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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow Christian Purity Culture Enabled My Stepfather to Sexually Abuse Me
How Christian Purity Culture Enabled My Stepfather to Sexually Abuse Me
http://www.alternet.org/how-christian-purity-culture-enabled-my-step-dad-sexually-abuse-me
(Editorial comment: This is horrible and hard to read, but I think it's important. -- Exhibit A)
We were very religious people. We attended a Fundamentalist Baptist Church so sexually conservative I was not even allowed to wear jeans. But still, he would sit me down and discuss what he had been thinking on those nights when he pressed my body against his and stroked my hair, the curve of my hip and the area between my collar bone and breasts until his penis was hard against my thigh.
In those incredibly awkward and galling conversations he reassured me repeatedly that he would never do anything to compromise my virginity. Using the tone of a person explaining something perfectly logical that should be obvious to anyone with the IQ of a mollusk, he explained that my mother had gained weight and it was killing his boners. I was young, slender and attractive and he saw nothing terribly wrong with using my body to kick-start the old engine and thoughts of me to keep it humming along.
What baffled me then but makes perfect sense to me now is why he thought that I would be reassured by his repeated promises that he would not cross the arbitrary line of virginity. He had no real plans to stop using me as his fluffer. But my virginity, which he had pledged to protect and to keep safe for my future husband, was off-limits. As time went by and his fluff-sessions became more lurid, I feared the line of technical virginity would be like the Maginot Line, more an illusion of safety than an actual defense.
But he kept his promise. And now I understand why. The emphasis placed on virginity by the Purity Culture allowed my step-father to minimize his non-vaginal sexual abuse of my body.
greatlaurel
(2,004 posts)I have seen some of these girls from this purity culture relate to their fathers. It is very disturbing. Many of the relationships are clearly borderline incestuous and that is what can by observed in public. The fundamentalist churches are very common where I live and their influence on the local culture and local politics is important, because it means that a lot of these men are never investigated for sexual assault and incest.
Good luck to this woman for speaking out about this very important issue.
benld74
(9,909 posts)shenmue
(38,506 posts)RKP5637
(67,112 posts)creeps get away with under the veil of religion. Dominate males having their way. And then being so pious and setting themselves up on tin pedestals.
FBaggins
(26,757 posts)Redqueen had my favorite response:
Men who prey on their children or step children do not get to use the excuse that purity culture or any other rationalization 'enabled' them.
They would prey on these children regardless, and whatever excuses and lies they use to manipulate their victims are incidental.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4870038
The stepfather lied to his daughter about what their church teaches... the church didn't "enable" the abuse.
If the father was Jewish and lied to her about what "honor your father and mother" meant... it wouldn't be the synagogue that enabled the abuse.
I'm certain that >99% of "fundamentalist baptist church" members would reject this creep's behavior as well as the ridiculous notion that as long as you're still a virgin, anything else is in bounds (precisely the opposite of what most churches teach).
This guy was lying to himself and to her... I reject the notion that we should accept his definition of what the church teaches.
hunter
(38,326 posts)It's a problem in every authoritarian sexually repressed culture, and yes it is more likely to happen in certain Jewish communities, just as it more likely to happen in certain authoritarian Catholic, Protestant, or other religious communities.
But certainly, sexual predators, will use lies, threats, force, and anything else; religion simply shapes the nature of those manipulations.
el_bryanto
(11,804 posts)Although I can understand her rationale.
Bryant
Initech
(100,100 posts)BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)For visibility.