Can You Hear Me Now?

I have wrestled for some time now as to whether I needed to speak up about something that has been brought to my attention in the last couple weeks. I feel now is the time. You see, a boarding school that I attended briefly in High School has made news with a sex scandal that has rocked not only them, but the entire Christian community in Canada. The name of this school is Prairie Bible Institute, of which the high school was part of. This is not an easy post for me so bear with me as I try to explain what is on my heart about this weighty matter.

As I said, I attended Prairie back in the 80′s for one semester. For the most part Prairie is not full of happy memories for me, as I got kicked out. There, I said it. I was no angel by any stretch of the imagination. I missed my home terribly even though I wouldn’t admit it at the time, and I just never fit in there. I came from a Godly Christian home, but that means nothing when your heart is full of rebellion. Of course the very strict rules we had to adhere to did not help much. I’m not saying that rules are a bad thing. You need to have to guidelines in place especially when you have a bunch of hormonal teenagers running around. The rules that I had a hard time with even to this day are ones like having to wear a skirt in -25 with windchill of -45 instead of pants because that was supposed to be more Godly for a woman. Of course we women found ways to make it a little more bearable like wearing leg warmers under our skirts, but I was always freezing to death. The others rules that seemed absurd to me was that guys and girls had to sit on separate sides of the tab for chapel or any function, and if we had a particular guy sit at our table in the caf more than two times in a month we got in trouble. I venture to guess that there would have been a lot less sneaking around in the frozen prairie if we would have been just allowed to socialize normally. We were also regularly indoctrinated every Friday night with Missions night. Of course Prairie being a missions minded school it made sense to pass on their passion for missions, but it backfired for me. I hated hearing about missions, and here is why. I was made to feel like I was somewhat less of a Christian if I did not want to be a missionary. Missionaries were almost glorified and put on pedestals. Now if you think I hate missionaries and missions you are mistaken. Some of my dearest friends are missionaries and I pray for them and the work they are doing. I was just sick of having to hear about it every day as if it was the only thing that mattered. It took me many years to actually begin to love missions after leaving that school.

With that being said I will get back to the original subject that I really want to share about. I don’t know how many of you have experienced the damage of abuse be it sexual, physical, verbal, emotional, or spiritual, but I am here to tell you that it has nothing whatsoever to do with a loving Jesus who died for our sins. I am saying that because there has been abuse allegations coming out of my former school that would make you sick to your stomach. So far there have been a few abuse survivors that have come forward to the police, but there are many more who have yet to speak up. People has questioned why not everybody has spoken up before, especially those that were abused decades ago. After listening to and researching  the many sides of this issue I think I am beginning to understand why they have kept silent. For some abuse survivors it has taken them decades to be able to confront their horrific past, and are only beginning to go through the healing process. For some they have tried to speak up but have been told they are lying and were hushed up and the abuse was swept under the carpet. For others they are just plain terrified of speaking up. From what I have heard from survivors of abuse, the abuser  had control over them, and sometimes even threatened them, and even went as far as to use scripture while they were abusing them. No wonder many of them didn’t want to have anything to do with God, or Christian organizations of any kind. They were traumatized by those who were supposed to represent Christ.

If you think this is just an isolated story of abuse from one Christian school think again. There are stories coming out from around the globe of the horrors that occurred to little children that  were supposed to be protected and loved by those in authority. If you are brave enough to hear just a few of those stories I will insert a video at the end of this post for you to watch. Be warned, it might make you cry, get angry, scream, or just plain sick. I hope if nothing else it educates you about why it was so hard for these people to come out and share what really happened to them.

I am praying that the school has the courage to face the ugly truth that has been kept quiet for far too long. Do I blame the school for the abuse? No, not the school in principle, but all those who were in positions of authority who heard the abuse allegations and instead of investigating and dealing with the perpetrators immediately instead choose to protect the reputation of their beloved school. Every time another person came forward and was silenced it made it that much harder to come forward for other victims. Intimidation goes a long way with somebody who is already broken. Sin that is covered up only festers over time, and this wound is starting to stink to the high Heavens.

I am not here to say what is best in this situation, as I simply don’t know. I know what I am hearing from abuse survivors, and they are saying that because of the abuse they suffered, and how some of them were silenced they have overwhelming trust issues with anything the school does to try and reach out to them. I hope I am getting this right in expressing that the school is just another figurehead of abuse to them at this point. Am I saying that the school never had any positive impact in sending out many missionaries and giving the students a good education? Not a bit..I know many Prairie students that had a very positive Godly education at that school….but that is not what the survivors need to hear at this time. They need to know that their pain is being acknowledged, that they are being heard..  Can you hear them now?

As you watch this video I pray that your heart will be broken for any abuse victim, and that you educate yourself about what this issue is really about. It is time Christians everywhere take a stand against abuse, and wrap our arms around those who are broken and battered, and help them find healing in Jesus