There's an interview on YouTube with Lori Anne Thompson, the first victim to come forward about Ravi Zacharias.
She raises many interesting points during her interview. Two were of particular interest to me.
First, she answered the question of why so many victims of sexual abuse initially go along with their abusers. Why do they answer the intrusive sexual questions, why do they accept the invitations for long drives together, why do they send the compromising photos, instead of crying "foul" as soon as things start to get out of hand? In Lori's case, she was raised by a pedophile father. She learned early in life that sexual abuse was going to happen no matter what she did, but she could avoid even worse abuse by being compliant. What she learned as a child was so deeply ingrained that she fell back on the same response when she was abused again as an adult.
There are probably applications to spiritual abuse as well. How many Christians were already conditioned to "believe all things," give the benefit of the doubt, and turn the other cheek (interpreted as, "never protect yourself"), long before they encountered their abuser? That's a topic that could take a book to explore.
Second,
and this is a critical point, is that she distinguishes between
sexual sin and
sexual abuse.
Sexual abuse includes sexual sin, but it further encompasses an element of evil that's not present when two equals engage in sexual sin by mutual consent. ("Equals" means that one person is not in a position of power and/or undue influence over the other. In Lori Anne's case, she was a person with a traumatic personal history, and he cultivated himself as a father figure she could look up to and trust. )
Those pastors who are making claims like, "Each of us is a potential Ravi," are missing the point. Perhaps every pastor is potentially at risk of being tempted into an affair. Adultery is a grave sin, and we should pray that our pastors are spared that temptation. But how many pastors are at risk of importing women from impoverished third world countries, with the goal of groping and raping them? How many pastors are at risk of deliberately seeking out women who were sexually abused in childhood, knowing that they'd be easy prey thanks to their trauma? I hope the difference is obvious.
Unfortunately, as Lori Anne points out, the church often makes no distinction between sexual abuse and sexual sin. They treat them as the same crime, with the same consequences and restoration process. They overlook the fact that victims of sexual abuse need protection that fully consenting partners don't. The person who commits sexual abuse is dangerous in a way that the person who sins with a consenting, equal partner is not. This is the lesson that churches have been slow to learn and act on.
The video is at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHUU-nVKT-0&t=1791s.
