Longtime readers will recall that, years ago, I linked regularly to a blogger named Jeri Massi, an early, bona fide hero of the now-widespread movement to hold clergy accountable for their abuses of (usually) women and children.
It wasn’t always a widespread movement; when Jeri started it was she and a handful of others facing cataracts of ridicule and abuse and — Who knew? — threats of violence from the Godly. So Jeri started packing.
By this time I was starting to see what a morass of evil Fundamentalism is. Plenty of shocks remained ahead for me, and at least one attempted assault on me that was no joke. But at that point, I wanted to make sure these IFB preachers knew I had a gun, but I didn’t want to come across like I was bragging.
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Still, I thought then, and still think now, that a gun was essential to my safety and to the safety of others. But I support background checks, cooling off periods, raising the minimum age to buy guns, and red flag laws.
Jeri’s years of fighting for accountability eventually compromised her health and she stopped investigating and blogging. But whenever you read another story about clergy abuse, and earnest conferences trying to address the problem, Jeri Massi is an important part of the reason. And don’t forget, either, that she was once assaulted for fighting to hold clergy accountable for wrongdoing.
And get over, forever, the idea that Holy Men are special, extra virtuous, extra wise, et cetera, et cetera. That’s a marketing lie, and that’s all it is.