So I admit it… my blogging has been lacking. Between getting a temp full-time job for a few months and attempting to balance numerous other projects, I’ve let my writing fall to the wayside. But I think excuses are bogus, so I’m going to stop making them and instead I’m going to take action! If...
I first read this story at an open mic night in April 2013 at Prairie Lights bookstore in Iowa City, Iowa. The theme of the evening was violence against women, and it was the first time this story had ever been shared in written or spoken form. There were a lot of tears on that...
I wrote this piece for the May 2013 issue of The Mennonite. You can see the original post of this article here. Before I clicked the enter button of my public Facebook status, questions plagued my mind: Was I really ready to talk about sex in a public space? Was I prepared to delve into...
Two years ago, I left my long-time career and began work to empower women and girls through the Divine Feminine. About 6 months ago, I veered out a bit to help tackle rape culture on Facebook. Last month, I began to receive death and rape threats as a result of that work. Today I bring...
This is my last post in a series of three dealing with sexual abuse and Christian spirituality. You can see the first post here, and the second post here. I wrote these as a way to process some of what I’ve been noticing as I work with women in the Church who have experienced sexual violence...
This post is my second in a series of three posts dealing with sexual abuse and Christian spirituality. In my first post I talked about ways that certain Christian messages tend to create stumbling blocks for those striving to heal from the trauma of abuse, and I listed a couple of ideas to keep in mind...
This series of cross-posts by Hilary Jerome Scarsella originally appeared on the State of Formation Website. Recently, I’ve spent a lot time with Christian women striving to heal from abuse and from damaging messages they learned from their experiences of church, faith, and religion. I want to talk about the ways that seemingly harmless messages from religious...
From Editor Rachel Halder: April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, a month dedicated to raising public awareness about sexualized violence and to educate communities and individuals on how to prevent sexual violence. But what I want to know is: Why do we need to make a month for this? Why can’t every month be a month dedicated to eradicating sexualized...
This is the sixth and final post in the Steubenville Reflection Series featured on Our Stories Untold the week of March 24-29. It includes two authors submissions. Please feel free to look over the pasts week’s posts and share your own reflections and responses to this tragic event. Your Sexual Morality is Not My Responsibility...
This is the fifth post in the Steubenville Reflection Series featured on Our Stories Untold the week of March 24-29. We had two hopeful posts come in from previous Our Stories Untold contributors. I’ve featured them together as their similar call for positivism and hopefulness during a time of frustration ring true. — editor Rachel Halder Finding hope...
This is the fourth post in the Steubenville Reflection Series featured on Our Stories Untold the week of March 24-29. I am greatly troubled by Steubenville, but it offers a great opportunity to continue the work of eradicating sexualized violence. I suggest we continue to think of Steubenville and strongly consider the almost inevitable...
This is the third post in the Steubenville Reflection Series featured on Our Stories Untold the week of March 24-29. Rape is rape is rape is rape. It is a violation of everything good, and it is bad no matter who commits it, on whom, or how. The victim is not to blame. Social media...
This is the second post in the Steubenville Reflection Series featured on Our Stories Untold the week of March 24-29. Upon reflection of the events that happened in Steubenville, Ohio, Sylvia Klauser wrote the following open letter to the youth of her churches–and their parents. This is a shortened version of the letter, which you can see...
“Would you say destroying the planet is just as bad as raping a person? Is putting toxic chemicals into our water just as bad as putting toxic chemicals into a person so you can rape them?” Bombarded by these questions (plus many more) from a new acquaintance at a party the other evening, my responses...
It’s been a whirlwind of a week for an activist set out to “end rape.” And it’s only Tuesday. Though I’ve been following the Steubenville situation since a New York Times article came out in December, which provoked this piece on victim-blaming, I still haven’t been able to sift through my emotions and feelings enough...
