Letter to the Editor by Sarah Townsend
In response to ‘Letter to the Editor: Why we shouldn’t #BelieveWomen’
When Jesus was resurrected, it was a group of women who discovered his empty tomb. It was this same group of women, who wouldn’t have even been permitted to testify in court, that took the news of the risen Christ back to the men in power. Christianity was founded on the testimonies of disenfranchised women.
The #BelieveWomen movement is not about giving all women our “blind belief.” It is about the survivors of sexual assault and the trauma and pain they face in the years following the event. I believe that this movement does call for us to seek truth. The truth is that 99 percent of perpetrators of sexual violence walk free. The truth is that one in six American women has survived an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime. The truth is that an estimated 63 percent of sexual assaults go unreported, leaving the survivors to carry their trauma and shame alone, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center.
These statistics leave me heartbroken and shocked. How can we allow such injustice to exist in our world? The answer is by shutting down the women that come forward to tell their stories. We ask them what they were wearing and if they had been drinking when it happened. When they accuse men of power, we jump to the conclusion that their allegations must be false. We do not put those they accuse on trial for fear of tainting the accused’s social status.
I know that much of the backlash against this movement has to do with the blanket statements involving women and men, and I confess to already having generalized in this letter. Obviously not all men are rapists, and it’s extremely dangerous to believe that all victims of sexual assault are women. However, according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, 82% of juvenile victims and 90% of adult victims are female. So while I wish #BelieveSurvivors was trending more than #BelieveWomen so as not to discount male victims, I recognize that most survivors of sexual assault are women. I think it’s important for us as people of love to look past these technicalities and see the epidemic that this movement is trying to shed light on.
As people of God, we have to recognize that this epidemic of sin does not pass the church by. The news is often filled with stories of pastors and priests who took advantage of their position of power and were involved in sexual violence situations. Oftentimes as congregations, we shame women who come forward with stories of abuse, only adding to the pain they feel. #BelieveWomen is for Christians through and through.
I want to be a “truth-seeking Christian.” When I read about Christ, I find a God with a heart for the marginalized and the broken. I see a God who goes out of his way to uplift those that society has cast aside. I see a God whose views on women were beyond counter-cultural. Within #BelieveWomen, I find a call to action. I find a call to listen to my sisters, and all survivors, when they tell me they have been abused. I find a call to support them and receive their stories with open ears, an open heart and affirmation. I find a call to hold my brothers to a higher standard. It is my prayer that, as a community, we would see these hashtags less as “ignorant mantras” and more as a reason to examine our own hearts and reach out in love to those who are hurting.
