Survivor Sanctuary

You may have seen the "inspirational" quote floating around online: Trauma is not your fault, but healing is your responsibility. Well, on today's episode, we'll discuss why admonishments like this are a slap in the face to survivors of sexual abuse. 

RESOURCES:

Trauma is Not Your Fault, Period.

It should be the love and compassion of Christ, a sense of justice and righteousness that compel christian institutions to report, rather than conceal the sexual abuse of minors in their midst. But since that doesn't seem to be working, perhaps the threat of mug shots and orange jumpsuits will do the trick. On this episode we discuss the recent arrests of five administrators at Midland Christian School in Midland, Texas, who allegedly failed to report (and actively worked to conceal) the sexual assault of one of their minor students on school property. We talk about their case, and why it seems personal consequences are much more of a motivating factor than anything else when it comes to christians reporting sexual abuse.

Doctors, Scientists and researchers have long been exploring the link between obesity and childhood sexual abuse. In fact, sexual abuse is now recognized as being a key factor in obesity. The church, as usual, seems to be lagging behind the research. On this episode of the podcast, Kelly opens up about her experience with sexual abuse, trauma related obesity, and why many Christians' misinterpretation of "gluttony" can re-traumatize and further alienate survivors of sexual abuse. 

RESOURCES:

Why do survivors of sexual abuse seem to struggle with self care? And how has the church contributed to that struggle? We chat about it on today's episode.

If you followed the Josh Duggar trial, you know that he was recently found guilty on two counts of possessing child pornography. Maybe you also noticed some similarities between how much of the Duggar family and The Church deal with perpetrators in their midst. We chat about it on this episode.

As promised, in this episode of Survivor Sanctuary we are piggy-backing off of our last episode on vaccine mandates and protecting the bodily autonomy of survivors of sexual abuse. We're chatting with Joshua Yoder, host of the "Unbinding the Bible" podcast, about why sexual abuse is often viewed and cared about through a party lens, especially within the church. When liberals or conservatives, christians or atheists allow a party affiliation to determine whether they are free to care about instances of sexual abuse, survivors are the losers every single time. 

Every once in a while, I need to record an episode that will step on #allthetoes. Typically, I try to stay away from political/partisan topics, but as vaccine mandates begin to go into effect across the nation, survivors of sexual abuse are being affected in a way that often triggers trauma responses. We'll discuss that trauma (*not* the efficacy of vaccines) on today's episode. 

It seems every other day in South Florida we see a new story of a teacher sexually abusing a student. And in fact, this past week, it was literally every other day, as two female teachers were arrested in Miami-Dade county for predatory sexual relationships with male students. What's even more disturbing than the abuse itself may be the response to it by the general public, a large portion of which seem to feel that male students are "lucky" when their teachers "have sex with" (sexually abuse) them. There is a definite double standard when it comes to females who abuse males, and we're chatting about it on today's episode. 

RESOURCES:

31-Year-Old Female Teacher Arrested for Sexually Abusing 14-Year-Old Boy

41-Year-Old Female Teacher Arrested for Sexually Abusing 15-Year-Old Boy

Abused by a Female Teacher, but Treated like the Perpetrator

The Fetishization of Female Teachers

As we've watched the tragic story of Gabby Petito unfold over the last several weeks, it's been triggering to survivors of all kinds of abuse. For survivors of sexual abuse in the church, specifically, we may not be able to relate completely to Gabby's experience, but there are definitely parallels which bring he story close to home. On this episode of the podcast, we'll talk about those parallels, and what the church can learn from this tragedy.

On today's episode of Survivor Sanctuary, we chat with Mendy Hood, a survivor of sexual abuse by her youth pastor at age 13. Mendy's fighting spirit is contagious as she shares her story and refuses to hold back in her quest for justice, her calling out of abusers, and her struggles in the aftermath of sexual abuse.