'A Terrorist War Against Women'

This article appears in the February 2018 issue of Sojourners magazine. To subscribe, click here .

THERE ARE MANY reasons why I find it difficult to turn on the news. Audacious and violent abuses of power are escalating; their grievous impact is mind-numbing. Nowhere has this been more evident than in the recent revelations of how sexual violence and harassment were regularly practiced, indeed normalized, by many men in high places of government and commerce.

It’s hard to take in these stories, especially for women like myself who have suffered for years the ongoing traumatic effects of such violence. There is hardly a woman in this country who hasn’t suffered some form of male sexual violence. When we hear such stories, most women and girls simultaneously relive their own horror stories. It’s not a distanced, objective matter, blithely suited for early morning talk shows. We have painful flashbacks that bring with them a sense of dread, loss of voice, and overwhelming feelings of powerlessness. That’s what happens in the aftermath of traumatic sexual violence. It has the power to haunt you for a lifetime. Sadly, it is most acute when it is kept secret, or not acted upon when revealed. The majority of cases today fall into these categories: Never making headlines, never redressed.

My own pain, however, does not outweigh my hope. I hope that each time such stories are told and positive action is taken, we chip away another small piece from the mammoth rock of male entitlement to women’s bodies. My hope is matched, sadly, with a timeworn knowledge that cases will eventually drift from the headlines, that our present-moment horror will likely turn again into everyday acceptance.

Perhaps we can resist this acceptance if we take this occasion to have more substantive discussions about sexual violence. Those of us who have suffered its enduring harm need to be given the space and time to name it, hold people accountable, and begin the long journey toward healing. In a world riddled with this violence, no one can claim to stand outside of it. We are all implicated, albeit in vastly different ways.

AS A CHRISTIAN, I am reminded of the notion of universal sin, which our tradition tells us pervades all of life. It’s an apt term to apply to male sexual violence: It names how some are guilty of perpetrating grave harms, while others bear the direct effects of this sin on their victimized, traumatized bodies and minds. Still others participate in the slothful sin of knowing what’s happening but doing nothing.

The sin of sexual violence, and the vast web of harm it casts, must be addressed. I fear, however, that in too many churches the topic will either be ignored or, worse, papered over by scripture pulled from here and there. When this happens—as it has for centuries—the church itself becomes tangled in a web of harm and the true Christian message of Jesus’ commitment to justice for the harmed and marginalized is stifled.

How can we change this all-too-predictable course? We must stand by two fundamental truths: First, we must accept the simple fact that male sexual violence is endemic, that this terrorist war against women is real, ongoing, and church-sanctioned. Second, we must believe with all we are that the God of Jesus, creator, lover, and protector of all life, rejects this violence as sin and evil and stands beside all those who suffer from it and who fight against it.

I pray that this struggle will one day achieve justice. And on that day, may headlines like the ones we see now be so anomalous that no woman flashes back to that awful moment when she herself was once prey.