Tony Jones' Story and Julie's: are victims still guilty until proven innocent?

Are women the most reliable witnesses of their own lives? As we can read through all the comments and related posts, many women have experienced and are experiencing the very same thing: abuse, silencing and not being believed. Some people want to believe this is sporadic and rare. No! It is pandemic and common. Unless we learn a lesson from this story, this will continue to repeat itself over and over and over again.
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43 comments

Just…thank you. Thanks for enduring the stress so that the weakest members of the human family can hear that it is AT LEAST POSSIBLE to be heard for who we are.

How everyone responds depends on what’s led them to this exact moment in time, but your adamance that every voice gets some room is healing to those (like me) who have felt there is no room without (pre-existing) popularity.

Thanks for letting Julie tell her side for all the “nobodies” in this world. I feel like a prostitute trying to believe some partners are capable of faithful and generous love. You are providing sanctuary for those without it elsewhere – and I believe there is probably no higher calling.

LJD

Thanks so much LJD

Nakedpastor David Hayward

And if people can comment publicly on the Mars Hill or Duggar case, and call out problems with how the church community handled it, then why not discuss the concern over how Julie’s been “handled” by the EV group? It just makes no sense to me – either all three cases should be “in house” cases, or none of them. The hypocrisy of who deserves privacy is painful. This blog was a decent litmus test of the EV commitment to their position. Regardless of what anyone claimed about Tony Jones here, it was his (and his defenders) own words that made my opinion gel. I only hope some of them could understand that.

LJD

You didn’t think this through, did you? I mean look, I get that you’re a proponent of “Guilty Until Proven Innocent when the Accuser is Female”, that much is shriekingly obvious. I recognize that you’re a supporter of convicting using the lowest standard of evidence, and the belief that the accused shouldn’t be allowed to damage the “victim” further through such evil means as "Cross Examination’ or having the right to “Confront their Accuser” and the belief that “Innocent until proven guilty” is defacto anti-rape victim and just serves to traumatize the victim further.

I mean if we’re being completely honest how many rape victims have been punished by rapists having a “right to a trial” (much less fair one?). Rapists don’t deserve rights.

I understand that you don’t view yourself as a horrible person that would strip others of their fundamental rights. In fact you likely have a justification for it on your fingertips right now. A denial. But at the end of the day you’re campaigning to deprive those charged by the state of having basic protections. You want to see the machinery of the state put to action and if a few innocent men are destroyed by that state well a few eggs, right?

I know none of this is reaching you. It never reaches self righteous people like you. But someone that comes later. Someone that reads this maybe a few years from now might snap out of it and think “My God, these people are advocating for kangaroo courts and witch hunts and they don’t even realize it?”.

Patrick C.

Actually Patrick C. I have no illusions that this should be in the courts. Again, you keep wanting to pull this back into an issue of a messy divorce and a disgruntled ex. What gets me is how our Christian leaders today can get away with stuff and find protection and support from their peers plus keep a lot of their fan base while their victims suffer in their wake. I will never regret that observation.

Nakedpastor David Hayward

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