For Our Daughters

Stories of Abuse, Betrayal, and Resistance in the Evangelical Church

People drop what you are doing and watch this trailer for the documentary For Our Daughters.

Blurb: From Kristin Kobes Du Mez, the creator/author of Jesus and John Wayne, comes a powerful new documentary highlighting how a culture of submission and sexual abuse in the evangelical church ties directly to the Christian nationalist quest to use the outcome of the 2024 election to deprive all American women of basic democratic rights. FOR OUR DAUGHTERS speaks to all women of faith, encouraging them to use their voices and their votes to ensure that their daughters will have the rights to health and happiness guaranteed to all Americans.

It starts streaming on 26 September!

It is sad that a documentary such as this even needs to be made. But you need to watch it. For the same reason I do! To keep us afraid of what could happen in our own churches.

I will watch it, but I’m not looking forward to it. Because it is going to be emotionally exhausting, depressing, and make me angry.

Yet we cannot slay the evil monsters unless we first look them in the eye and see the trail of the pain and misery they have left in Christ’s body.

So, if you are a pastor, in ministry, involved in your church, or simply attend a church, you need to know how to safeguard your church from predators who prey on churches. You need to advocate for transparent leadership, ensure that nobody trades in patriarchy and power, and insist that protective measures are put in place to stop sexual abuse from happening. A documentary like this will explain to you why it is necessary!

Remember, this is not about other people’s churches or other people’s pastors, it could happen in your church too!

---

I cannot look down with moralizing superiority against leaders in the SBC because, to be brutally honest, my denomination, the Anglican Church of Australia, has had its own shocking revelation in the Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse. I recognize the same stories from Australia, leaders as inept, too trusting of the wrong people, not trusting of the victims, not listening to the warning signs, and doing too little too late.

It should not be! Sexual abuse, harassment, and predation have no place in Christ’s church. As the apostle Paul wrote:

“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God; and that in this matter no one should wrong or take advantage of a brother or sister” (1 Thess 4:3-6).

Note the words in bold, churches are to be places where a brother or sister cannot be exploited, abused, or taken advantage of, and yet, that has happened and is happening to our shame.

In an interview with Russell Moore about the abuse revelations in the SBC, victims advocate Rachael Denhollander said something truly poignant about the religious culture of the SBC and how it can enable abuse:

"What we do see, especially in more conservative circles is a viewpoint of women that views women primarily by their sexuality. They are either dangerous to a godly man because of their sexuality or they are means to a sexual fulfillment.”

I can tell you that abuse happens in Catholic and Protestant churches of all types. Sadly, where you find men, you will find abusers, abuse, and victims.

One can cry, mourn, scream, and punch the ground, but at the end of the day, church leaders need to own up to their responsibility to protect the vulnerable from abuse and recognize the need to develop a culture for effectively confronting violence and abuse that focuses on the support of victims, not protecting the accused. What is more, the best, simplest, and easiest way to do that is to include women - whether ordained or not - at all levels of decision-making in churches and institutions. You need women present wherever matters affecting women are discussed or debated. Not that hard!