Check out Greg Epstein on Twitter.

A couple of days ago, the crowd of anti-feminist atheists on Twitter zoomed in on him because…Anita Sarkeesian is Harvard Humanist of the Year. She will accept the award at an event next Sunday.

Well you know that can’t be allowed. So the shouting began.

Chas Stewart ‏@BirdTerrifier Feb 3
.@gregmepstein baby, darling… Why are you watering down humanism? Surely there were more deserving HotY recipients. How’s she a humanist?

Greg Epstein ‏@gregmepstein
.@BirdTerrifier Your tone is inappropriate & gives me just a tiny hint of the massive disrespect Anita addresses bravely, strongly. Blocked.

Chas Stewart ‏@BirdTerrifier Feb 3
@gregmepstein dude, inappropriate. Can’t nudge someone with a “baby, darling”? Why haven’t you all justified the pick? Whence humanism?

Notung ‏@SIN_Notung Feb 3
@BirdTerrifier if people disagree with the award, that just proves how RIGHT the award is!

Chas Stewart ‏@BirdTerrifier Feb 3
@SIN_Notung I might’ve run afoul of the civility pledge but baby darling said to a man is different than to a woman.

Astrokid NJ ‏@AstrokidNJ Feb 4
@gregmepstein Dear @BirdTerrifier she’s a humanist just like past great feminists. Didn’t you get the memo from AHA?

http://americanhumanist.org/feminist

That’s just one thread. There were a bunch. Greg Epstein now has some idea what the harassment is like.

Another:

Greg Epstein ‏@gregmepstein
.@BlueBallSkeptic what we’re thinking awarding Anita? Feminism=central to humanism; she=brave/important; & you=blocked if only f/your handle

Jacques Cuze ‏@JacquesCuze Feb 3
@_sinisterBen the real problem is that @twitter is a shit UI with too few controls. @Aneris23 @Shermertron

sinister ‏@_sinisterBen Feb 3
@JacquesCuze @twitter @Aneris23 @Shermertron and a lot of children shouting obscenities then crying for their moms when responded to.

Shermertron ‏@Shermertron Feb 3
@_sinisterBen @JacquesCuze @gregmepstein @Aneris23 @BirdTerrifier Hey, it’s not as though he is a prominent Humanist (TM) with power…

Etc etc etc

It’s revealing, isn’t it.

Greg Epstein @gregmepstein · Feb 3
Heard there’re a lot of sexist atheists online but am privileged not to have to think of y’all much. Guess we’ll see how misguided you are.

This is now a pinned tweet:

Greg Epstein @gregmepstein · Feb 3
Am blocking atheist men behaving badly/like sexists. Don’t mean you’re evil-just what your behavior deserves. I wish you strength to change

With a long long string of retorts – a sample –

DC in Detroit ‏@DC_in_Detroit 18 hours ago
@gregmepstein @D4M10N I wonder how many of those bad-behaving atheist men were actually women.

Black Trident TV ‏@BlackTridentTV 14 hours ago
@uberfeminist @gregmepstein @UniversityWatc1 Sarkeesian is feminist. Doesn’t feminism literally stand in direct opposition to humanism?

A Man in Green #982 ‏@BackToTheBlade 14 hours ago
@UniversityWatc1 @gregmepstein Anita is a humanist for calling hundreds of thousands of people Sexist Misogynists? Harvard Trash. #GamerGate

Andrew BLeh ‏@AndrewBLeh 14 hours ago
@BackToTheBlade @UniversityWatc1 @gregmepstein anita has done more to scare women away from gaming than anyone

University Watch ‏@UniversityWatc1 13 hours ago
@BackToTheBlade @gregmepstein Yep, @femfreq is about CENSORSHIP & DEMONISATION. She doesn’t even play games.

Miranda Celeste Hale ‏@mirandachale 13 hours ago
.@gregmepstein This is ridiculously condescending. The men in question aren’t misogynists. They just disagree with you. See the difference?

Mindgamer ‏@denouc 13 hours ago
@mirandachale Fundamentalists call those who disagree with them “sinners”. Feminists call them “misogynist”. Cult mentality. @gregmepstein

Jake Follain ‏@JFollain 12 hours ago
@mirandachale @gregmepstein He’s apparently convinced that sexism against men doesn’t exist, because of Anita’s made up definition of sexism

dBetty ‏@ddbetty 9 minutes ago
@gregmepstein @gregladen After 9 years old, it takes gut level emotional experience to change. Power wedgie may help them focus.

All of which goes to show, there is no sexism and no misogyny and we made the whole thing up!

Or something.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

The BBC reports on the Verge’s publication of Costolo’s admission that Twitter sucks at preventing harassment. That’s good, because it puts Costolo and Twitter that much more on the spot. Yes, Twitter, you suck at preventing harassment. Yes, Mr Costolo, Twitter sucks at preventing harassment.

Twitter’s chief executive Dick Costolo has admitted that the company “sucks” when it comes to dealing with abuse and trolling on the service.

In a memo to staff, leaked to tech news website the Verge, he said that bullying behaviour on the network was driving users away.

He promised tougher action to deal with abusers.

A series of high-profile users have quit Twitter in recent months, citing online abuse.

And you know what else? Low-profile users have also quit Twitter because of abuse. So have medium-profile users and people at all points in between. It almost seems as if the only people who don’t quit Twitter are the ones who are there to abuse people.

Unfortunately the BBC article then goes on to answer the question “What can be done to stop trolling?” and two of its four answers reveal that it doesn’t know what it’s talking about.

• Users could ignore the post – the troll’s goal is to get a reaction and some say by responding you are “feeding the troll”
• Some have suggested a new system that allows those who are being trolled to choose not to be shown accounts that are less than 30 days old, as a lot of trolling is done from a new account

Getting a reaction is not the troll’s only goal – and there’s more to all this than mere trolling. Many of the abusers on Twitter are intent on damaging and silencing the people they target – destroying their reputations, getting people to believe lies about them, degrading and shaming them. It’s systematic and sustained, and merely concealing it from the target does nothing whatsoever about that.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Jamila has an autobiographical or miniature memoir-type post which is a must-read.

My mother was a Baptist who converted to Catholicism about the time it came to enroll me in school and to get a parish discount.  I do believe her devotion, but the timing leads me to think that her god’s got wonderful timing.  Except for a 6-8th grade reprieve, ALL of my education up until my final semester in college was at the hands of Catholic schoolteachers. And true to form, they taught me how to question and dissect everything.

I actually did consider myself to be an adherent Catholic… though it never did make sense to me.  I put forth a good face.

The face started to crack in high school when my questioning Catholic doctrine and dogma and my growing understanding of my rights as a citizen were in eternal conflict.

She stuck a pro-choice slogan on her backpack, to the helpless rage of the vice-principal.

I spent more time in detention than in nearly every other activity except for forensics.  I loved parliamentary debate just as much as I loved being in front of a room.

What an ideal combination, am I right?

Read on!

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Twitter CEO to employees: “We suck at dealing with abuse.”

Why yes, yes you do. What was your first clue?

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo is taking personal responsibility for his platform’s chronic problems with harassment and abuse, telling employees that he is embarrassed for the company’s failures and would soon be taking stronger action to eliminate trolls. He said problems with trolls are driving away the company’s users. “We suck at dealing with abuse and trolls on the platform and we’ve sucked at it for years,” Costolo wrote in an internal memo obtained by The Verge. “It’s no secret and the rest of the world talks about it every day. We lose core user after core user by not addressing simple trolling issues that they face every day.”

And you know what else? You don’t lose core trolls. Core users leave, and trolls stay. There’s a downside to that.

Costolo’s comments came in response to a question on an internal forum about a recent story by Lindy West, a frequent target of harassment on Twitter. Among other things, West’s tormentors created a Twitter account for her then recently-deceased father and made cruel comments about her on the service; West recently shared her story on This American Life and the Guardian.

Ahhhhhh, that was your first clue. I was wondering. Thanks for the clarification.

You could have paid attention a lot sooner, and avoided this embarrassment, but…

An employee on the internal forum pointed out that Twitter is “within its rights to let its platform be used as a vehicle for sexist and racist harassment” but could choose not to. It could choose to be better.

On Mon, Feb 2, 2015 at 8:35 PM, Dick Costolo wrote:

We suck at dealing with abuse and trolls on the platform and we’ve sucked at it for years. It’s no secret and the rest of the world talks about it every day. We lose core user after core user by not addressing simple trolling issues that they face every day.

I’m frankly ashamed of how poorly we’ve dealt with this issue during my tenure as CEO. It’s absurd. There’s no excuse for it. I take full responsibility for not being more aggressive on this front. It’s nobody else’s fault but mine, and it’s embarrassing.

We’re going to start kicking these people off right and left and making sure that when they issue their ridiculous attacks, nobody hears them.

Everybody on the leadership team knows this is vital.

@dickc

Ok, well, now we get to hold him to it.

Twitter had made a couple of worthless passes at attempting to pretend to prepare to almost do something about it, but…

But every day, Twitter users still face threats of physical violence, sexual abuse, and stalking — all forms of harassment that disproportionately affect women online, according to data from The Pew Center.

Just last week, feminist critic Anita Sarkeesiandocumented the harassment she received on Twitter from January 20th to the 26th. You’ll have to scroll for awhile before you hit the end of tweets containing gendered insults, victim blaming, incitement to suicide, sexual violence, rape and death threats.

And lies. Don’t forget lies. There are always lies – masses of them.

We’ll see.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

At Mother Jones, a doctor writes an open letter to the parent of the unvaccinated child who exposed the doctor’s family to measles.

I assume you love your child just like I love mine. I assume that you are trying to make good choices regarding their care. Please realize that your child does not live in a bubble. When your child gets sick, other children are exposed. My children. Why would you knowingly expose anyone to your sick, unvaccinated child after recently visiting Disneyland? That was a boneheaded move.

Many anti-vaxxers think measles is no big deal – just an ordinary “childhood disease” that causes a little rash and then gets better.

My son, Eli, is 10 months old. He is too young to received the MMR vaccine and thus has no protection. Whether by refusal or because they are too young, exposed unvaccinated children have a 90 percent chance of getting measles.

Fourth, there are children like my Maggie. These are children who can’t be vaccinated. Children who have cancer. Children who are immunocompromised. Children who are truly allergic to a vaccine or part of a vaccine (i.e., anaphylaxis to egg). These children remain at risk. They cannot be protected, except by vaccinating people around them.

Maggie was diagnosed last August with ALL—acute lymphoblastic leukemia (blood cancer). She has had multiple rounds of chemotherapy, lumbar punctures, and surgery to implant her port. She has been admitted six times since diagnosis and spent over three weeks at Phoenix Children’s Hospital (including Halloween and New Years). She had been immunized fully, but we are unable to immunize her further until after treatments end.  Her treatment will prayerfully end shortly after her 5th birthday, in January 2017.

Here is how the measles outbreak has further complicated our situation.

It was a Wednesday. Maggie had just been discharged from Phoenix Children’s Hospital after finishing her latest round of chemotherapy. That afternoon she went to the PCH East Valley Specialty Clinic for a lab draw. Everything went fine, and we were feeling good…until Sunday evening when we got the call. On Wednesday afternoon, Anna, Maggie, and Eli had been exposed to measles by another patient. Our two kids lacked the immunity to defend against measles. The only protection available was multiple shots of rubeola immune globulin (measles antibodies). There were three shots for Maggie and two shots for Eli. They screamed, but they now have some temporary protection against measles. We pray it is enough.

Go to Mother Jones to see the photo of Eli getting his shots. Bring a kleenex.

Eli and Maggie were exposed to measles on January 21. Despite the treatment noted, they could start showing signs of measles any time from now through February 11 (21 days post exposure). After a new blood test, both my wife and I were found to be immune to measles, but the children will remain in isolation until February 11.

Unvaccinating parent, thanks for screwing up our three-week “vacation” from chemotherapy. Instead of a break, we get to watch for measles symptoms and pray for no fevers (or back to the hospital we go). Thanks for making us cancel our trip to the snow this year. Maggie really wanted to see snow, but we will not risk exposing anyone else. On that note, thanks for exposing 195 children to an illness considered ‘eliminated’ from the US. Your poor choices don’t just effect your child. They affect my family and many more like us.

Please forgive my sarcasm. I am upset and just a little bit scared.

Don’t be that parent.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Guest post by Bruce Everett

It’s been a couple of weeks since the posting of a clarification of my reasons for leaving the Humanist Society of South Australia (HSSA). This, in response to public speculation by HSSA member Mark Senior, was a labour that could have been more easily avoided if only the HSSA had kept its members properly informed of policies passed by committee.

Apparently it needs pointing out that I’m not obliged to use private channels with the HSSA when making corrective statements, when HSSA members publicly speculate on my reasons for leaving. As you’d expect, people will complain of improper treatment all the same…

“My current opinion of Bruce has diminished greatly. He acts more like a rightwing witch-hunter than a progressive thinker and spends an inordinate amount of his time looking for fault in others in the progressive movements.

When we were at the Global Atheist Conference and we met PZ Meyers [sic] he came away saying leadingly “DID YOU SEE HIS EYES?”…”WHAT?”, I responded. He said, “HE WAS LOOKING AT ALL THE TEENAGE GIRLS!”. I didn’t see that at all. Maybe I wasn’t hunting for it like Bruce was. He came away suggesting PZ was an old pervert, I came away thinking it was nice to have met him. Name any public figure in the atheist or Progressive side of politics and he will have a similar attack vector.

This tendency removes him from almost any social environment as people start to fear the inevitable moment when he will turn on them (something I have heard from quite a few members).

If you look at this post you’ll see that it is without basis. “weird body language”, “secrets” that were announced at public meetings and discussed and ACCEPTED after he ceased attending. Accusations of racism to allusions to cultural practices & ideas (a formal logical fallacy), “rape apologetics” for a case where both woman involved have overtly said no rape occurred (we also don’t pre-convict people), liking one self-effacing page out of 1000’s that I have hit like on (keep hunting Bruce, I’m sure you’ll find something else to assist in the assassination) and “whiffs” of problems.

This tall poppy syndrome, combined with his willingness to not voice any of this TO OUR FACES (while taking lifts to meetings, etc) and giving every appearance of being a friend is not a good look.

I will go through his public backstab in detail on the site… which will no doubt be longer than his actual post… a waste of my time in dealing with one big load of innuendo.”
(Justin Millikan, HSSA President, 2015)

Let me home in on one point, before I address a few of the others.

As raised in my initial post, former Australian Humanist of The Year (AHoY) Leslie Cannold presumes the innocence of Julian Assange while not dismissing the allegations against him. Last year’s AHoY, Geoffrey Robertson, while obviously presuming the innocence of Julian Assange, states that the accusations are serious and need to be “faced down”.

The HSSA President dismisses the accusations on the basis of claims that have been considered by pretty much everyone even vaguely familiar with the case. Perhaps he’d like to enlighten everyone concerned as to why the point he raises obligates that the accusations against Assange be dismissed. Perhaps the President can explain why failing to dismiss the allegations against Assange constitutes “pre-convicting”.

Perhaps the HSSA President could offer Geoffrey Robertson a free consultation.

And perhaps, until both the President and Secretary have reached alignment with Leslie Cannold’s views on this matter – a matter that could have had her leaving the Wikileaks party earlier than she did – they could reconsider their habit of histrionically dropping her name on account of an AHoY award she won in 2011, before the current HSSA even existed.

***

I started this post as I started the last – pointing out that the President and Secretary had kept members in the dark about the passing of the anti-harassment policy earlier in 2014. In his response to my initial post, The President has claimed that I was wrong, and that the policy had been announced at a public meeting that I had not attended.

The falsity of this assertion was quickly pointed out by HSSA member Scott Sharrad, who attended all of last year’s meetings. The anti-harassment policy was not announced publicly. I’ve told the truth on this matter; the President has not.

Perhaps HSSA members would like to take this opportunity to demand of committee, an explanation as to why the rules of the HSSA have also been kept from the membership. It’s not for no reason that members of other Humanist bodies are often given copies of the organisation’s constitution. I know I got mine when I defected to an interstate Humanist organisation.

***

Apparently my penchant for a certain “attack vector” removes me from almost any social environment because of the fear “quite a few” people have of my turning on them – so members tell Justin. Apparently, I also give “every appearance of being a friend” – so says Justin.

This kind of overt self-contradiction is what you’ll find when people make things up as they go along.

The first of these two contradictory claims is absurd just on its own merits given that I was not “removed” from the HSSA. I resigned of my own cognisance.

I don’t apologise for being friendly in the first instance, and I certainly don’t apologise for ending friendships after encountering certain kinds of interaction. Sometimes the contempt familiarity brings is well earned.

As for my not voicing any of the complaints I made to people’s faces; this is flatly untrue.  No, I didn’t raise each and every point to the President or Secretary’s face, nor did I put any of it to the floor at meetings.

However, when in person, I raised the issue of a racist joke about a Thai restaurant with the President, the response I got was a dismissive “HA HA! THAT’S NOT RACIST!” When I raised this issue again in my formal resignation from committee, I got evasion and excuses.

There’s only a limited extent to which I’m willing to be direct or formal with certain people, when such approaches fail to ablate even the tiniest fraction of the tin-foil lining bonded to their skulls.

If the President genuinely believes that I have never been direct with him about any of this, in person, then either he’s entirely gormless, incredibly forgetful, or both. Of course, there’s also the possibility that he doesn’t genuinely believe this.

***

My objection to the President’s classism has been taken by certain members as nit-picking, and signifying nothing. Yet the President’s own response demonstrates this dismissive attitude isn’t a feasible position. First of all, he volunteers the opinion that the page is just “self-effacing”.

(Northern Suburbs Survival Tips just being “Self-Effacing”, 2014.)

This particular meme, featured on the Northern Suburbs Survival Tips page, refers to the $7 Medicare Co-payment that the Abbott Government had planned in 2014. This policy would have hit pensioners and the unemployed, and particularly those with chronic illnesses, quite hard. According to the HSSA President though, this is just a self-effacing joke. (You can follow the link to see more examples of just how “self-effacing” the page really is).

Inviting poor folk to ‘like’ this page is one thing, but volunteering the opinion that the page is innocuous is an entirely different prospect.

Far more tellingly though, is the President’s complaint of being the victim of “tall poppy syndrome”. Aside from the vain absurdity of the President positioning himself as a “tall poppy”, this rhetorical trope is used regularly – as it is here – to vilify, and to dismiss the objections and concerns of poor people out of hand. It’s a concept that’s intrinsically classist.

Rather than rebutting my original objection, the President has gormlessly affirmed its truth.

***

“Assassination”, “witch-hunter”, “PZ Meyers [sic]” – veterans in dealing with the kind of rubbish the HSSA President is peddling will recognise the red flags immediately.

Let me lay a few facts on you about my time at the 2012 Global Atheist Convention (GAC).

I didn’t meet PZ Myers with the HSSA President. I didn’t meet PZ Myers at the GAC at all. I’ve never met him. I didn’t meet anyone at the GAC with the HSSA President or Secretary.

Between my covering the GAC for Butterflies and Wheels, my desire to meet people I met on Facebook, and my utter not-giving-a-shit-about-celebrity, the only direct celebrity interactions I had involved someone I’d rather forget, a mutual nod with Dan Dennett, and Richard Dawkins possibly staring in the direction of my table. I don’t count being in the same hall as PZ as meeting him, and at any rate, I’ve never seen him around teenagers, nor do I recall teenagers being at the GAC in the first place.

The HSSA President’s account of my time at the GAC is about as credible as any of his other tall tales.

***

The President says he’s going to respond at length; good; good for me; good for HSSA members who genuinely want to know what they’re dealing with; good for CAHS; not so good for the President, nor the Secretary, nor for the cultish types who’ve lined up to brown nose in the wake of all of this.

Continuing my dispute with this ultracrepidarian bumbler would be unproductive. I’ve had more than enough of this issue, and of the HSSA, and I trust in the President’s capacity to continue inadvertently verifying my account, while undermining his own.

~ Bruce

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Here’s the Saturday night entertainment for QED 2015 –

Posted by QED at 12:00pm on February 2nd 2015

Each year we are delighted to bring an eclectic and varied evening of entertainment for every single one of our QED attendees, and QED 2015 is no exception – with an evening line-up featuring the talents of Kate Smurthwaite, Jay Foreman and Mitch Benn.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

The #Smurthgate saga continues.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfKMXGbOiFQ

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Really?

Facebook

The Best Wife:
1. Listens to her husband and does her best to please him.

2. Always considers her husband’s well being.
3. Does not give the husband stress but gives him peace of mind.
4. Does not spend more than her husband earns.
5. Helps her husband at the time of problems.
6. Has patience when the husband doesn’t treat her justly.
7. Behaves and dresses modestly.
8. Learns and practises islam and teaches her husband too.
9. Does her best to raise their children in an islamic way.
Share Please — Nikahexplorer

1-5 would be ok advice for spouses – for spouses, I say. It would be ok for a couple planning to live together with affection and mutual whatnot – respect, concern, caring – just the basic requirement for sharing lives. Be good to each other; treat each other well; don’t be mean or selfish. Fine. But as advice for just one spouse? Yeah it sucks. And 6-9 are terrible.

Also – why the hell is the woman wearing a hijab at home?

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

A Republican senator from North Carolina is hacked off about all these god damn pesky government regulations, like say for instance making restaurants tell their workers to wash their hands after using the toilet. Let the market deal with that!

“Let them decide” such issues, the newly elected lawmaker said.

His argument was that restaurants which did not require workers to wash their hands would quickly go out of business.

Definitely! Because all the customers would know the workers were not washing their hands, so they would just stop going to those restaurants. How would they know? Um…the magic of the market?

No no wait, the restaurants would tell them. Yeah that’s it!

He suggested that restaurants that did not require hand washing would have to alert customers with prominently displayed signs…

Brilliant! Don’t mandate signs telling the workers to wash their hands – mandate signs telling the customers the workers aren’t required to wash their hands. That’s doing away with pesky government sign-posting and no mistake.

The comments come as some Republican presidential hopefuls have questioned vaccine regulations amid a measles outbreak.

At least two hopefuls have said parents are justified in sometimes having their children avoid vaccinations generally required for attending school.

Freedom freedom FREEDOM.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Ha! No, no, there isn’t, because you see – oh never mind.

Jammy Dodger @mrjammyjamjar

Is there a right way to say @SaraKhanInspire deserves a slap without sounding like a misogynist

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Rupert Myers is very polite and repentant about writing such a nasty and untruthful article in the Telegraph about how Kate Smurthwaite is milking the last minute cancellation of her gig for publicity and besides nobody wanted to see her show anyway.

Hahahaha I’m kidding, no he’s not, he’s rude and dismissive.

Rupert Myers ‏@RupertMyers 6 hours ago
@Cruella1 I wish you the best of luck: my point is that this wasn’t a free speech / no platform situation.

Kate Smurthwaite ‏@Cruella1 6 hours ago
@RupertMyers and you felt the need to accept their point that sales were low without checking the actual facts. You don’t see how that…
…might damage my reputation? Just as well I don’t make my actual living doing this… Oh yes I do.

Rupert Myers ‏@RupertMyers 6 hours ago
@Cruella1 their comments seem to tally with yours

Kate Smurthwaite ‏@Cruella1 6 hours ago
@RupertMyers I don’t actually think you are stupid enough to believe your own doublespeak here.

Ophelia Benson ‏@OpheliaBenson 5 hours ago
@Cruella1 @RupertMyers That article is such an insulting piece of crap.

Rupert Myers ‏@RupertMyers 1 hour ago
@OpheliaBenson @Cruella1 

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

Guest post by Misty Griffin

One of the only photos taken of the Author during her teenage years. Here she is seventeen years old.

“People would smile reverently as we walked by, never did they suspect the horrific sexual, physical and mental torture that my sister and I suffered on a daily basis. To the outside world we were the epitome of chasteness, sobriety and down to earth values. In reality my life was a living nightmare  straight from the depths of hell.”
                                                  – Misty Griffin

If you are a rape victim among the Amish it is in every case a very harsh and scary reality. You have no allies, no one to talk to about what happened and no one who will hold your hand as you cry. You the victim are hushed from the very moment word gets out and are told by church leaders that you must have done something to welcome such an attack. In addition you are told that if you speak of the matter you are unforgiving and will go to hell if you do not repent. If the victim is a church member she will be shunned if she refuses to forgive and live as if nothing had happened. Even the victim’s family will not allow  her to talk for fear of being caught and punished by the church.

Children are not taken out of the home. If the rapist is the father they must continue to live in his household until they marry.

This is the most horrifying reality of all. Being Ex- Amish myself I can recall more than one family who got sideways glances from other church members during social gatherings; however the truth still remains that abused children are not taken out of the home and will usually continue to be raped their entire childhoods.

In most cases the perpetrator is a male relative, and even if the victim marries and gets out of the home she must still continue to be around her rapist at church, family gatherings, social gatherings etc. For many Amish rape victims it is more than they can bear, and they either commit suicide or develop a mental illness. The pain of never being able to talk about what happened to you or may still be happening is such a heavy burden.

One of my good friends who was a rape victim ended up dying after she starved herself for a year. It was so sad and unnecessary; she had been harshly reprimanded by the church after being raped at the tender age of fourteen. She was told not to talk about what happened to her and after a few years she quit talking completely. Laura died a year later after she went into a massive seizure. She had been looked upon as odd after her rape and the funeral was very minimal.

Unfortunately there are many children like my friend Laura and  they suffer in silence while they are continually raped with full knowledge of the church. In my own Amish community the bishop’s wife was my best friend, and after a few years she risked a shunning by confiding in me that she and all of her siblings had been raped by her father. He had been reported many times to the church leaders by her mother. He was in turn placed in a six week shunning each time. However since he was a deacon in the church, after his six week sentence was up he was back to preaching and attending church matters. He was a serial rapist who had ruined the lives of all 11 of his children, yet each time he confessed in the church he was given nods of approval and was taken back as a good man who had confessed his sins before God and man.

After I became aware of her plight it made me physically sick when I saw her father get up to preach while his children sat on the church benches with children of their own. I would feel physically sick and had to look away while the tears rolled down my cheeks. It was so unfair and worst of all each time he stood up to preach it was a slap in the face of his victims. I could not understand how people could be so cruel and more than once I sat with my fist clenched under my stiff white apron.

Amish rape victims are forced to suffer in silence as they continue to be raped.

The Amish believe that once a person confesses they should be automatically forgiven even if that man is confessing to his tenth rape. Everyone must forgive and forget, even the rape victim. If the victim shows any hostility towards the offender or openly refuses to stop talking about the matter, they themselves will be shunned. In this case the shunning would last much longer since the victim will have a hard time going before the church and admitting she was wrong to harbor such ill feelings.

Even if you are a sexual abuse victim you do not dare leave the Amish for fear of going to hell. Besides the fear of going to hell, there is the fear of being shunned. I myself am currently a shunned Ex- Amish and fully am aware of its  sting. Any young person who is shunned by the Amish goes out into the world completely on their own. They have very little if any money, no family, few friends and no ID, drivers license or social security card. For me I often explained it as being teleported from the 1600s into the 21st century. It is a daunting and scary experience and it would have been much easier to remain Amish and I most likely would have, had my conscience allowed it. Below is an excerpt from my memoir that gives some perspective into just how a young Amish woman may feel.

It had long been my experience that even if the predator was placed in the six week Bann, they would still continue to rape and often go on to be a serial rapist, some of whom have been known to rape all of their children with full knowledge of the church. In each case, never has anyone hugged the child or asked them if they were okay. The only thing the church members were concerned with was silencing them.

 And so that morning as I struggled, I was not only fighting for myself but also for my potential offspring. I so despised this ancient tradition of silencing victims and could not understand how everyone else could simply stand by and look the other way. I could not, and at times I had felt physically sick from the things I had heard and witnessed.

But I was Amish, and that in and of itself was my world, my life and my government. To leave the Amish would most certainly mean I would go to hell, as well as be banished from everyone that I held dear. To leave the Amish was truly the ultimate sin…  ( Excerpt from my memoir  Tears of the silenced)

Rape happens in every culture

As callous as this may sound I have actually been in a debate with more than one Amish fan and have heard them make this very comment. It is true that rape does happen in every culture, the only problem is that in the Amish there is absolutely no justice for the victim and the most heartbreaking reality is that the victim will most likely go on to be raped for many years because the Amish church is unable and unwilling to stop the rapist.

Although I am sure this article will get many comments saying that the Amish are kind and gentle people who abide by the law, have strong family ties and good morals etc. My question to you would in turn be. If you know the Amish are a closed and secretive society why would you dear reader pretend to know anything about them. I can answer this for you by informing you that if you have never been Amish you will never truly know what it is like.

First of all everyone can start by keeping their ears and eyes open. My mission is not to only talk about the Amish but also to touch on the subject of child abuse. I myself was not born Amish but I was raised like them on a lonely mountain top. Here I was beaten, tortured and sexually assaulted on a daily basis.. I was taken to the Amish community at the age of eighteen and due to my horrific childhood was readily accepted by them because I had been raised with stricter rules than they themselves practiced.

During the first twenty two years of my life ( Before my escape from the Amish) I saw many times when an outsider noticed something was amiss but no one ever bothered to do something about it. Many times I know it was because of our religious appearance but I firmly believe that just because someone is religious they should never get away with abuse. Many times in this world a horrific abuse could have been prevented if someone had not looked the other way or told themselves it was not their problem.

In cases of child abuse I believe that it is everyone’s problem. Our children are the future leaders of the world and how they are treated today will affect how they rule the world tomorrow.

In the case of girls that are raped in these strict religious communities, my hope is that if you ever come across such a girl you will encourage her to prosecute the offender. No matter the cost. This is the only way these men will ever see that there are consequences for their actions. My plea to everyone around the world is that you never go through life and miss the opportunity to save someone. My childhood and young adulthood was a living nightmare, I was unable to help myself because I did not know how, and I was also to scared to try. I was in serious need of a hero, for someone you could be that hero.

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

The BBC reports on a “no Jews need apply” ad in France:

An advert for a graphic design job in France has been withdrawn after it said the candidate should “if possible not be a Jew”.

Racial discrimination is illegal in France and anti-racism group SOS Racisme says it is taking legal action.

The ad was posted on Monday by Paris-based NSL Studio on jobs site Graphic-Jobs.com.

NSL Studio has apologised for the ad but offered various explanations as to why it contained the offending clause.

First they said long hours, might conflict. Then they said hacked. So those are two totally conflicting reasons. The first is “we had a good, non-anti-Semitic, pragmatic reason.” The second is “we never.” The first betrays the fact that the second is not likely to be true. Pro-tip: choose one of that type but never both. If you use both it looks exactly as if you’re lying. Say you did it for a good reason OR say you never did; do not say you did it for a good reason AND you never did. That doesn’t work.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)

A novel that Harper Lee wrote in the mid-50s, before To Kill a Mockingbird, is going to be published next summer. The Guardian reports that there is much excitement.

UK and Commonwealth rights to the book were acquired by Penguin Random House. The publisher’s announcement on Tuesday was accompanied by a new photo of Lee, climbing out of a car and smiling. The news has been kept secret from all but a handful of staff at the publisher, and publicity director Charlotte Bush said that when it was revealed this afternoon, a series of screams went up around the office.

Well you know how people in publishing are. They’re screamers.

At Foyles booksellers in London, Jonathan Ruppin described the news as being “as big as it gets for new fiction”. “We can close the book on the bestselling novel of 2015 right now. At Foyles today, we’re absolutely fizzing with excitement and frenzied speculation: it’s the only topic of conversation,” said the bookseller, adding that even though To Kill a Mockingbird has long been acknowledged as a classic, it “is a book that still surprises new readers with its power. Its story is arresting and profound, its characters vivid and entirely convincing, so the prospect of a follow-up, after all these years, is giddyingly thrilling”.

I’m still calm about it. I can tell you one thing though – it won’t be anything like as bad as the last piece of fiction (or writing of any kind) that J D Salinger published. That was the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever read. Literally that: embarrassing. It was basically his absurd fantasy life, spread out in huge detail, but by some strange accident published in the New Yorker. Don’t ever publish your fantasy life in the New Yorker.

Harper Lee’s new-old novel won’t be that bad.

(This is a syndicated post. Read the original at FreeThoughtBlogs.)