of God. She has eternal and immeasurable value."

Amen. As such, we who are in leadership in the church must do all we can to protect young ones.

Rather than try to conclude, I'll quote the final two paragraphs of the interview. Rachael was asked if there is anything else you want the readers to know. Here is her answer. 

First, the gospel of Jesus Christ does not need your protection. It defies the gospel of Christ when we do not call out abuse and enable abuse in our own church. Jesus Christ does not need your protection; he needs your obedience. Obedience means that you pursue justice and you stand up for the oppressed and you stand up for the victimized, and you tell the truth about the evil of sexual assault and the evil of covering it up.

 Second, that obedience costs. It means that you will have to speak out against your own community. It will cost to stand up for the oppressed, and it should. If we’re not speaking out when it costs, then it doesn’t matter to us enough.

It costs to speak out against abuse. Speak out anyway.