As a Christian minister, native Alabaman, and sexual assault survivor, I have a message for Roy Moore and the RNC who reversed course to back him: The days of blind devotion from constituents for Bible-quoting, power-abusing leaders are coming to an end.
The December 12th Alabama senate election, and its aftermath, is nothing less than a national reckoning between corrupt religio-political power and the truth of survivors of sexual violence.
Franken, Conyers, Spacey, Weinstein, Lauer…powerful liberal men are stepping down or losing jobs each day. But in the midst of this stunning sea-change, Roy Moore grips his place in the race for one reason: He is a master of manipulating evangelical Christians and the religious code language that shapes their worldview and motivates their support. Knowing this previously made him untouchable, Trump and Republicans are endorsing a credibly accused child predator at the same moment TIME named The Silence Breakers as Person of the Year.
I recently filled a book linking the age-old religious stronghold of powerful patriarchs to today’s culture of silence and acceptance of sexual violence. Girls are implicitly taught in many churches and communities that our salvation and success depend upon fearing and obeying “chosen men of God”. It’s an ancient social dynamic structured for abuse, which women have always known, but is just now being taken seriously across sectors. Male privilege –with its foundation firm in religious history—allows “alphas” to play God and indulge their demons while keeping women in “their place.”
But if I could have instead given one example of religion silencing victims and protecting predators, it would be Christians supporting Moore despite – and even because of – the testimony of his multiple credible victims.
Recently a self-righteous Moore paced behind a revival pulpit, positioning himself as a godly warrior in a long, grueling spiritual battle of persecution. He warned the country we must “come back to God” as if we sinned, not him. He elicits “amens” and votes from genuinely God-fearing pawns in the pews by invoking the idea they are fighting together on God’s side in righteous warfare.
At a November 26 press conference, Roy Moore’s chief political strategist dramatically called Alabamans to a biblical “Esther” moment, claiming they are ordained by God for “such a time as this” to defy “all hell” and elect Moore to push through the Trump agenda.
This narrative of white Christian male persecution makes the “saved” who think they are losing social control and supremacy feel protected: therefore, everything Moore does must be God’s plan.
I’ve lived it. Born and raised in the Southern Baptist church in Birmingham, I was brought up to believe rhetoric like Moore’s through engrained religio-political loyalty that defies logic and the true way of Jesus. It kept me traumatized, confused and silent for decades after being raped as a teen, until I saved myself.
But what does not get noticed is that Moore and his cronies don’t know anything about the Bible they beat. Case in point, Esther was an archetype of a young Jewish girl in exile in Persia in the 400s BCE who was kidnapped into a harem of children each summoned and raped by the king, before she was made the king’s wife and saved the Jews from annihilation. Not a great choice for a press conference defending Moore against charges of using his power to get away with child sexual predation.
But the evangelical dog whistle isn’t about sound theology, emulating Jesus, or even having a conscience. It’s about circling the wagons to protect their “God-given” order of gender, race and sexuality.
Moore and the RNC know that certain voters respond to rhetoric based on the sexist assumptions of biblical literalism that blame the victim, confusing followers about who should be punished when a sex crime is exposed. The subliminal doctrinal understanding is that women’s bodies and lives are inconsequential collateral damage in the political power games of men. Not surprisingly, exit polls showed 80 percent of evangelicals voted for Donald Trump after he bragged on video about assaulting women with unquestioned freedom to “do whatever he wants” to them.
The RNC must understand: There is a special place in hell for those who mangle religious morality to keep victims from speaking up, being heard and believed. They should reconsider funding Moore because the old “good Christian” silence is giving way to the newly found voices of survivors who can no longer be threatened. Moore’s accusers and women across the country are speaking truth to power and fighting for the vulnerable, as Jesus modeled.
They are forging the new model of leadership in America: the new power is the sheer courage of the powerless.
It has resulted in the bipartisan Me Too Congress Act being introduced to revamp reporting and handling of harassment and assault on the Hill, and renewed focus on state legislation to dismantle the tight window and regulations around reporting sex offenses that help people like Moore escape prosecution.
New York, where I now live, and Alabama have the worst laws in the country, leaving predators free to keep molesting and denying victims their day in court. Politics and money from conservative religious leaders have kept Republican lawmakers from considering proposed legislation giving victims the time, support and resources they need.
Ultimately, the policy overhaul is motivated by a movement that is not religious, but deeply spiritual.
Brave women and men are coming forward armed with their own faith, not in patriarchal religious partisanship or politicians who play God, but in the truth that we are worthy of being believed and empowered with our God-given right to equality, wholeness and justice. The ancient stronghold is broken.
Roy Moore can keep up the blasphemous comparisons of his last political gasp to the last breath of the crucified Christ. Those funding him can keep claiming we need God and he is the conduit. But every politician who allows sexual abuse to fester behind a religious facade should know there is a resurrection of truth underway, and we are wise enough to know you are not being nailed to a cross. You are just finally being nailed.
About the author:
Jennifer Crumpton is a writer and media commentator in New York City, and the author of Femmevangelical: The Modern Girl’s Guide to the Good News.