Church Forced Girl to Apologize for Being Raped

[coolios5o]

In Pakistan, and many other Muslim countries, there is a history of making a girl marry her rapist as well as a history of gang-raping a girl who does not accept a marriage proposal. It's all very frightening and this story kind of proves that fundies the world round are bloody scary and have some seriously fucked up ideas about women and sex.

I hadn't heard from this so I googled it and came across this forum:
What can you do if your daughter refuses to marry her rapist?? - The Landover Baptist Church Forums

"Friends, I recently received a letter from a concerned parent. In the letter she told me that her daughter had been raped, but was refusing to marry her rapist as per Deuteronomy 22:28-29. The stupid girl actually wants to press charges on the man!

Not only that, but that she also plans to kill the poor unborn baby her rapist had given her! Sickening! Have young people today got NO morals?

Any and all advice on what I can say to convince this girl to do the right thing would be great. Should I start with the basics ?

"Whore, you'll burn in Hell for all eternity - unless you marry your rapist"??

Or should I go for a more subtle approach??

Scripture:

Deuteronomy 22:28-29 (King James Version)

If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found; Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days."

Im on page 3 now, so Im not yet completely sure if its a joke but doesn't seem like it. I can't believe there are people like this :O

[twitchy2.0]

Chill. Landover Baptist is a parody site.

[coolios5o]

Chill. Landover Baptist is a parody site.

Oh okay, I figured it can't be real :O

[MontanaMama]

Helloooo New Hampshire!

A for effort Mel, but I'm not sure New Hampshire is your best bet. Make it easier on yourself, go after New Jersey.

Another big yea for paternalistic mysogynistic churchy folks, christianity just looks so damned appealling.

[Kittylady]

Chill. Landover Baptist is a parody site.

Thank goodness for that! I was looking through it and I really wasn't sure, especially considering some of the nutjobs that are REALLY out there.

[BigBen]

I had this friend in high school who was Baptist and liked to drink. One time she got really drunk at a party and another church member found out, so the following Sunday she had to stand up in front of the entire congregation and state exactly what she did at the party, then apologize, THEN make some creepy pledge never to do it again. Made me sick then, makes me sick now. Fucking stupid.

[Kittylady]

^^ That isn't about encouraging someone to lead a better life, its about control through public humiliation. Sick.

[twitchy2.0]

updatin'

NH man convicted of raping teen church member


AP – A Merrimack County bailiff handcuffs Ernest Willis after he is found guilty of forcibly raping and impregnating …

By LYNNE TUOHY, Associated Press Lynne Tuohy, Associated Press – Fri May 27, 7:19 pm ET
CONCORD, N.H. – A New Hampshire man was found guilty Friday of forcibly raping and impregnating his children's 15-year-old baby sitter, who belonged to the same church, more than a decade ago.
The case involving 52-year-old Ernest Willis of Gilford garnered national attention because the fundamentalist Baptist church he and the girl attended made her apologize to the congregation. The pastor then helped ship the girl to live with a Colorado couple she didn't know and put her baby up for adoption. Concord police did not locate her until last year.
Before trial, Willis pleaded guilty to one count of statutory rape but denied he forcibly raped Tina Anderson twice in 1997. She said it happened once while he was giving her driving lessons and again at her home weeks later. Willis testified that the two had sex on only one occasion and it was consensual.
The Associated Press typically does not identify those who say they are victims of sexual assault, but Anderson asked that her name be used.
Anderson, now 29, said in a victim impact statement Friday that Willis destroyed the person she was and filled her with shame and guilt. Willis looked at her throughout her statement, his face appearing flush.
"When he decided his sexual gratification was the most important thing in his life, he shattered mine," Anderson said.
It appeared the jury was about to head home Friday without returning verdicts just minutes before the courthouse closed when the word "verdict" crackled over a security officer's radio.
Anderson watched, huddled into a supporter, as sheriffs fastened handcuffs around Willis and tightened them slowly and audibly.
His bond was revoked automatically on the five sexual assault convictions. He faces up to 54 years in prison. No sentencing date has been set. He was stoic as he was lead out of the courtroom.
The 12 jurors, who got the case Thursday, left without comment; the foreman said they had all agreed not to talk to the media.
Both Willis and the teen attended Concord's Trinity Baptist Church. The case was shelved until last year, when online posts helped authorities find her in Arizona.
"I thank the courage of the victim for coming forward after all these years," prosecutor Wayne Coull said.
Defense attorney Donna Brown said Willis would make a statement at his sentencing, but she had no further comment.
Brown told jurors during final arguments Thursday that Anderson had changed her story over the years so she would "look more like a victim."
She argued that Anderson never said in 1997 that Willis forced himself on her. She noted Anderson's testimony that she had trouble remembering everything that happened 14 years ago.
The case pitted her word against his, and lawyers on both sides acknowledged in final arguments that at times it seemed that Trinity Baptist Church and its former pastor, Chuck Phelps, were on trial as well.
The prosecution depicted Anderson as a terrified, pregnant teenager who was expelled from the church's school, separated from friends and family and punished for being the victim of a then 39-year-old married man. The defense argued that was all the more reason she should have shifted the blame to Willis and say she was forcibly raped and that Willis offered to pay for an abortion or punch her hard enough in the stomach to induce a miscarriage.
"What happened to Tina at the hands of those people in her life is why she kept that secret for so long," Coull, the prosecutor, told the jury. "She got shamed, shunned, silenced and sent away."
In her victim impact statement, Anderson said she was devastated when she learned she was pregnant, then heartbroken when she had to put her daughter up for adoption. She also said the rape has had ripple effects on her marriage and the upbringing of her other three children.
The case that lay dormant for well over a decade was resuscitated in large part through the Internet.
Matt Barnhart, a former Trinity Baptist Church member, witnessed Anderson's "church discipline" session in 1997. His wife testified she was "mortified" by what the church did to the teen.
Barnhart made reference to the session on a blog maintained by a group called "Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) cult survivors." The website's founder, Jocelyn Zichterman of Oregon, followed up with Barnhart, learned Anderson's identity and location, and passed the information along to Concord police.
Anderson testified she was in "complete shock" when she picked up the phone on her husband's birthday in early 2010 to a Concord detective's voice asking her if she wanted to talk about what happened in 1997.
It was her first conversation with law enforcement since the encounters.
Zichterman and about two dozen men and women she described as survivors of IFB church abuse, attended the five-day trial, many wearing teal — the color embraced by rape victims.
"Tina Anderson is a hero today, because of her incredible courage," Zichterman said. "We hope Tina can now move on with her life and find a sense of peace."
NH man convicted of raping teen church member - Yahoo! News

[McJag]

Good. We'll see what he will have to stand up and cofess his 1% to after he gets out.

[twitchy2.0]

updatin' some more:

6:22 p.m. Tuesday, September 6, 2011

NH convict in shamed girl's rape gets 15-30 years

By LYNNE TUOHY

The Associated Press
CONCORD, N.H. — The 15-year-old New Hampshire girl was pregnant, scared and humiliated when she was made to stand before her Baptist church congregation 14 years ago and apologize for her immorality.

FILE - In this May 26, 2011 file photo, Ernest Willis carries his lawyers' documents as he enters Merrimack Superior Court in Concord, N.H., on the fourth day of his trial on charges that he forcibly raped his children's 15-year-old babysitter, in 1997. Willis, convicted on May 27, will be sentenced Tuesday, Sept. 6, 201l. (AP Photo/Alexander Cohn, Pool, File)


Ernest Willis is escorted out of the Merrimack County Superior Courthouse, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2011 in Concord, N.H. Willis was convicted of raping and impregnating a 15-year-old church member, who was made to apologize to her fellow members, he was sentenced Tuesday to 15 to 30 years in prison. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)


Ernest Willis is escorted out of the Merrimack County Superior Courthouse, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2011 in Concord, N.H. Willis was convicted of raping and impregnating a 15-year-old church member, who was made to apologize to her fellow members, he was sentenced Tuesday to 15 to 30 years in prison. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)


Ernest Willis is escorted out of the Merrimack County Superior Courthouse, Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2011 in Concord, N.H. Willis was convicted of raping and impregnating a 15-year-old church member, who was made to apologize to her fellow members, he was sentenced Tuesday to 15 to 30 years in prison. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)

Tuesday, it was a former church member's turn to apologize before he was sentenced to 15-30 years in prison for forcible rape.
Ernest Willis, 52, of Gilford said he was "sorry and ashamed for this thoughtless act of sexual misconduct." But in his lengthy statement he did not admit he forcibly raped the girl.
Listening telephone from Arizona, victim Tina Anderson said she was "thrilled" with the sentence.
"It's a huge amount of vindication for me," Anderson, now 29, told The Associated Press. "I was never really believed, no matter how many times I said it was not consensual. Now it's been proven in a court of law that he's guilty and he's been given a significant sentence."
The AP typically does not identify victims of sexual assault, but Anderson asked that her name be used and has given numerous media interviews.
Willis, wearing bright orange prison garb and shackled at the ankles, also apologized to his ex-wife and their children for the embarrassment and financial ruin they've suffered and to Concord's Trinity Baptist Church for the ridicule his case has wrought.
The case remained unsolved for years because Concord police could not locate the teen. Unbeknownst to them, the pastor of Trinity Baptist Church helped ship the girl to Colorado, with her mother's consent, to live with a Baptist couple she did not know and put her infant daughter up for adoption.
Police located Anderson last year after a former church member posted to a blog decrying the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist movement. The post described Anderson's church discipline session at Trinity Baptist. Willis was arrested in May 2010.
Anderson said Tuesday she would have loved to see others involved in her case held accountable, but is satisfied with Willis's punishment.
In imposing the sentence, Merrimack Superior Court Judge Larry Smukler said Willis betrayed the trust the girl placed in him and robbed her of her childhood. Willis faced up to 54 years in prison on convictions for statutory rape and aggravated felonious sex assault.
A jury in May convicted Willis of raping the girl twice in 1997 — once while he was giving her driving lessons and weeks later at her Concord home. His lawyers say he will appeal those convictions.
The teen babysat Willis's children and, a prosecutor said Tuesday, considered him a father figure.
"Her trust and admiration were repaid with violence and rape," prosecutor Wayne Coull told the judge.
Coull said the most aggravating factor of all was Willis's reaction upon learning the teen was pregnant.
"He offered to punch her in the stomach so hard as to cause a miscarriage," Coull said. "For the defendant to be so cruel and selfish as to recommend such actions upon a child is just outrageous."
Before his trial in May, Willis pleaded guilty to one count of statutory rape. He maintained they had consensual sex on one occasion only, but acknowledged the girl was under the legal age of consent.
Willis remained stoic as the judge sent him to prison for a minimum of 15 years.
"This particular day is a day for justice for the victim," Smukler told him, saying Willis betrayed the trust of a defenseless teenager.
The judge stressed to Willis that he was not sentencing him for the actions of Trinity Baptist Church and then pastor Chuck Phelps.
Anderson told the AP she can never purge from her mind the horror and humiliation of being made to apologize to the congregation.
"It will never go away," Anderson said. "And that's not necessarily a bad thing because it helps me to be more compassionate to others. I would love to be able to use my trauma, my pain, to help others."
Anderson listened to the sentencing from the home of a victim advocate in Arizona. She did not address the court. But in a statement she delivered after Willis was convicted she said he "destroyed the person I was ... and filled me with shame and guilt."
She said it was heartbreaking to put her daughter up for adoption and that she misses her every day.
"When he decided that his sexual gratification was the most important thing in his life, he shattered mine," she said.
Willis, a divorced father of four, remained free on bail until his May 27 conviction. Tuesday he was taken to the state prison in Concord to begin serving his sentence.

NH convict in shamed girl's rape gets 15-30 years *| ajc.com