Do you remember Steubenville?

A couple months back, the big issue in social media activism was violence against women. This was because of events like the events in Steubenville, and Amanda Todd's death. However, social media activism has since moved on to other issues, important issues, but I think that we also should take a moment and remember this as well. What follows is an amalgamation of a Facebook post I wrote back then and a prayer I gave in my preaching class, reedited for today.

Because of the passage of time, we no longer talk about Steubenville or Amanda Todd.

We've stopped talking about the culture we live in and how we need to teach boys that no means no, and how to respect a woman. We've stop talking about the issue because the media has, to a large extent, stopped reporting about it.

But people are raped everyday, we can't forget about them. Beautiful women, who are made in God's loving image, will have the worst things happen to them, but they won't report it.

Nothing will happen because they will be too scared that if they go for help, we won't listen. That if they go for help, their attacker will hurt them again. That if they go for help, they'll have to relive their experiences over, and over and over again as they go through the process of reporting the crime, and the justice system. A system where the defense attorney will do everything in their power to prove their story false, or discredit and humiliate the victim. And the public will make jokes about her, and make death threats against them.

Social Media activism made this issue visible, but it's already  moved on. The victims can't. Please don't forget them.

We live in a culture where we blame the victim for the actions of their attackers. We say that because of the clothes a girl was wearing that she was "asking for it". There is a girl in Steubenville who was brave enough to go through the judicial process and share how two football heroes got her drunk at a party and raped her. That should be traumatizing enough, but then she had to have police watch her house because people in the community continued to threaten her because somehow seeking justice and healing is less important than two promising football careers.

God forgive us for when we turn the victim into the villain, when the people we should be caring for the most, become the people we hate. You have created them in your image, and they deserve to be treated with the respect that comes with that. Teach us, oh God to love them, just as you love them.

You oh Lord, did not submit to the patriarchal structures when you walked on earth,

You used  women in your parables, showing that their experiences mattered

You spoke to women as moral agents, capable of responding to your message

When a woman poured out her oil on your feet, you defended her actions

Your grace and love overpowered the coercive systems of violence.

Give us, oh God, your outrage towards the wrongs of this world, and your compassion for those who have been been hurt. 

Amen