CONGREGATIONS CALLED TO GROW UP:

Hear the truth, name violence, make justice, restore right relations in church and society

"Wouldn't you think," says the Rev. Pamela Cooper-White, former Diriector of the Center for Women and Religion, Berkeley, that "those of us who are especially engaged as Christians in the work of trying to make the world a more loving place...that we, of all people, would notice such (sexual) abuses and talk about them with horror and outrage, and marshal all our forces to ending them?"

In breaking the silence surrounding sexual abuse, she continues, the church is called to do four things:

1. To see and hear the truth in all its tremendous proportions. "This means putting posters and flyers and tracts in the narthex of our churches, and preaching and teaching about violence against women until our congregations begin to trust and to know that this is a safe place to talk about what really happens in their lives."

2. To name the violence as violence. "We must remind ourselves to shift the focus off all the ways in which we are socialized to question (the woman), doubt her, wonder what she did wrong, or what in her psychological makeup made her vulnerable." Holding the focus on the one who is responsible -- the one who chose to violate, to harass, to terrorize, to stalk, to rape, to batter -- is essential.

3. To turn our anger towards making justice. Rev. Cooper-White suggests that the church grow up and take responsibility for calling perpetrators to accountability. This means saying to perpetrators 'that violence is unacceptable, that we will not resort to quick fixes and cheap, premature forgiveness withou true repentance and change of life, and that we will stand for the righting of these wrongs -- in our policies, and in our relationships."

4. To restore right relations in church and society. Called by our baptisms to be reconcilers of the whole community of God, we need to make connections between violence against women and all forms of violence and oppression.

Source: Action Against Sexual Violence Newsletter. Rev. Cooper-White's book, The Cry of Tamar: Violence Against Women and the Church's Response, is available for $21.50 from Dancing Sarah's Circle: A Support Letter for Christians Healing Sexual Abuse, Assault and Incest, Box 296, Bottineau, ND 58318. Visit our web site at http://www.angelfire.com/nd/sarahscircle

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