Why do Christians blame rape victims?

Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Tom Boggioni (RawStory.com; Claire Gordon, Al Jazeera America, June 18, 2014)

Christian university student/rape victim told to look for her sin as the cause (RawStory)

 

Catholic Church [get] out of my body (FEMEN)

According to an investigative report from Al Jazeera America, rape victims searching for help at Bob Jones [Christian] University in Greenville, South Carolina, were told to repent and seek out their own “root sin” that caused them to be raped.

 

Within the past year BJU has opened its own investigation into sexual abuse and rape, and now former students who were victimized are coming forward to tell their stories about life on a campus where they were shamed and told to keep their stories to themselves.

 

Rape, abuse, incest (rainn.org)

Coming from a conservative Mennonite family, Katie Landry, who at age 19 had never even held hands with a boy, was raped multiple times by her supervisor at her summer job. Two years later, haunted by the attacks, and attending Bob Jones University, she sought help from then dean of students, Jim Berg.

 

BJU rape survivor Katie Landry (AJA)

According to Landry,  Berg asked whether she’d been drinking or smoking pot and if she had been “impure.” He then brought up her “root sin.”

 

“He goes, ‘Well, there’s always a sin under other sin. There’s a root sin,’” Landry explained. “And he said, ‘We have to find the sin in your life that caused your rape.’ And I just ran.”

 

“He just confirmed my worst nightmare,” she added. “It was something I had done. It was something about me. It was my fault.”

Christian conservatives: Rape? Were you asking for it? That's what ya get for having sex!

 

Republicans: Military-rape? Man up, soldier!

Landry eventually withdrew from the school and didn’t tell anyone else for five more years.

 

In interviews with Al Jazeera, other victims of abuse related how Biblical scripture was used to lay blame for the rapes on their own sins and that their trauma was a sign that they were fighting God and would never be at peace until they forgave their rapists.

 

Called the “Fortress of Fundamentalism, ” Bob Jones University’s philosophical approach to almost all mental problems, beyond medical issues, is that they are the result of sin.

• [Rationalist, materialist, left-leaning readers may not like to hear it but: Unskillful karma from past lives does cause one many troubles in many ways in other lives. To blame oneself for what was done in previous lives, however, leads to a lot of confusion about identity, justice, root causes and conditions of anything. We are not in the past. The present does not contain all of the causes, but it usually does contain triggers, and we can do something about guiding our attention and intention now. The working out of karma is very mysterious and impossibly complicated. Make merit to counteract it.]

Even R.J. has more compassion

In a 1996 book, Becoming an Effective Christian Counselor, written by former BJU Dean of Education Walter Fremont and his wife, counselors are instructed to emphasize that the blame lies with the abuser.

However, the authors also state that being sexually assaulted is not an excuse for “sinful feelings” of discontentment, hate, fear, and especially, bitterness, calling unresolved anger “rebellion and bitterness against God.”

• [That's true. That's right. Those things are our karma, our action in response to someone else's grave misdeeds. Each being is the owner of one's own karma. Rapists have the karma of rape, which does NOT necessarily manifest as being raped although it can. It manifests in many terrible and unwelcome ways now and in many future lives. But are we performing the mental-karma of resentment, hate, fear, anger, sadness, and so on? Although most of us cannot normally exercise control over our emotions and reactions, we can gain such control. We can be mindful and not react to what comes up. If we fail to be mindful then react to what typically comes up for victims, we sink ourselves worse than the initial injury.]

Every 2 minutes in the U.S. (codepinkla.org)

Previously Al Jazeera America reported on a BJU student named identified only as Lydia, who had been raped off campus and, seeking help, reported it to the school authorities only to eventually be expelled for dwelling upon it and questioning the schools handling of the incident. [Such indifference by the school is abominable!] More