Another instance of institutional leadership blaming the rape victim instead of supporting her. …
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2016/09/extremely_delusional_north_olm.html
Crazy! What was she supposed to apologize for? Makes no sense to me.
The church reported the youth pastor but then made the survivor apologize to the wife in order to come back into good standing. Bizarre.
Kudos to the family for leaving the church. It’s too often the case that church membership trumps physical and emotional safety 
Who would want to be part of that church? I agree @romanigypsyeyes
What the heck??? How crazy is this? These folks need to be knocked upside the head…
I wonder how young a victim would need to be for them to NOT expect an apology???!!?? Crazy!!!
(Wouldn’t y’all love to confront the “apology requesters”??? I’d like 2 minutes with them!)
That is not a Christian church. It sounds like a fundamentalist cult to me. Good for the family for leaving. I hope other families see this for what it is and follow suit.
http://columbiaroad.org/ is the church’s web site.
http://columbiaroad.org/beliefs/ describes its beliefs.
Another article on the incident is at http://www.christianpost.com/news/after-rape-by-well-liked-youth-pastor-church-allegedly-wanted-teen-victim-to-apologize-for-betraying-his-wife-mom-claims-169361/ .
Unfortunately, I’m not sure the overarching mentality* is limited to fundamentalist religious cults. Similar things have happened with more mainstream religious and even non-religious groups. Two examples which come to mind are:
The extent of pedophilia among a minority of priests within Roman Catholic Church…and efforts by some in the leadership to cover it up.
Penn State and efforts by Paterno and U higher ups to avoid dealing with or cover up the incident for decades.
- A.K.A.: "You're ruining the reputation of our leaders/our institution by reporting/having this rape happen to you!!!"
I have to say that this is the only statement of belief I’ve ever seen that includes a section on Civil Lawsuit Limitations…
This is bizarre. My initial thoughts:
- Why does the reporter or court keep saying things like "he had sex with her in his car" when it should read "he raped her in his car"???
- If the church alerted the accusations to the policy (weak kudos for that) then why insist on an apology? If you thought there was criminal behavior - and you did or why else report to police, then why insist on an apology. You can't have it both ways.
- WTH is sending the 3 DOZEN letters of support of this creep?
While not usually explicitly stated, that stance on civil lawsuits between church members/fellow believers is one commonly held in many fundamentalist Christian churches including the one a branch of my extended family attends.
This reads like one of those threads pretending to address one situation…,but being used to generalize bad intent to many churches.
I don’t see that happening, busdriver11.
I noted that a prior poster commented that this wasn’t a Christian church, which I find interesting because I have have the impression that for a lot of people this is just about exactly what they mean by a “Christian” church–and their adherents are growing while those of old mainline Protestant denominations are diminishing. Also, that statement on beliefs is specific about how they are a real Christian church, while everyone else is a cult.
Cobrat’s posts lead me believe that was his intent in starting this thread, @Consolation . Maybe he will now prove me wrong.