EAST LANSING (MI)
Christian Today

February 5, 2018

By David Robertson

Rachael Denhollander is my new heroine. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything quite as brave, compelling, articulate and gospel centered as her testimony in the Larry Nassar trial. But it’s what I read later in an interview the former gymnast gave to Christianity Today in the US that really got to me. She said: ‘Church is one of the least safe places to acknowledge abuse because the way it is counselled is, more often than not, damaging to the victim. There is an abhorrent lack of knowledge for the damage and devastation that sexual assault brings.’

Denhollander talks about how she lost her church for speaking out against sexual abuse. This is absolutely horrific. Why would churches find it so difficult to deal with cases of sexual abuse? Is it because of the ignorance of what real…