Mutuality | Blog + Magazine | Spring 2013
The print + digital magazine of CBE International
Mutuality offers articles from diverse writers who share egalitarian theology and explore its intersection with everyday life.
Blog + Magazine ArticlesThe opinions expressed in these articles are those of the authors. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of CBE International or its members.
Spring 2013
Volume: 20 | Number: 1
Rape and Sexual Violence
Part of our job as Christians who care about justice and mercy is not only to work to end rape, or sex trafficking, or pornography, but to also fight the ideas that allow them to become reality. That is the focus of this issue of Mutuality.
Contents
So, as women and men who belong to Jesus, how are we to respond to abuse? Over the last few years, CBE has been studying, discussing, and praying about the concept that “ideas have consequences.”
Pastor Elaine Heath discusses the Bible’s hope for those who have suffered through sexual assault and how the church can become a safe place for survivors.
Opprobrium (n.): The harsh criticism or public disgrace arising from shameful conduct.
We need to open our eyes. We need to understand what has been happening to our sisters and daughters for too long.
Sadly, Christians are just as likely as the rest of society to buy into rape culture and perpetuate rape myths. In an age in which one in four women are assault survivors, this means that twenty-five percent of women may not find the support that they desperately need in our churches.
Perhaps instead of focusing on the culturally ambiguous standard of “modest dress” for women, we should worry more about our attitudes toward, and our objectification of, women. Instead of trying to place the blame on women for our own shortcomings, we should do the hard work of re-wiring our brains to remove the influences [...]
There are cultural, psychological, and even physiological reasons why some women gravitate toward threatening “heroes” or violent sexual fantasies.
Injustice, abuse, and suffering are always the result of a distorted worldview. Fortunately, scholars recognize the consequences of interpretative errors.
