Patheos blog
March 14, 2019
By Rebecca Bratten Weiss
I’ve spent a lot of time, in the past few months, in conversation with abuse survivors.
It’s been painful to hear what they have to say, but my pain in hearing is nothing in comparison to the pain they carry with them – sometimes for most of their lives.
Turning away from these stories is not an option for me, uncomfortable though they may make me. Because in so many cases, the pain survivors carry is multiplied and exacerbated by the fact that over and over no one would listen. No one would believe them.
I’ve had a tiny taste of that frustration myself, when people refused to believe I was telling the truth about the abuse and toxicity I witnessed in a former workplace. Instead of listening, people over-wrote my story of injustice with a narrative that was more comfortable for them:
Maybe I was the problematic one?
I must have been causing drama.
I was probably overreacting.
It takes two to tango.
Anyway these problems are everywhere, so why the big fuss?
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