Jenan Taylor
26 July 2024
Melbourne Christians have a chance to learn how to better prevent sexual abuse in the Church at an upcoming presentation by an abuse survivor and leading American theologian.
Surviving God: A new vision of God through the eyes of sexual abuse survivors hopes to equip Christians to read and understand the Scriptures in ways different to the patriarchal approaches taken in many churches.
Earlham School of Religion Professor the Reverend Dr Grace Ji-Sun Kim wants people to recognise how patriarchal approaches might influence interpretations of God and lead to un-Christian behaviour.
She warned sexual misconduct would keep happening in churches and communities without deep consideration of the lens through which people viewed their faith.
Reuters reported recently that New Zealand uncovered abuse of 200,000 people in state and religious care across 70 years, misconduct mirrored globally over the last century.
Professor Kim said people could learn how to prevent predatory sexual behaviour happening if they knew what to look out for, and how to talk about it.
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Her presentation is titled after her book based on her own, and other survivors’ experiences of abuse in the church.
She said her approach was based on intersectional theology which considered where racism, sexism, unjust economics and other injustices intersected.
Professor Kim said it recognised that women of colour and other marginalised people were more likely to encounter injustices such as sexual abuse.
She said it was never easy for them bring the misconduct to light because often the communities they belonged to felt ashamed if it was revealed.
Professor Kim will be speaking at St Peter’s Eastern Hill on Friday 26 July, from 10am to 12pm.
To register for the free event and find out about Professor Kim’s other presentations hosted by the Victorian Council of Churches, see here.
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