good friday, second verse

of course because the williston federated church was meeting jointly with the richmond congregational church tonight, my protest necessarily had to visit richmond.

it wasn't a surprise to reverend macneill nto to at least part of the board of deacons, because as a courtesy to them i wrote to them to tell them i was coming.

they are a people of conscience and deserved a heads up.

but it's a nervous thing, taking the story to any new venue.

and it isn't immediately obvious to the casual observer why i would be protesting the williston church in richmond.

the first person i ran into was a young woman of the church whom i nearly did nto recognize because she's at the age where a couple of years makes a BIG difference in how you look. and i'm not so good with faces. i wasn't entirely sure who she was until she high-fived me on the sidewalk.

and then some people went by.

a man said "that's a harsh message" to which i answered "it was a harsh thing". and he thanked me for taking the time to carry the sign.

when the crowd from the williston federated church came, ken stone, who is the chair of the official board, stopped and said "it's a lie".

you're no better than the perpetrator, ken.

it's a classic dodge, to call it a lie because justice is beyond the means of the victim. but he said and interesting thing: he said "we reported it to the williston police. we did what we were supposed to do. you didn't."

ok, so let's start here: you reported it eighteen months after you had knowledge, after you had begun to throw me out of the church.

then let's go to the part where i simply don't have the money to travel to virginia, (a notoriously woman-unfriendly state) to press charges in a he-said-she said.

the law maybe can't help me, but a church might could have a little morre moral oversight or support or something.

and the one thing i can prove about this is here: the church had knowledge of the assault for eighteen months and as my behavior got weirder and weirder as a result of the increasing pressure of being asked to be complicit in the silence the church continued to do nothing.

...until the church decided the best way to keep from being made uncomfortable by what had happened t me was to send me packing.

so good job blaming me for my own assault.

good job blaming me for not being aggressive enough in the prosecution of it.

good job abdicating any call for a church - a church, for christ's sake!-  to aid or comfort or take a moral stand.

because unless there was penetration, it doesn't count.

because a church is only concerned with the outcomes of police record and has mo moral or humanitarian authority to serve, comfort, or be compassionate.