Speaking out against Sexual Harassment

By Kelly Maile
Columbus Dispatch
April 2, 2018

http://www.dispatch.com/news/20180402/speaking-out-against-sexual-harassment

The #MeToo social media campaign to raise awareness of sexual harassment gave Emily Joy the courage to share her own story of sexual abuse in church.

“When I was 16, I was groomed for abuse by a man in his early 30s who was a youth leader in my evangelical megachurch ... in Illinois,” Joy said. “There wasn’t an understanding of consent or any sex education. The adults punished me for that rather than realizing this is a predatory situation.”

Ten years later, one tweet by Joy prompted thousands on social media to share their own stories of sexual abuse in church settings. The reaction caused Joy and her friend Hannah Paasch to create #ChurchToo. The movement has given Joy the opportunity to speak out at colleges and churches across the country. Joy will speak at Hiram College on April 24 about the hashtag that went viral and theology and sex in conservative Christian churches.

In the wake of actress Alyssa Milano’s #MeToo movement after the Harvey Weinstein scandal, “we were inspired by all these women in Hollywood and Washington,” Joy said. “We have our own stories of abuse, but we both grew up in conservative Christian environments. Sexual abuse happens everywhere, but there are specific facts and contributors in these conservative spaces.”

Once Joy posted her story on Twitter, “there were other women who started responding to it like something like this happened to me, too. Hannah and I said, ‘I think we need to compile these stories and figure out how to respond to it’.”

They created #ChurchToo. It went viral overnight.