Bill Donohue will be so relieved. Here's a story about a youn girl being raped, her assailant protected by the church, and the girl herself getting all the blame…and it's the Baptists! Tina Anderson was raped by Ernest Willis, a Trinity Baptist Church member, when she was 15, and got pregnant. She accused Willis in the church, and here's what happened:
When the pastor heard Anderson's allegations, he told her that if she had "lived in the Old Testament," she would have been stoned to death for not reporting the attack sooner.
"He also said I had 'allowed myself to be put in a compromising situation,' Anderson said. The pastor decided she needed to be "church-disciplined."
"I was completely humiliated," Anderson said, her voice quavering at the memory. "I hoped it was a nightmare I'd wake up from, and it wouldn't be true anymore."
"Church discipline" apparently means sending the victim out of state and asking all church members silent, not bringing the matter to secular authorities. They stayed quiet for 13 years.
Meanwhile, Tina Anderson went on with her life, got married, had kids, and took a job as a music teacher at a Baptist college. When she was contacted by investigators tracking down the case, though, she did something remarkable: she woke up to how she'd been abused.
"I was kind of in shock, but I just answered his questions," Anderson said. "Everything is changing because I'm seeing the things I was taught for so many years are not necessarily correct. It's almost like I had blinders on, believing all of this was my fault."
This is beautiful; this is what it is like to free yourself of religion.
"If they're not dealt with, the cycle will continue," said Anderson, who resigned from the Baptist college the day before Willis was arrested. "I do not, anymore, unquestioningly obey authority, which is what they would teach."
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