How Did I Miss This Story?

Must have been hibernating -- I live for this stuff. More than a decade ago, I headed off to law school with dreams of becoming a sex crimes prosecutor. How I ended up as a homeschooling mom is a long, sad story (with a happy ending, because I am, after all, a homeschooling mom).

Anyway -- wow, what an interesting story. A brief summary for those not interested in reading it -- a woman was drugged and raped at a fraternity in 1984. She received an apology in the mail from the perp as part of his 12 step program. Long story short, she has reason to believe he's not coming completely clean (she suspects it was a gang rape or at least it was spectator sport and he's pretty dismissive on the point). His apology is what we like to call "an admission" and she forwards it to the appropriate police department. He is prosecuted and takes a plea agreement. Two years. Looks like he got off a bit lightly because the prosecutor is looking in it being a gang-rape. Hope that means they'll find the others. I say subpeona everyone in the fraternity that year -- come on, someone put something in that drink, at least another frat boy shoved her back at the perp when she was screaming and trying to get away. There were more who at least knew what was going on and I'm guessing this wasn't an isolated incident.

The article was interesting because it mentions that the victim has been contacted by "Christians" criticizing her for "pressing charges" and admonishing her to forgive. One thing I was taught at the prosecutor's office where I worked was that the victim doesn't "press charges" the charges are the State's the victim is a witness. Sure, the victim can make things hard for the State and refuse to cooperate, but its not the victim's case. Of course, I think this victim should explore her civil remedies, in which case she would be pursuing him in what some might call an "unforgiving, unChristian" way. Well, good for them. Me, I'm a harpy.

Anyway, this leads me to all recriminations of Christians in the Episcopal church these days. To recap, some are annoyed over the consecration of a gay bishop in New England ("unbiblical and all that." Can't help but wonder why these people don't go Catholic, didn't the Anglican church start off by kicking out church doctrine of the day -- no divorce and all that? So why should anyone be surprised that the Episcopal Church is continuing the trend?).

The non-gay bishop of Virginia voted in support of the prospective consecration of the gay bishop (for various reasons) and I guess that was the 'green light' for some conservative parishes to try to take the money and run. Only they aren't running, its a land grab. They are incensed about there being a homosexual bishop, don't mind the "adultery" issue of many of their twice-married priests and bishops (the Bible goes on about divorce and remarriage, not just homosexuality). Now, these parishes are attempting to separate from the diocese while also kicking out any members who are not hate-filled homophobes (am I editorializing?). Lots of pain and gnashing of teeth. And we're supposed to fear hell? Seems like a lot of people are already there. And this is church? Where we're supposed to find God? Supposed to follow Jesus' teachings? Let he who is not vindictive cast the first stone. Ridiculous -- the defectors expect those loyal to the diocese to leave and call them vindictive if they want to stay. Don't they realize that they could be called vindictive because if they don't like church policy, shouldn't they be the ones to leave? What are they doing in an Episcopal church to begin with is a question I've been wondering. There are plenty of conservative churches and denominations out there. Its all about money, certainly not about God and clearly less about Jesus.

Okay -- where's that rock? I'd like to crawl back under it.