SOUTH CAROLINA
Liberal America
By Darrell Lucus on July 1, 2016
Two months ago, I was dumbfounded to discover that two girls who graduated with by girlfriend’s son are on their way to Bob Jones University in the fall. For the better part of four years, the ultrafundamentalist school in Greenville, South Carolina has been under well-deserved fire for its shameful response to sexual assault–including victim blaming and victim shaming of the worst type. As much lunacy as I’ve seen over the years from fundies, I couldn’t understand how any parent would send their children to a school that finds it acceptable to treat a sexual assault victim in this way.
Recently, I’ve gotten at least a few answers. On the same day of the graduation, now-former BJU student Micah Pretlove was arrested for molesting at least two girls during his days at BJU’s attached Christian school, Bob Jones Academy. Since I told you about that arrest, a number of walkaways from the independent fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) churches that are BJU’s main constituency have reached out to me to share some insights on what drives the rampant rape culture in that world.
When I first read about how rampant victim blaming and victim shaming are at BJU, my first impression was that it was mainly driven by the desire to get more notches in everyone’s Bibles. Former student Cathy Harris learned that the hard way when she tried to tell then-dean of students Jim Berg about how she had been victimized by a sex trafficking ring when she was younger. Berg told her that if she went forward, she would be “damaging the cause of Christ.”
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