This is a disgusting story. Former youth pastor Brian Mitchell will spend 10 years in prison for raping a 16 year old girl. The girl told the court “I did not give him permission… I clearly said ‘no, didn’t want to.”

While it’s great that the rapist will actually spend time behind bars, the rape survivor still has to deal with the emotional scarring as she has PTSD symptoms from the assault. You would think that the church community would support the girl, but nope!

The girl’s mother said in court that church officials told her their family couldn’t return to the church until she apologized to Mitchell’s wife.

Absolutely atrocious. Instead of supporting the rape survivor, they engage in horrific victim blaming. This is just another sad example of the intersection of misogyny and religion. The family has left the church and I don’t know why anyone else would want to stay either.

Update: The church now says that the forced apology was a “misunderstanding.” However, they did not go into any details so it is hard to know what exactly happened. I will continue to believe the survivor’s family unless stronger counter-evidence emerges.

[Featured image via Pixabay under CC0]