- Joined
- Jul 12, 2015
Fundamentalist communities are rife with abuse, especially sexual abuse. It’s an environment where such abuse happens often to people who cannot really defend themselves, and are then punished by the community for going against their abusers. The strict social controls also attracts opportunistic predators who use their positions of power and the weakness of their preferred prey in this environment. In religious fundamentalist communities this is usually children, women, or often female children. The community views sexuality as inherently sinful. It views speaking against the man as improper. It views you as having done something wrong and often stresses the punishment of the divine for some sin. Manipulators and abusers very quickly pick up on using these social tools to hide their crimes.I think that most people know that Jesus don’t want none of this shit. (Again, millstone and sea.)
In all seriousness though, the culture of at least the Duggar family and their associates (and I’d go so far as to extend it to a certain strain of fundamentalism) covered for the abuse. Another example is Bret Alan Smith of the fundie Smith family. His daddy (patriarch Captain Bret Smith) still swears he’s a good boy and he dindu nuffin (“persecution, I tell ya!”) even after he pleaded guilty to raping a younger relative.
A 11 to 17 year old girl or younger in one of these communities is likely to be already raised around this societal pressure to conform to be someone who shouldn’t talk about their sexuality. They may also be too young to really understand what’s happening, but speaking about it is discouraged since you’re not supposed to go against the male abuser, etc. This allows victims to quickly accumulate and warning signs to be ignored as often the abuser has a position of religious as well as social authority. It’s fucked.