Unregistered

IGZY

This is frankly shocking. I did not expect to come on here and receive the responses I have. I am not trying to sound like I am attacking, and am sorry for that miscommunication. I never directly accused anyone of anything. I did quote Chuck and his published documents as a means to start somewhere concerning the hurtful rhetoric perpetuated in the church. I have said though, that the burden of guilt should be shared by all those who have been in the church and furthered this rhetoric. That includes me, for many years I too spread the messages of hate for women, as a woman! How brainwashed was I!

I have dealt with this guilt and am starting to wash myself clean by trying to actually do something about it, and hope you find that motivation one day too. Self-righteous outburst? That is one way to call a rape victim who is only plainly and simply describing factual events in an attempt to make this a better world. It is funny you say that because many of us victims felt like WE were the ones who were wrong and deserved to be raped, hardly self-righteous! I still am overcoming an incredible amount of shame, self-hate and a fear of men. I do use strong language perhaps, but this is serious stuff and needs to be spoken about directly, especially because we all have been in a culture of silence and ignoring the physical world around us for a long time, some maybe even currently. I also was shocked at how you described rape and molestation and while I am sure you think they are horrible and all the same, it did not come across that way. I truly do not think I am better than anyone. I just want people to acknowledge this, which has been much harder than I ever thought. I realize now that this has done little to help and perhaps only separated us even more, and if that’s the case, I am horribly regretful. I hope there will be a day when we can all share in the happiness and joy of helping even just one girl or boy escape this cult.


Alwayslearning

As far as what to do, that is a great question. I don’t know. Because of the nature of these crimes and the nature of this cult, it is hard for these women and me to come public about it. The shaming and victim blaming, even found on this forum would be gigantic if charges were pressed and may hurt us even more. I am currently in a cult specialist therapy program and working with specialists at Stanford and I hope I myself can bring charges forth, but that will have to be on my own time. This is incredibly hard to deal with and has left many of us victims “paralyzed”. As far as parents in the LC dealing with this, well I think we all know that will never happened, and as I have cited earlier, some parents have known about rapes and they only told the victim to keep quiet and act like it never happened. As far as men, I just hope that they can begin by taking small steps and begin to dismantle this rhetoric and begin to change people’s minds and expose them to Gods true hope for us as humans on Earth, which is clearly not telling women they are inferior and subject to men.

I will leave it at this and I just hope that people can re-read this and see that I only wanted to expose the truth. I felt attacked a little and may have responded a little harshly but I do not regret that. This is a topic that cannot be brushed under the rug. Peace to all and I hope positive changes will begin to happen!