Ghost Rapes- Mennonites in Bolivia

[tankgirl]

Heartbreaking article, about the rapes of Mennonites in Bolivia. http://www.vice.com/read/the-ghost-rape ... tentpage=1

This is why we can not allow fundies to isolate themselves so completely from the outside world. When you tell victims they are wrong, and give them no where outside the very people who hurt them or who want to protect the abuser. The whole article is just a view into the world that the fundies we follow might just bring down upon themselves, with limited outside contact, minimal education, self policing, and victim blaming. So sad.

[merrily]

That's horrible... and the leaders of the church deny the women free counseling?

[NotALoserLikeYou]

That was fascinating, and so, so sad.

[Mudball]

I read this yesterday. It's so upsetting, I can't stop thinking about it. Years and years of being raped, children as young as 3, and they are expected to just be OK after that.

[tankgirl]

What's worse is not just ok, but you need to 100% forgive them or you will not get into heaven. So the victims are worse just for not forgiving, if one of the rapists walks in and admits all he did, he is better in the afterlife then the victim. Ugh horrible!

And the fact it is still going on and no one is trying to do a damn thing just adds extra pain on top of the whole mess.

[Janes Heir]

God, too horrible for words. And, yes, the obligation of cheap forgiveness makes it a powerful warning about this type of spiritual abuse that also is encouraged among many other (if not all) denominations.

[Pam]

Reading that article has left me speechless. So beyond sad.

[sparkles]

I hardly know how to process this. How sad that riding a motorcycle will get you excommunicated. Raping a three year old? Not so much.

[wild little fox]

Unfathomable.

[salex]

Heartbreaking article, about the rapes of Mennonites in Bolivia. http://www.vice.com/read/the-ghost-rape ... tentpage=1

This is why we can not allow fundies to isolate themselves so completely from the outside world. When you tell victims they are wrong, and give them no where outside the very people who hurt them or who want to protect the abuser. The whole article is just a view into the world that the fundies we follow might just bring down upon themselves, with limited outside contact, minimal education, self policing, and victim blaming. So sad.

Thank you for this. I was discussing it with my husband and talking about how apparently any religion that is not held up to the light by outsiders/secularism seems to revert to sexual assault and woman hating.

[Adrienne83]

Wow. Just wow. I have no words.

[apple1]

I have been watching this story. It is sad how little attention this story is receiving. The job of government should include preventing anarchy and providing a hope of last resort for the weakened and powerless. It seems that the government of their country is hopelessly corrupt. Reading between the lines seems to say that money possibly crossed hands to get the scapegoats convicted and locked up. Yet the problem continues, while the victims are supposed to pretend it isn't happening and the continuing perpetrators are not stopped.

[BullyJBG]

I read this yesterday when a cousin posted it on their Facebook. I am a Mennonite of origin; my grandparents came to Canada in the 1920s. There were struggles to preserve the culture and live simple, but, over the years, as my parents' generation were growing up, then my generation, then the next one, we can only do so much. After all, while my grandma thanked God every day that we no longer had to deal with consistent persecution to the day she died, we all continued to be taught that we remain in the world to make disciples and teach Jesus' words to others. It's a constant balance, and God has a different plan for everyone. We tell the stories of the past, we share the recipes of classic foods that were eaten then, and continue to live our lives.

It's good that it's finally coming out, though. Living simple has its place, isolation/sheltering is a delicate balance, and ultimately, everyone has to choose for themselves if they want to follow the faith or not. Seeing church as "not a priority" is sad. Not allowing them to read the Bible for themselves is even sadder.

God bless Jean-whatever for going in there and persistently asking questions. May she find the Maxwells next.....

[tuckerphez]

You know what I find scariest about this? Everytime Jean went to some mennonite authority, they straight-up denied that any problem existed and rejected help when it was offered. Like the low german-speaking therapists for the victims THAT WERE OFFERED BY OTHER MENNONITES.

It's one thing to have a massive rape/incest problem, it's another to stick your fingers in your ears and reject any criticism/help that denies people justice and healing.

[ari_belle]

I had such a hard time reading this that I couldn't even finish it....those poor women and girls.

[freejugar]

:( those poor girls, this is horrible

there was this interesting documentary on nat geo about a menonite family from bolivia trying to leave the church, it's in spanish though

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[dianapavelovna]

I had such a hard time reading this that I couldn't even finish it....those poor women and girls.

The whole thing is horrific, but one bit really stuck out to me. The author mentions somewhere that she has been told that there were also male victims, who were not named in legal proceedings, and who have received even less support and recognition than the women.

My mouth dropped open when I read the part about one young woman not knowing that her mother was also a survivor of the attacks. I just....holy shit.

[Handmaiden of Dog]

I am another one who cannot stop thinking about this story. First that these poor women, girls, and boys are not getting help is jaw-dropping. There should be some sort of support system, some group therapy at least, yet they are told to just forgive and move on. How can the men of the community just shrug their shoulders at the knowledge that their wives and daughters have been raped? I don't think I have ever heard of a Patriarchal society where the men don't fiercely guard their daughter's chastity. We know that if a girl in this community-- or a wife!- was seen kissing and cuddling with another male there would be hell to pay, but the men who run the place and have the only power don't seem to be doing much to address the problem.

The other thing that bothers me a lot is what these rapists are allowing themselves to do: going out in gangs to rape whomever they want with no thought to age or sex or community standing. These are supposed to be very religious men, yet they are acting in a way that is so unholy it is unprecedented. Serial rapists exist in every culture but usually they work alone or in pairs and usually they have preferred victims. These men...I'm speechless. So some sick bastard with the ability to knockout an entire family approached some other guy(s) in the community and said "Do you want to go with me tonight? We can fuck anybody we want, it's fun!" and several guys went along with it-- with no compunctions.

After the original rapists were caught, this Mennonite group should have disbanded and scattered themselves to the four corners of the world. The fact that their society has produced such sick, twisted bastards should have been a wake-up call to them, and proved to them that their lifestyle is not a glory to God. There is something rotten here and it has born evil fruit.

[Effie]

I usually dread missionaries, but for once I would actually like to applaud a bunch of them. Let's cheer on the Low German-speaking missionaries who are placed at Casa Mariposa (a shelter for abused Old Colony women and girls) in Bolivia with the mission to help the victims there.

[Dinaberries]

I am another one who cannot stop thinking about this story. First that these poor women, girls, and boys are not getting help is jaw-dropping. There should be some sort of support system, some group therapy at least, yet they are told to just forgive and move on. How can the men of the community just shrug their shoulders at the knowledge that their wives and daughters have been raped? I don't think I have ever heard of a Patriarchal society where the men don't fiercely guard their daughter's chastity. We know that if a girl in this community-- or a wife!- was seen kissing and cuddling with another male there would be hell to pay, but the men who run the place and have the only power don't seem to be doing much to address the problem.

The other thing that bothers me a lot is what these rapists are allowing themselves to do: going out in gangs to rape whomever they want with no thought to age or sex or community standing. These are supposed to be very religious men, yet they are acting in a way that is so unholy it is unprecedented. Serial rapists exist in every culture but usually they work alone or in pairs and usually they have preferred victims. These men...I'm speechless. So some sick bastard with the ability to knockout an entire family approached some other guy(s) in the community and said "Do you want to go with me tonight? We can fuck anybody we want, it's fun!" and several guys went along with it-- with no compunctions.

After the original rapists were caught, this Mennonite group should have disbanded and scattered themselves to the four corners of the world. The fact that their society has produced such sick, twisted bastards should have been a wake-up call to them, and proved to them that their lifestyle is not a glory to God. There is something rotten here and it has born evil fruit.

These are men who grew up sexually abusing their sisters, and then go on to sexually abuse their daughters and granddaughters. I bet a lot of them are sexually abused as boys too. So I can see how they are not so protective of their wives and daughters. It also makes me wonder if maybe most, or almost all of the men are involved in this.

I can't stop thinking about this either. It's terrifying and heartbreaking, and I agree this group should be disbanded. I wanted to cry when I got to the end of the article, where the Mennonite woman says that maybe this is God's plan. This is some of the worst spiritual abuse I've ever heard of.

[Snarfblatt]

One thing that struck me was this part.

(Sex and reproductive health is such a taboo for conservative Mennonites that most women are never taught the correct names for intimate body parts, which inhibited certain descriptions of what took place during the attacks and in their aftermath.)

That just frustrates me because how do you describe what happened to you if you don't have the words?

The article made me sad for the women and really angry at the men.

[Slt]

I am part of a fundie homeschool married women's group on Facebook (I have links from when I was homeschooled, but I was not fundie). It has a lot of the girls/women we talk about on here. Anyway, someone posted this and there was a long banter about it. I found interesting that several girls admit something similar happened to them, and I was surprised that they felt so close to that story because it seemed so horrible.

It is terrible to think that similar things are happening here, close to us, to similar cult like groups. These poor women have no idea that they need help until they get out.

[Khan]

I was infuriated by their leader saying something like " they don't need therapy. They were asleep when it happened."

Wtf, dude?