Boycott Christianity Today, SNAP Says

SNAP
June 13, 2014

http://www.snapnetwork.org/national_boycott_christianity_today_snap_says

We call on Christians to boycott Christianity Today for giving a convicted child molesting clergyman 2,700 words to deceptively describe his crimes, essentially ignore his victim, dramatically minimize his wrongdoing and perpetuate dreadful myths about child sex crimes.

[christianitytoday.com]

Or, we urge Christianity Today to devote an equal number of words, in their next two issues, to victims of clergy sexual violence (one male, one female) to give accounts of the trauma they endured.

We don't make this call lightly. We strongly believe in the First Amendment. But we believe even more strongly that kids must be protected and that those who hurt kids - directly or indirectly - must be punished, so they're less likely to hurt kids again.

So we aren't being punitive here. We're being protective. Some will claim that a boycott would inflict unnecessary pain on this publication. We're more interested in deterring unnecessary pain on innocent, vulnerable kids and wounded, suffering adults.

Others have done excellent work pointing out how misleading and hurtful this article is. We'd just stress that this minister cleverly and deceptively calls his crime 'a relationship,' which implies that the two were somehow equal partners. That, of course, is never true when kids and adults interact. It's one of many falsehoods he perpetuates.

We fear that still struggling men, women and teenagers who were sexually assaulted will stay silent now - and not reach out for help or report predators - and feel even more depressed and hopeless because a Christian publication has run such a hurtful story.