Churches urged to ‘turn the light on’ sexual abuse

UNITED STATES
Baptist Standard

By Ken Camp, Managing Editor

Published: August 24, 2012

Memories so strong they produce heart-stopping nightmares simultaneously remain so repressed and clouded she cannot pinpoint the time when abuse began. But Janice—who prefers to withhold her last name—knows three male relatives conspired to abuse her sexually over an extended time when she was a small child.

“My mother knew and did not protect me. … An aunt told me not to be a tattletale. … It was as if everybody in my little world either molested me or knew I was being molested,” she said.

At an early age, Janice became convinced she was unloved. “I knew I had no value,” she said.

But a Sunday school teacher told her otherwise.

“She said, ‘God loves you.’ She didn’t know how powerful that message was to me. She didn’t know I was being molested,” Janice recalled.

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