abuse

When Rabbis Abuse: Power, Gender, and Status in the Dynamics of Sexual Abuse in Jewish Culture, Part 2 by Dr. Elana Sztokman

By Guest Contributor on June 9, 2022 • ( 1 )

Moderator’s note: This is a book excerpt in 2 parts. Part 1 was posted yesterday. When Rabbis Abuse will be published on June 14th, information on ordering below. Grooming tactics: Targeting the victim Although there are many ways to target… Read More ›

When Rabbis Abuse: Power, Gender, and Status in the Dynamics of Sexual Abuse in Jewish Culture, Part 1 by By Dr. Elana Sztokman

By Guest Contributor on June 8, 2022 • ( 6 )

Moderator’s note: This is a book excerpt in 2 parts. Part 2 tomorrow. When Rabbis Abuse will be published on June 14th, information on ordering below. When I started this research in 2015, I was not expecting rabbis to be… Read More ›

Walking With Aletheia by Jean Hargadon Wehner – Book Review by Janet Maika’i Rudolph

By Janet Rudolph on April 8, 2022 • ( 14 )

Trigger Alert: There is discussion of sexual violence. “I transformed from terrified victim to a courageous survivor . . .Different than an ‘out of body’ experience, this felt more like an ‘in-body’ experience. I stood my ground and did what… Read More ›

Peng Shuai and Tennis’ #Metoo Moment by Janet Maika’i Rudolph

By Janet Rudolph on November 23, 2021 • ( 6 )

I am a fervent tennis follower in all its forms. I both play and watch tennis. That is, perhaps, why this story caught my eye. As I’ve written before, I am also a survivor of sexual assault, so these #metoo… Read More ›

“Go Back to your Country!” OK. But … I’m From San Francisco! by Karen Leslie Hernandez

By Karen Leslie Hernandez on July 25, 2019 • ( 23 )

On December 15, 2018, at 10:22PM, I received a call and a voicemail from someone I didn’t know. The charming message left for me? “Hello, Karen. You fat, disgusting slob. Go back to your country. I hope your new year’s… Read More ›

Privilege and Hierarchy in Community Care by Christy Croft

By Chris Ash on May 2, 2019 • ( 3 )

This is part one of a multi-part series on privilege, dehumanization, and hierarchy in organizing, activist, and ministry circles. Early in my training at my current job, my boss explained our agency’s position on social justice and intersectionality to me:… Read More ›

Recognizing Abuse by Karen Tate

By Guest Contributor on March 8, 2019 • ( 8 )

I’ve been thinking a lot about abuse. Of course, most of us know about the domination, exploitation and need for control meted out by patriarchy, but I wonder if we have actually normalized many abuses? Abuse in the home, in… Read More ›

Compassion to the Why by Karen Leslie Hernandez

By Karen Leslie Hernandez on January 30, 2019 • ( 12 )

This last month, I’ve found myself doing work on what I call, Compassion to the Why. That is understanding why. Asking why. Getting why. Having compassion, for, why. Why is this important, you ask? Because getting to the ‘why,’ is… Read More ›

What’s Your Choice? by Karen Leslie Hernandez

By Karen Leslie Hernandez on December 27, 2018 • ( 6 )

Choices. Many times choices are difficult. Some of the time choices are easy. I have had a rough year. Probably one of the most difficult yet in my adult life. I began this year with an offer of a job,… Read More ›

I Was Brainwashed to Believe I Wasn’t Human. Now I’m on a Mission Against that Cult – Part 2 by Trelawney Grenfell-Muir

By Trelawney Grenfell-Muir on September 7, 2018 • ( 18 )

Trigger warning: rape, sexual assault, domestic abuse, graphic sexual content In Part 1 of this story, I introduced a discussion of Johan Galtung’s theory of cultural violence as it relates to my experience as a young woman in an abusive… Read More ›

Open Letter to the Pope and all the King’s Men by Natalie Weaver

By Natalie Kertes Weaver on September 6, 2018 • ( 20 )

Dear Sirs, It breaks me down. My anger, my revulsion, my powerlessness. I have been searching for the way since I was a child old enough to remember my mind. For a time, I thought Jesus was a white guy knocking on my… Read More ›

Time to Stop Talking by Esther Nelson

By Esther Nelson on July 26, 2018 • ( 35 )

One of my Facebook friends—someone I’m quite fond of—posted the following remarks given by her pastor, Dr. Jim Somerville, First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia, to the congregation on July 15, 2018: It was Thanksgiving 2016, and my brothers and I… Read More ›

Gas-lighting on Al Franken(stein)’s Street by Lache S.

By Lache S. on December 2, 2017 • ( 28 )

I will add my #metoo, but don’t feel like going into details. I will just say that in light of my past experience and Al Franken’s statement of apology, I’m realizing why some of us don’t tell at an even… Read More ›

Grief and Healing by Carol P. Christ

By Carol P. Christ on July 24, 2017 • ( 28 )

My father died on July 6, 2017, 98 years, 4 months, 12 days. The last time I saw him was in the spring of 2004. During that visit, he gave me “the silent treatment” (refused to look at me or… Read More ›

A Beginning: Atonement Theology and the Feminist Critique by Katie M. Deaver

By Katie M Deaver on June 18, 2017 • ( 14 )

Since many of the comments on my last post expressed interest in my dissertation topic I will use my next couple of posts to talk a little bit more about my work and research in that area. When we talk… Read More ›

In Memoriam: Katelyn Nicole Davis by Stephanie Arel

By Stephanie Arel on January 29, 2017 • ( 11 )

On December 30, 2016, Katelyn Nicole Davis, a 12-year-old girl from Cedartown, Georgia filmed her suicide by hanging from a tree in her front yard. Recorded live, the video has gone viral. Alarmingly, a young girl’s succumbing to death logged… Read More ›

Love “Makes” Us Human? by Lauren Hippert

By Guest Contributor on October 13, 2016 • ( 12 )

I was in the passenger seat of my friend’s car and we were driving home from dinner. She was telling me about an experience she had a few summers ago, falling in love abroad. She told me that she felt… Read More ›

Novel Excerpt III: That Christmas Morning Feeling by Marie Cartier

By Marie Cartier on April 22, 2016 • ( 5 )

I have posted selections from my novel in progress before here and here and here…I am again. My last post here at FAR was about women and silence. Silencing women—from the powerful (Hillary Clinton) to the obscure (this girl that in this… Read More ›

Mazel Tov Tzidkaniyot of the Wall by Ivy Helman

By Ivy Helman on February 14, 2016 • ( 7 )

I have never understood the logic behind sexism. Why is half (or so) of the human race better than the other half? Of course, patriarchy and patriarchal religious traditions offer various seemingly logical reasons, sometimes even divine explanations for the… Read More ›

Forgiveness is a choice by Vibha Shetiya

By Vibha Shetiya on January 27, 2016 • ( 46 )

Someone I dearly love recently lent me a very sensible piece of advice: “You should forgive.” I know he resorted to these words out of love because he didn’t like seeing me in pain, a sentiment for which I was… Read More ›

On Staying and Leaving by Katey Zeh

By Katey Zeh on October 20, 2015 • ( 10 )

The pastor couldn’t have been more than five minutes into his sermon when I starting getting antsy. I leaned over to my husband and whispered, “He needs to be careful with this.” We were visiting a new church, an experience that nearly always… Read More ›

Holding On Too Tightly by Sara Frykenberg

By Sara Frykenberg on September 1, 2015 • ( 10 )

Raised in an evangelical, Protestant Christian tradition, I was repeatedly told that “God is love.” God is love. While much of my Christian experience was difficult and even abusive, I have always interpreted this teaching—while sometimes confusing to me, and… Read More ›