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CBN takes down paper saying child abuse victims can "consent" to being abused
Just confirmed--that horrible teaching paper has indeed been taken down. It's only a start, though--CBN needs to issue a full apology for putting this out for so long. Keep calling, keep the pressure on. My original post appears below.
cross-posted in slightly edited form at Daily Kos
Yesterday, I was horrified to find out that CBN has a "teaching paper" on its Website with some shocking advice for victims of sexual abuse and incest. According to this paper, victims of sexual abuse can actually "consent" to incest or "allow yourself to be molested." Roxine and SwedishJewfish both wrote about it yesterday at Daily Kos. Pat Robertson's history is known well enough to most of us that it needs no rehashing. However, this teaching paper is outrageous even by CBN's standards. In fact, I'm running out of adjectives to describe just how hurtful, disgusting, and flat-out wrong this is. However, the thing you have to wonder about in this case isn't how in the world even a troglodyte like Robertson can put this out. Nope, the real $64,000 question in this case is "How long has he been putting it out?" The answer, according to the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine: at least since 1996, when CBN first went online. It's entirely possible that he's been teaching this well before that, given that CBN was founded in 1961--back in the days when child abuse wasn't considered everyone's business. But it's clear at the very least that this paper has been out there for at least the entire Internet era, well after people became more aware of how traumatic child abuse can be. And Marion Gordon's got a lot of explaining to do. What makes this all the more dangerous is that a large number of CBN's followers come from the segment of hardcore fundies who basically cut themselves off from the outside world. In their world of homeschooling or private/Christian school, filtered Internet service, and Christian radio, CBN's site is one of the first places many of them turn for advice--something Robertson knows full well. It's all the more reason to burn up CBN's main switchboard. Drop them a line at 757-226-7000 and tell them this garbage has to be taken down and repudiated--now. |
I see only two remotely plausible explanations for this, neither of which allow CBN and Robertson to look very good. One is that CBN doesn't believe this anymore, but has been too lazy to take it down. The other is that Robertson and CBN actually believe that child abuse victims can consent to what happened to them. There's a pretty good argument for either scenario. In the first case, SwedishJewfish reported that when she called, the person who took her call agreed it was inappropriate. But if that were the case, then Robertson is being grossly negligent in allowing something so hurtful to be online. Given his power at CBN, one word from him would be enough for this to be deleted on the spot. In the second case, 16 years is pretty much an eternity in the Internet age, and would have been more than enough time to take it down if Robertson and CBN had renounced this. Whatever the case, one thing is beyond doubt. By allowing this paper to be out there, Robertson is spitting in the face of child abuse victims everywhere. And this is something that can't be allowed to stand. So drop CBN a line at 757-226-7000 and demand it be taken down. Not only that, Robertson needs to apologize for putting out this garbage--and none of this "sorry if anyone was offended" crapola either. |
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