Sunday 21 October 2018

Rape Culture, #MeToo, and the Bible

Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church
21 October 2018


Acts 8.26-39 
Judges 19.1-30  

It’s now just over a year since allegations against Harvey Weinstein began to emerge,
            giving rise to what has become known as the #metoo campaign.

It began when
‘actor Alyssa Milano tweeted:
            “If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted
                        wrote ‘me too’ as a status,
            we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem.”
Since then, #MeToo has either been used
            as a statement of solidarity on social media,
or attached to harrowing accounts of harassment and abuse
            recorded by men and women.’[1]

What the #metoo campaign has done, possibly for the first time,
            is to provide a global context and platform
            for victims of violence, particularly sexual violence,
                        to speak up and speak out.

For most of human history,
            the voices of victims have been systemically silenced,
with their abuse denied, minimised, or justified
            by those who have presumed to speak on behalf
            of those who have not been allowed to speak for themselves.

So, a year on from #metoo,
            a number of men associated with the entertainment industry,
            are now in prison, awaiting trial, or no longer working.
Stories of abuse have been heard and believed,
            and some measure of justice has been achieved.

But then we still live in a world
            where Brett Kavanaugh can be appointed
                        to the Supreme Court of the United States,
            despite the multiple credible allegations of sexual misconduct against him.

Clearly, despite #metoo,
            the silencing of victims,
            and the diminishing of their testimony, is still rife;
with none other than the President of the United States,
            arguably the most powerful man in the world,
publicly and frequently mocking the #metoo movement,
            and denigrating Professor Christine Blasey Ford
                        who spoke out so courageously to bring allegations of sexual assault
                        against Trump’s friend Brett Kavanaugh.
In a recent article analysing President Trump’s attitude towards women,
            the American news network CNN says the following:

‘During the 2016 presidential campaign,
            at least 13 women accused Trump of misbehaviour
            ranging from sexual harassment to sexual assault.
They came forward in the wake of a 2005 "Access Hollywood" tape
            that was released in October 2016
in which he is caught saying on a hot mic:
            "And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. ..."’[2]

            It goes on, but I’m not going to repeat from the pulpit what he says next.

And so we come to scriptures,
            and f you find yourself wondering
                        why a horrific story like that of the Levite’s concubine,
            should sit within the pages of our holy book,
I think the answer may be found
            not only the words of Donald Trump,
            but in the story of another biblical woman.

In the book of Esther, the eponymous heroine finds herself elevated
            from the Persian King’s harem to the royal bedchamber,
            with the King unaware that her ethnic identity is Jewish.
When he passes a law to destroy the Jews,
            Esther’s uncle challenges her to speak out, and remain silent no more.
He suggests, problematically, that maybe her experience
            of sexual exploitation at the hands of a powerful man,
was, as he puts it, ‘for such a time as this’. (Esther 4.14)

For both Esther, and for the women of the #metoo campaign,
            the time came to speak out and put an end to silence.

In this we need to note that speaking out is always difficult, and possibly dangerous,
            and that in no way should it ever be used, as Esther’s uncle attempted to do,
                        to justify or redeem the abuse.

The abused should not be forced to speak out if they are not ready.
            But it remains true that the voicing of victims is vital,
                        if cultures of silencing are to be overturned.

And so we come to the Levite’s concubine,
            who is, herself, never permitted to speak in the biblical narrative.

What can this silenced women, from thousands of years ago,
            say to us today?

What is her message, for such a time as this?

In order to explore that, I’m afraid we need to take her story
            into the next couple of chapters from the book of Judges.

To avoid reading them out in full,
            I’m going to use the words of Jenni Williams to summarise them for us.

She takes up the story:

‘Cutting her body up and spreading the pieces across Israel
            might be deemed as terrible as the gang-rape,
for it denies her the chance for burial
            - and not to be buried is the worst fate in Israel,
            as in the case of Jezebel (2 Kings 9.35-37).
But the violence does not stop there:
            the tribes of Israel then begin a war
            against the men of Gibeah to punish them.
The Benjaminites come out for Gibeah, which is in Benjamin.

‘For two days the Benjaminites have the upper hand
            and 40,000 Israelites die.
On the third day Benjamin is defeated
            and over 25,000 of them die in battle,
            plus the whole city of Gibeah.

‘Once the fighting has died down
            the Israelites become concerned for [the future of the tribe of] Benjamin,
            as they have sworn never to marry their daughters to a Benjaminite,
                        so there is now a real chance
                        that the tribe of Benjamin might die out.
Their solution is to find a town
            that did not [fight with Israel against Benjamin, called] Jabesh-Gilead.
Everyone [there] is executed except 400 young women who are virgins,
            or at least unattached girls of an age to be married.
They are sent to Shiloh and married off to the remaining Benjaminites.

‘Any Benjaminite who did not get a wife
            is encouraged to watch for the girls of Shiloh
            when they come out to dance at a festival
and then perform what is commonly called marriage by rape.’[3]

Just when you thought the story couldn’t get any worse!
            The violence done to the woman
                        at the hands of the men of Gibeah and her husband,
            leads to widespread warfare, mass killing,
                        and further widespread sexual violence against women.

And whilst this story is both surprising and shocking,
            and certainly little-read and preached-upon in our churches;
it probably shouldn’t surprise us that in ancient times, as now,
            violence against women was rife,
            both within the home and within society.

I recently completed some training from the Baptist Union
            about domestic violence;
and the figures are frightening.

According to the Home Office
·        1 in 4 women will experience domestic abuse at some point in their lifetime
·        1 in 6 men will experience domestic abuse at some point in their lifetime
·        1 in 5 children are exposed to domestic abuse

The average number of assaults suffered
            before a domestic abuse victim first calls the police is 35,
and two women per week are murdered in the UK
            by their partner or ex-partner.

And I’m afraid that if Christians tell themselves
            that domestic violence doesn’t happen in Christian homes,
not only are they deceiving themselves,
            but they are participating in the silencing of victims,
            and in perpetuating the culture of abuse.

The Baptist Union say,

‘We would hope that Baptist churches
            demonstrate a culture and environment where all people are safe
                        and where anyone is able to express any fears, anxieties and concerns
                        they have without the fear of ridicule, rejection or judgement.
Churches should be places of refuge and safety
            where victims are supported and cared for
            without pressure or hurrying.
They should be communities that condemn violence and abuse
            and that challenge and support perpetrators to change their behaviour.
Sadly, churches have not always responded well
            to incidents of abuse when people have found the courage to ask for help.
This has partly been due to a lack of understanding
            about domestic abuse and its impact,
and partly due to the misguided use of the Bible
            to justify and perpetuate abuse,
            particularly against women.’ [4]

We live in a culture where sexual violence is normalised,
            and where assaults are written off as ‘domestics’.
Within Christian culture, too often we see
            the outworking of a warped view of biblical headship
                        where the woman is in effect the property of her husband,
                        and the man is seen as having a godly right to discipline his wife.

To get behind this, we need to analyse it further,
            and I want to introduce here the phrase ‘rape culture’.

This term was originally coined by feminists in the 1970’s.
            And was designed to show the ways in which society
                        blamed victims of sexual assault
                        and normalized male sexual violence.[5]

Emilie Buchwald, author of Transforming a Rape Culture,
            describes that when society normalizes sexualized violence,
                        it accepts and creates rape culture.

In her book she defines rape culture as:
‘a complex set of beliefs that encourage male sexual aggression
            and supports violence against women.
It is a society where violence is seen as sexy
            and sexuality as violent.

In a rape culture,
            women perceive a continuum of threatened violence
            that ranges from sexual remarks
                        to sexual touching to rape itself.

A rape culture condones physical and emotional terrorism
            against women as the norm . . .

In a rape culture both men and women
            assume that sexual violence is a fact of life, inevitable . . .

However . . . much of what we accept as inevitable
            is in fact the expression of values and attitudes that can change.’[6]

Rape culture includes jokes, TV, music,
            advertising, legal jargon,
                        laws, words, and imagery,
that make violence against women and sexual coercion
            seem so normal, that people believe that rape is inevitable.

Rather than viewing the culture of rape as a problem to change,
            people in a rape culture think about the persistence of rape
            as “just the way things are.”[7]

And, I am afraid to say,
            our culture, here in the UK, in many areas, is a rape culture.

Those of us who would identify as middle class Christians,
            may be removed from much of what goes on in the wider world around us,
but those who know what it’s like in schools, gangs, and on the streets of our city,
            tell us that sexual violence against women is rife.

The story of the Levite’s concubine
            starts to sound more contemporary by the moment.

This unnamed and unvoiced woman’s story
            echoes down the millennia to us,
as she screams in pain at us through the pages of our scriptures,
            forcing us to confront the horrific realities
                        of our own time, our own culture,
                                    our own friends, maybe our own lives
                                    and our own families.

And her dismembered body challenges us, as it challenged Israel of old;
            asking us what we are going to do
                        about the grim reality of sexual violence, domestic abuse,
            and the systemic silencing and shaming of victims.

A key determining factor in our response, I think,
            will be where we see God in relation to this issue.

The Israelites in the story saw God as being firmly on their side,
            as they went to war with the Benjaminites
            to avenge the death of the Levite’s concubine.

Their self-righteous crusade to rid the land of evil,
            ended up compounding not only the sexual violence against women
                        by a factor of over 400,
            but also triggering mass warfare
                        and the death of tens of thousands.

We need to be very careful before we think that God is on our side,
            if we are the powerful, setting out to avenge someone who has been wronged,
because we will almost certainly be blinded to the darkness of our own hearts,
            and end up magnifying rather than correcting the evil.

This is why I remain very cautious about the culture of scapegoating
            that we see in our society,
where individuals who have transgressed are targeted,
            and become the focus of our communal angst at their wrongdoing.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that men who abuse women are prosecuted,
            I’m glad that victims are discovering a voice,
            and are speaking out the truth of what has been done to them.

But that doesn’t let the rest of us off,
            and pointing vehemently at the evil ‘over there’
can simply be a deflection mechanism f
            or the abuse that we’re ignoring ‘in here’,
                        in our own institutions, lives, and families.

You see, God is not on the side of the righteous avenger,
            God is always on the side of the victim.
God is with the voiceless, the silenced, and the abused,
            fare more than God is with the powerful and the self righteous.

Do you remember the story of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch,
            and their conversation on the road outside Jerusalem,
            not so far from where the Levite’s concubine was raped to death?

Philip hears the Eunuch reading from the prophet Isaiah,
            and asks him if he understands what he is reading.

The passage is from what we would call
            the suffering servant song of Isaiah (cf. Isa 53.7),

Acts 8.32-33
"Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth."

The Eunuch asks Philip a key question,
            ‘About whom’, he says, ‘does the prophet say this,
                        about himself or about someone else?’

And in this he captures the problem that Christians have had
            in interpreting this passage from Isaiah ever since.

You see, it’s not about Jesus,
            but it is about Jesus.

In the context of Isaiah, at the time he was writing,
            the suffering servant is the nation of Israel.

The silenced victim, humiliated like a lamb before its shearer,
            is Israel in exile in Babylon.

The one whose life is taken away in violence,
            is Israel, God’s people.

And so Philip starts to speak to the Eunuch,
            and he uses this scripture to speak about the good news of Jesus.

And he, like we, sees in the life and death of Jesus,
            the activity of God in the vulnerable and the victimised,
he sees God present in the violence against the innocent,
            he sees God on the cross,
just as Isaiah saw God in the exile of Israel.

And if Philip and the Eunuch had turned the pages of their scriptures a few pages back,
            and the Eunuch had read the story of the Levite’s concubine,
I wonder if Philip would also have said,
            that in her too is found the presence of God.

Maybe the good news of Jesus that Philip proclaims on the road outside Jerusalem,
            is that God is present, in Christ, with all those who are victims.
They may be silenced, but God is listening to that silence,
            hearing the silent screams of those who cannot speak out.

God is present in Christ in agony on the cross,
            God is present with Israel in exile in Babylon,
            God is present as a young woman is raped to death outside Jerusalem,
            God is present as 400 young women are given to men as their wives,
            God is present as women who have gone to dance at a festival
                        are taken away and raped into marriage.

And God is present when women are raped and killed
            on the streets and in the parks of our city,
and God is present when women are abused
            in homes, even Christian homes, by their husbands,
and God is present whenever a victim is silenced.

And as the people of God in our age,
            we too need to learn to hear the voices that cry out in silence,
            and we need to learn that God not on our side,
                        but rather is present with, and in, and through,
                        all those who face violent and voiceless futures.

We cannot ignore this story from our scriptures,
            and we cannot turn away from the reality of our world,
because to do so is to perpetuate a culture of violence,
            that Christ came to change.




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