I wanted to jump in and say something about organized religion and pedophilia. I understand that your commenter used very salty language to you, and that was hurtful. However, I have to note that it gets tiring for victims to be repeatedly met with "you're broken, so you get no say on this topic." The response I would have given is "Pedophilia is wrong, and organizations who protect people who abuse children are wrong, and I won't give them money, and I hope someday we can undo the damage they have done. Now stop being rude please." After all, if someone burns down my home, and I point out, hey, those people burned down my home, they are bad people - I hope nobody would respond by telling me I'm too broken to speak out without going to counseling. But child abuse is somehow an exception to this rule, where victims have to get their own lives in perfect order before they are allowed to point out abuse. It's very strange. Anyway, I'm sure you didn't intend to tell child victims that their concerns are not important unless they've gone to counseling and I'm just being oversensitive on this issue. But when people have been through horrific experiences at the hands of violent criminals, let's make sure we blame the violent criminals and not expect perfection from victims. Thanks for coming to my probably unnecessary TED talk.
I didn't tell child victims that their concerns are not important.- I'm actually offended you implied I did. I told the most rabid response that he probably needed counseling, because he probably did, and if you saw the whole message, it was unhinged. Im not a therapist and hate-mailing someone you don't know such a frankly crazy and vile rant is the act of someone who who is crying out for counseling and attention.
I'm not an advocate for any church. Re-read what I wrote in that original article and it had nothing to do with church scandals, which has more to do with specific people and evil deeds in one particular religion than it does with religion generally. Nothing requires child victims to randomly attack a writer for saying a sense of religion can be healthy. To handle it otherwise is to require of the writer that they note every bad thing every religion has ever done throughout human history. That's absurd.
I'm not going to write a treatise on every single issue to qualify every single thing to cater to everyone. I sholdn't be expected to. That's impossible and substack limits the space I can use anyway. In fact, I originally had to spread out my original post across 3 days because that's how much I wrote on it, but had to edit it down because it was all over the map.
Child abuse is a scourge on society. If you have been abused, have seen abuse or suspect abuse, please contact the Child Abuse Hotline. https://www.childhelphotline.org/
Hi Purple, I'm here to apologize. I did not see the original comment and did not understand why it was in the recap. I'm very sorry and did not want to imply anything about you with my comment. It's not an excuse, but I hope you know that I never thought you were singling out victims or gatekeeping what they have to say. You shouldn't have to host abuse on your platform at all. Anyway, I'm sorry, friend, and I hope I didn't offend you and that you know I respect your opinion a lot.
I'ts all good. No need to apologize, it was your opinion based on the facts you had. I may have been a little harsh in response myself, but after spending a few days reading some hate mail like some of these were, I was a little touchy. I'm sorry if I seemed edgy.
Youre a good, thoughtful contributor and I'm glad you are a part of this community! :) I want to definitely encourage you to keep speaking your mind and thoughts.
Nothing beats your fan mail!
Probably received more in one week on that one article than I ever had, and they were all so monolithically lockstep it was like a concerted effort.
Damn, you covered a lot of ground this week!
I wanted to jump in and say something about organized religion and pedophilia. I understand that your commenter used very salty language to you, and that was hurtful. However, I have to note that it gets tiring for victims to be repeatedly met with "you're broken, so you get no say on this topic." The response I would have given is "Pedophilia is wrong, and organizations who protect people who abuse children are wrong, and I won't give them money, and I hope someday we can undo the damage they have done. Now stop being rude please." After all, if someone burns down my home, and I point out, hey, those people burned down my home, they are bad people - I hope nobody would respond by telling me I'm too broken to speak out without going to counseling. But child abuse is somehow an exception to this rule, where victims have to get their own lives in perfect order before they are allowed to point out abuse. It's very strange. Anyway, I'm sure you didn't intend to tell child victims that their concerns are not important unless they've gone to counseling and I'm just being oversensitive on this issue. But when people have been through horrific experiences at the hands of violent criminals, let's make sure we blame the violent criminals and not expect perfection from victims. Thanks for coming to my probably unnecessary TED talk.
I didn't tell child victims that their concerns are not important.- I'm actually offended you implied I did. I told the most rabid response that he probably needed counseling, because he probably did, and if you saw the whole message, it was unhinged. Im not a therapist and hate-mailing someone you don't know such a frankly crazy and vile rant is the act of someone who who is crying out for counseling and attention.
I'm not an advocate for any church. Re-read what I wrote in that original article and it had nothing to do with church scandals, which has more to do with specific people and evil deeds in one particular religion than it does with religion generally. Nothing requires child victims to randomly attack a writer for saying a sense of religion can be healthy. To handle it otherwise is to require of the writer that they note every bad thing every religion has ever done throughout human history. That's absurd.
I'm not going to write a treatise on every single issue to qualify every single thing to cater to everyone. I sholdn't be expected to. That's impossible and substack limits the space I can use anyway. In fact, I originally had to spread out my original post across 3 days because that's how much I wrote on it, but had to edit it down because it was all over the map.
Child abuse is a scourge on society. If you have been abused, have seen abuse or suspect abuse, please contact the Child Abuse Hotline. https://www.childhelphotline.org/
Hi Purple, I'm here to apologize. I did not see the original comment and did not understand why it was in the recap. I'm very sorry and did not want to imply anything about you with my comment. It's not an excuse, but I hope you know that I never thought you were singling out victims or gatekeeping what they have to say. You shouldn't have to host abuse on your platform at all. Anyway, I'm sorry, friend, and I hope I didn't offend you and that you know I respect your opinion a lot.
I'ts all good. No need to apologize, it was your opinion based on the facts you had. I may have been a little harsh in response myself, but after spending a few days reading some hate mail like some of these were, I was a little touchy. I'm sorry if I seemed edgy.
Youre a good, thoughtful contributor and I'm glad you are a part of this community! :) I want to definitely encourage you to keep speaking your mind and thoughts.
PA
Thanks!