23 Sept 2021 - Michael Frost READ FULL ARTICLE HERE
"...The common thread in their stories was that while the abuse itself was bad enough, their churches’ responses to their allegations were what cemented the PTSD. These responses included things like victim reversal, claiming the revelations of abuse are damaging the church, publicly naming the survivor without giving her a voice and pitting her against her abuser, minimizing the abuse, and publicly extending empathy toward the offender without similarly extending the same to the survivor.
These are such conventional responses they even have a collective name – DARVO, an acronym for “deny, attack, reverse victim and offender.” The abuser denies the abuse ever took place, attacks the victim for making “false” allegations, and then claims that they are really the victim of baseless and salacious lies. But in the case of
church abuse, it is often not only the abuser who engages in DARVO, but the church itself, turning the survivor’s own community against her.
Often women aren’t believed when they disclose sexual assault in the church. And if they are believed, they often get told to forgive. At worst, they are blamed and shamed.
And in high-profile cases, even Christian supporters of the abuser beyond their local church or organisation participate in the denial, the attacks and the victim blaming. The recent revelations about Ravi Zacharias is a case in point. Supporters of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries employed DARVO tactics, currying empathy for Zacharias and blaming his accuser as a gold-digger, even when they had no idea of the facts of the case."
Full Article Published at Mikefrost.net (above)
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