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Janet Duffy's avatar

Every time I see Clarence Thomas in his Supreme Court Judge regalia I think of Anita Hill and all she was put through, only to dismiss her claims of sexual harassment

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Ginny's avatar

Clarence Thomas should have never been placed on the Supreme Court. I too remember Anita Hill. Would that he now be tossed off the court. He still seems to be unrepentant and continues his less than stellar actions.

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Linda Miller's avatar

Julie Roys does extensive work in this area and gets lambasted for it. Many people sitting in pews just don't want to hear anything detrimental about their leaders because they are "God's chosen servants". That's why there are so many victims who have been exploited by this kind of unchecked power in the church. It's incredibly sad and contributes to more and more young people leaving the church. They just can't take the hypocrisy anymore.

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Katie Davis's avatar

I amnonw among thousands who was molested as an adolescent by supposed religious leaders. I'm a healthy, thriving survivor, but I grieve for those who suffer from continued trauma. We must keep calling out the true sexual aggressors!

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Alex Dash's avatar

I am very sorry. I am grateful you are healthy and thriving.

I hope that there is a designated, horrific place in Hell for men who use the cover of doing God's work to disguise their acts of sexual abuse. I also hope that those who know about sexual abuse within the church and keep silent about it join the wretched men in that same hell.

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Rhonda Koenig's avatar

I am so sorry...

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Kat's avatar

I’m sorry you were put through that.

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Deborah Hemenway's avatar

These people excoriated Gary Hart for being on a boat partying in his trunks (boxer shorts?) and are willing to have a convicted sexual assaulter as president. Theyalso "forgive" pastors so readily that engage in sexual assault, especially with under age girls (is there a pattern here). Furthermore, they are they ones who claim abortion is murder but are more than willing to murder thousands by withholding food aid and medicine provided through medicaid and snap as well as USAID. In my book that makes them culpable, their inaction makes them accessories to the deaths of thousands. Jesus said that you should not take the spec out of your neighbors eye before you take the log out of your own. I find it ludicrous that Democrats should excoriated for their behavior but GOP is given a pass and even elected to a higher office. Specs and logs, I guess it just does not matter as long as they have an R on their name.

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Ginny's avatar

And I might add, are they not also for capital punishment?

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Lisa Freund's avatar

As a sexual assault survivor, I applaud you John for saying out loud what most people are afraid to say. I have cut ties with people who insisted Trump was the better choice even after I shared this information with them and expressed my horror about him becoming President (again). It should have ended with the Access Hollywood video in 2016. I'll never understand why it didn't.

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Ginny's avatar

I am a therapist. And I am a Christian. BUT I am not a conservative Christian national, evangelical in the worst sense. I am sickened to the bone, to my very spirit, by these people who prey on children, women, and yes, boys too. So obscene, so disgusting, so awful. So many people who will be and are traumatized by the creatures who prey on them. Those who are victims of these degenerate people will now and in the future, need help from a therapist. I see them frequently. My heart is breaking.

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Pam J's avatar

Thank you for the work you're doing.

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Rev. Karen Fitz La Barge's avatar

MAGA is all about enabling and protecting Patriarchy. The recent MAGA mantra toward women of "Your body, My choice" is their gospel. In their theology, women are "helpmeets" or more aptly, "help meats", judged on appearance, as well as their usefulness in helping preferred men to get and remain in power. -- When there is no option for individuals to have bodily autonomy or for the right to say, "no"; sexual abuse is the result, with little or no real consequences for the abuser. Victim blaming, the massive pressure to keep silent and even secret abortions are the widespread ways that this "Christian" MAGA culture keeps up appearances and destroys thousands of women's lives. It is the complete antithesis to Jesus gospel.

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Linda Mitchell, KCMO's avatar

100% John. And you didn’t even mention the Catholic Church and its little “problem” with pedophile priests. Then again, the allegedly celibate 🤣 priesthood was never very good at that.

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Rudyard Kipling's avatar

At least the Catholic church made a stab at addressing and correcting the problem. Did they identify all of the abusers ? I don't know, but it cost them a pretty penny. Now the Southern Baptists are addressing the problem. I don't think any abusers have been identified or any survivors compensated. Compensensation does not heal the damage done,

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A HEART FOR JUSTICE's avatar

Wow. So glad you went here. This is one of the many, many things about this awful predicament, that just eats at me. I was once part of a conservative, fundamentalist church (I view as a cult today) where the amount of sexual misconduct was shocking and astronomical. As a leader in women’s ministries and knowing the immense amount of sexual abuse the females (including me) had endured, I finally sat down and did some research. As you’ve just said, the statistics of sexual abuse including molestation, incest and rape was highest conservative churches. And, by the way, it was quite high. I was blown away. And that was 20 years ago. It has to be so much worse now. And I am still puzzled.

These conservative MAGA christian’s are such homophobes, pro”life”ers, against sex education and providing birth control to females of any age, cannot stomach transgenders and condemners of LGBTQ existence and have the audacity to smugly look around at each other thinking they have been called by THEIR God to clean up this country.

And YET look at these “godly” “christian” men who secretly and openly are adulterous, sexual deviates, rapists, child molesters. And liars. Because they all deny the proven truth. And the women are complicit. And YET they feel absolutely justified in condemning the LGBTQ community. The hypocrisy is astounding!

Since they know their bibles so well (even though weirdly they leave out the 140+ abominations OTHER than same sex acts) should perhaps review the red letters (do they even have those in their bibles anymore?) and check out Jesus’ words: “First get the log out of your own eye before trying to remove the speck from another’s eye.” This is what I have to say - all things considered, until heterosexuals clean up their abominable, disgusting, sinful by their own professed standards, sexual depravity, they need to shut the fuck up about any LGBTQ existence. Your “log” I’m afraid is so huge . . . well let’s just say you heterosexuals need to keep your eyes on your OWN plate for a very, very, very, very long time. Only God will be able to tell you when it’s been long enough. Probably not in any of your lifetimes.

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Pam J's avatar

I gently suggest rephrasing "LGBTQ lifestyle" to "LGBTQ existance". It's not a choice. 🙂

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Rev. Karen Fitz La Barge's avatar

The "LGBTQ lifestyle" includes doing laundry, walking the dog and sometimes ordering Chinese food. I hear that they even watch Netflix sometimes....

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A HEART FOR JUSTICE's avatar

I’m still fairly new to SubStack. I just now figured out how to edit. 🤷‍♀️ Sheesh. Done and done. 😌

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Pam J's avatar

How? All I see when I click the 3 dots next to a post I make is share, hide, or delete comment and no way to edit. 😣

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A HEART FOR JUSTICE's avatar

So I go back to my post - I tap lower right three dots the first option is edit🤷‍♀️

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Pam J's avatar

Apparently you can't edit at all on Android. I got this information from a help ticket:

Based on the information provided, you can edit a comment shortly after posting it. If you don't see the "edit" option under the three dots, it means the editing window has passed. This feature is available on both web and iOS, but not currently on Android. For future reference, when you want to edit a comment, you'll need to do it quickly after posting.

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A HEART FOR JUSTICE's avatar

Oooh🤔I did not know that. 😌shoot! It’s nice to be able to edit.

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A HEART FOR JUSTICE's avatar

Thank you Pam. I appreciate the correction. I definitely agree it’s not a choice.

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Pam J's avatar

🥰 I didn't think you meant anything malicious, which is why I tried to avoid a snarky response. It's good to be an ally. Peace! ❤️🌈

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A HEART FOR JUSTICE's avatar

🙏♥️

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Melinda Maninger's avatar

Absolutely repulsive. 🤯

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bitchybitchybitchy's avatar

Well said. Too many Evangelical "Christians " and MAGA will accept and elect a sexual predator if doing so gives their movement more power.

JMHO, but conservative Christianity has a misogyny problem. Elevating mortal men as God's representative and giving those men control over their wives and children means that fallible men will be tempted to oppress and possibly abuse their wives, children and other women because they can.

It's a situation ripe for abuse and cruelty.

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L Turner's avatar

they don’t care bc it was “someone else’s” child.

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Carla's avatar

Absolutely, because they are completely devoid of empathy.

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Bambi Sears's avatar

I am from New Orleans, LA. It is the home of some this nation's largest cockroaches. They thrive in the dark under crevices and inside cracks in your walls. You find out just how many you have when you return home and turn on your kitchen light. Thank you John you turned on our National kitchen light, see those cockroaches crawl all through our government.

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michellefromchicago's avatar

Thank you for highlighting the problem of sexual abuse among right-wingers, including right-wing Christians, John. My friend Darrell Lucus, who writes for Daily Kos and Loud, Liberal, Christian, has been on this beat for years, shining a light on sexual abuse in the Christian church. Just because people don’t want to talk about it doesn’t mean it isn’t there – – and you are so right: we really DO need to talk about it.

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Pam Adamson's avatar

Thank you! The damage done by sexual predators changes lives forever. I continue to be appalled that people who claim to be Christians support and elect Sexual Predators instead of arresting, prosecuting, and jailing them.

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Helen Follis's avatar

The hypocrisy is staggering.

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