Regarding abuse and the church:

The first week of Theology Gals, I was contacted by someone, their child was sexually abused by someone in their church. The pastor told them not to go to the police, that the church would deal with it. 1/

She contacted me to ask if they should go to the authorities. I told her yes. They did. And were treated horribly by their church for doing so.

Her pastor was a mandated reporter, and their denom has a policy to go to authorities. Yet he didn't report. 2/

Within weeks of that situation, a girl was beaten by her husband, left in fear. Was told by her pastor to return the next day, because "her husband was repentant"
She was scared to return, which is why she contacted me. 3/

Little did I know, I would continue to hear from women with similar situations to the above.

The amount of women in my Facebook group that were sexually abused when they were younger, is shocking. Many of them by someone in their church. 4/

The hardest thing was finding out a couple of my own friends were being abused. These are families we went to church with, that have been in our home countless times, our children are friends. I hadn't a clue and the abuse going on behind the scenes was severe. 5/

The reason these women finally got help is because their children (teenagers) insisted. They feared for their mom's lives.

I think there's great ignorance by some on why women stay silent and don't get help. It's too much to write here. 6/

Finding the worst of #churchtoo and using that to criticize and representing that as the whole is foolish. But that's what some are doing.

You wonder why many stay silent, just look at the awful way abuse is often dealt with and the cold attitude by some towards victims. 7/