Below is an edited version of a twitter thread I wrote in 2019:
If you're confused how all this abuse has been covered up for so many years - read the 2012 TGC Collin Hansen article that totally minimized Joe Paterno's actions due to:
1) the so-called good that he did,
2) the so-called judgmentalism of those standing for victims.
This is the repeated pattern,
1) Ignore the offender because of the good works they do,
2) Character assassinate those calling for justice.
That this was published in a mainstream blog, also demonstrates how big a blindspot there is about the need to protect the vulnerable from abuse. Not only did this get through the editing process, but its been disseminated to a huge number of people, influencing them to also look at the good abusers do, and look down on the whistleblowers.
This means we need far more than a few online apologies from leaders who have failed victims of abuse. We need widespread repentance, and fruit in keeping with repentance.
If you're wondering why I'm bringing up at 2012 article? Its because I read it years ago, when I was processing my own abuse story, and I was so shocked at the time to see that a Christian blog was not inclined to take the side of the abused -- it was indelibly printed on my mind.
And since that day, I've noticed the same pattern in the rhetoric of people I once looked up to. It's a blindspot that has kept our tribe blind, due to the silencing of the voices who know its wrong. I pray God doesn't fully hand us over to this wilful blinding.
