A Year in the Making: 1 Year Anniversary of Our Stories Untold & Hopes for...
It’s been one year today since the launch of Our Stories Untold. When I chose to pursue this Website I didn’t know what to expect. Deep inside I understood this was something I had to do, for both my...
View ArticleSpeaking Up When No One Else Will
Marty Troyer, The Peace Pastor, asked if I would write a blog entry about self-differentiation in the Mennonite Church, specifically in relation to the work I do with Our Stories Untold. Though I had...
View ArticleGuy in a bar: “I’ve never met a woman who was angry enough”
A guy in a bar once told me: “I’ve never met a woman who was angry enough.” A sex crimes law enforcement officer told us trainees at the Los Angeles Rape Hotline, “First they say they are fine, then...
View ArticleJohn Howard Yoder Discussion: A Lesson in Sensitivity & Victim-Blaming
I’ve purposefully remained silent about the John Howard Yoder issue. But I was shocked yesterday to see a poll on the topic presented by The Mennonite. The Mennonite posted a statement of their...
View ArticlePulling out the Weeds – A Call to Prayer
It it Thursday, a day that marks a powerful movement. A day that is both refreshing, invigorating, and sometimes heartbreaking for me. A day in which I feel more connected and strong through the...
View ArticleCall to Prayer Reminder: Deliver us from Denial
Sex offenders like to go to church. 93% describe themselves as religious. The most egregious sex offenders–those who have the most victims, the youngest victims and those who get away with it for the...
View ArticleBecoming Ready and Willing for Sexual Healing to Happen
“It only takes one person plowing a row to make a field, then others can follow knowing they aren’t the first or alone.” — Julia Kasdorf, from “Boustrophedon” Healing from sexual abuse after the...
View ArticlePrivilege in Christian Pacifism: Fight the Systems, Not the Survivors
Editor’s Note: This is the second post in a series Sarah Moon wrote about the problems that privilege brings in Christian pacifist circles. It originally appeared on Sarah’s Patheos blog on October 27,...
View ArticleThanksgiving
Exploring a past riddled with abuse and sexualized violence is not a pleasant task, nor is reading and writing about the dark pain that humans impose on other creatures of this world. It’s easy to get...
View ArticleExploring the Inner Landscape of 2013, Thoughts for a New Year
“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” Rumi The words of Rumi the Sufi poet have always attracted my mystic mind, and as I reflect on the...
View ArticleAbuse & Violence Within the Heterosexist Narrative: An Open Letter from...
Editor’s Note: Stephanie Krehbiel wrote the following to Ervin Stutzman (ervins@mennoniteusa.org) and the rest of the board in response to the statement released by MC USA’s executive board meeting...
View ArticleBecoming Light
*Editor’s Note: Today’s post was originally published in the Spring 2014 issue–a special issue on sexualized violence–of Timbrel Magazine, a publication by Mennonite Women USA. To purchase a copy of...
View ArticleLines in the Sand
*Editor’s Note: Today’s post is by Hilary Jerome Scarsella, originally published in the Spring 2014 issue–a special issue on sexualized violence–of Timbrel Magazine, a publication by Mennonite Women...
View ArticleIt’s Never Too Late: How Poetry Saved Me
Butterfly in Reverse (a poem from my upcoming book, Memory Chose A Woman’s Body) I had wings. Once. They seemed no different than human hands until plucked. Reluctantly. Along the mantelpiece, beside a...
View ArticleThe Power of Choice: Our Stories Untold Two-Year Anniversary
Two years ago today I chose to launch Our Stories Untold, a blog with the mission to collect stories of sexualized violence in the Mennonite Church, drawing awareness to this epidemic of violence that...
View ArticleCelebrating Winter Solstice as Survivors of Darkness
Happy Solstice, dearly beloveds. Today the Winter Solstice has ushered us past the longest night of the year. This darkest day is near Christmas, a day supposedly all about the cheer, the ho-ho-ho, the...
View ArticleAccepting reality: Putting child sexual abuse on our radar
In 1985, after weeks of intensive training, I started volunteering at the Los Angeles Rape Hotline (taking calls, accompanying victims to court, etc). After about a year on the job, it started getting...
View ArticleJohn Howard Yoder: My Untold Story after 36 years of Silence
To Rachel Waltner Goosen, whose historical overview in The Mennonite meticulously recounts John Howard Yoder’s true legacy, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Your literary piece is masterful....
View ArticleUnpacking the lies: What being queer has to do with sexual abuse
In the past week two major Mennonite news items were released into the web-sphere: the long-awaited January edition of the Mennonite Quarterly Review devoted to sexual abuse in the Mennonite Church and...
View Articlethe naked pastor’s graffiti art illustrates how to break the cycle
We are pleased to feature David Hayward, a graffiti artist and blogger otherwise known as the naked pastor. On a recent blog post, he explains how he was inspired to draw this cartoon after reading...
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