Hannah Paasch wrote an article on Huffington Post that talks about the #churchtoo hashtag and what it represents for women abused by the church. In, Sexual Abuse Happens In #ChurchToo — We’re Living Proof, she states:
“The deep cognitive dissonance of purity culture demands that women trust men as leaders, protectors and providers while blaming ourselves when our boundaries are inevitably crossed.”
For many women raised inside the conservative church, they have no understanding about what abused, discrimination, and bias look like. They may know that something is wrong, but don't have the ability to name it. And, on top of that, they often have no ownership over their own bodies, in that they were taught that their bodies ultimately belong to the men they will one day marry. Ignorance and bad theology create an environment where women, especially but not exclusively, are abused by the church.
“ChurchToo is a platform not only where survivors can out their abusers — yes, names and all — but also where Christians, ex-evangelicals and agnostics alike can ask one another: How can we do better? What would a theology of consent and autonomy look like? How would we build a world in which that sort of church was not the exception?
The stories that have poured in through the hashtag prove to me that the evangelical church, in its current iteration, actively supports the confessing abuser over the victim and, in the name of “having no appearance of evil,” has managed to silence thousands of sexual and physical abuse allegations throughout the years.
We are saying “enough” now. There are decades-old stories with this hashtag. The rot has metastasized, and with #ChurchToo, we are digging it out. No rock shall remain unturned. ”