Jane Does vs Liberty University

[DaisyDay]

12 women file lawsuit against Liberty University, claiming failures of Title IX office

Several students claim cases of sexual assault and rape by male students. The lawsuit states, “Multiple witnesses who worked in the student conduct office have alleged that the University has a tacit policy of weighting investigations in favor of accused male students such that denials of sexual misconduct by male students would regularly be accepted over allegations by female victims, including where the victim brought additional evidence to support her claim like photographs of bruising or text messages from the accused admitting to assault.”

This has led to the creation of Justice for Janes - Liberty University Sexual Assault Victims - Justice for Janes for those who seek to reform the university's handling of sexual harassment and assaults.

 

[bekkilyn]

Sounds like they are asking for reasonable changes. I had thought the emergency call boxes were pretty standard nowadays.

 

[Albion]

And at the least, it gives some people online the opportunity to scorn those awful Christians, doesn't it?

The fact that the same thing and worse takes place at a hundred other but not church-affiliated colleges is not worth creating a new thread, that's for sure.

 

[Sketcher]

And at the least, it gives some people online the opportunity to scorn those awful Christians, doesn't it?

The fact that the same thing and worse takes place at a hundred other but not church-affiliated colleges is not worth creating a new thread, that's for sure.

I think it comes with the territory of universities with lodging on campus. When you have hundreds or thousands of students who are fresh out of childhood and who socially penalize those who treat the opposite gender with respect, things will happen, and policies have been made to deal with it for "reasons" which in recent years have been shown to be inadequate. It either seems to be hushed up, or a kangaroo court.

I honestly wonder what the rape statistics look like for students of all-women's colleges.

 

[bekkilyn]

And at the least, it gives some people online the opportunity to scorn those awful Christians, doesn't it?

The fact that the same thing and worse takes place at a hundred other but not church-affiliated colleges is not worth creating a new thread, that's for sure.

They don't have any ground to stand on after all the comments I've seen about how the girl getting raped in Loudoun county was no big deal, that people get raped all the time, and that it was just a hoax by right-wing religious nuts, etc.

So the difference may be in how Christians respond to what happened here rather than the fact that it happened.

 

[GreatLakes4Ever]

And at the least, it gives some people online the opportunity to scorn those awful Christians, doesn't it?

The fact that the same thing and worse takes place at a hundred other but not church-affiliated colleges is not worth creating a new thread, that's for sure.

This shows to me that Christ’s love has no power. If it did have power, we should expect Christian colleges to be better (not perfect but better) but here you are claiming that they are just like everyone else. Not only that, you seem to be more upset at the people pointing out the problems at a Christian university than you are at the Christian university for being horrible at handling sexual assault and dragging your religion through the mud.

 

[Sparagmos]

And at the least, it gives some people online the opportunity to scorn those awful Christians, doesn't it?

The fact that the same thing and worse takes place at a hundred other but not church-affiliated colleges is not worth creating a new thread, that's for sure.

Having read quite a bit about these cases, it’s far worse.

 

[DaisyDay]

And at the least, it gives some people online the opportunity to scorn those awful Christians, doesn't it?

The difference being that no one took that chance; no one here has scorned those Christians and no one but you called them awful.

The fact that the same thing and worse takes place at a hundred other but not church-affiliated colleges is not worth creating a new thread, that's for sure.

This particular issue was in the news lately - why haven't the Conservative press reported this?

 

[DaisyDay]

They don't have any ground to stand on after all the comments I've seen about how the girl getting raped in Loudoun county was no big deal, that people get raped all the time, and that it was just a hoax by right-wing religious nuts, etc.

Who said that it was no big deal or that it was a hoax?

So the difference may be in how Christians respond to what happened here rather than the fact that it happened.

And how have they responded here? Other than the sympathetic first reply (kudos), the conservatives have acted miffed that this was brought up at all.

 

[bekkilyn]

Looks like Fox News made a report on the incident in general on October 25th.

Liberty University students say college didn't take rape allegations seriously, dissuaded police reports

 

[LeafByNiggle]

And at the least, it gives some people online the opportunity to scorn those awful Christians, doesn't it?

The fact that the same thing and worse takes place at a hundred other but not church-affiliated colleges is not worth creating a new thread, that's for sure.

Not only that, the same this does not take place in many other Christian schools and colleges. It is a mistake to take this one school, Liberty University (which just happened to be Christian) and generalize it to all or most Christian schools, or to take it as reflecting Christians overall.

 

[DaisyDay]

Not only that, the same this does not take place in many other Christian schools and colleges. It is a mistake to take this one school, Liberty University (which just happened to be Christian) and generalize it to all or most Christian schools, or to take it as reflecting Christians overall.

But no one extrapolated these incidents to apply to all other Christian colleges.

 

[Albion]

But no one extrapolated these incidents to apply to all other Christian colleges.

That would have been unnecessary. The readers got the point that they were meant to get--it's at a Christian college where such things happen.

As other readers here already noted, it's no coincidence that it was a Christian-affiliated college that was held up as the 'bad egg' example rather than any of the many public colleges and universities on whose campuses similar incidents regularly occur.

 

[LeafByNiggle]

But no one extrapolated these incidents to apply to all other Christian colleges.

The post I quoted was hypothesizing that some people might use this example to besmirch Christians in general. I was agreeing with that post that such a thing would be wrong.

 

[bekkilyn]

That would have been unnecessary. The readers got the point that they were meant to get--it's at a Christian college where such things happen.

As other readers here already noted, it's no coincidence that it was a Christian-affiliated college that was held up as the 'bad egg' example rather than any of the many public colleges and universities on whose campuses similar incidents regularly occur.

While what you say may be true, it seems that this incident could potentially be a great opportunity for Liberty to be a good witness for Christianity amidst all the media attention. Perhaps the motives for all the attention were in bad faith, but Liberty still has the choice of how to handle it and hopefully in a Christlike way that shows the light of Christ to all people.

 

[Albion]

While what you say may be true, it seems that this incident could potentially be a great opportunity for Liberty to be a good witness for Christianity amidst all the media attention.

I certainly agree with you about that, but it wasn't the message of the OP. Because it was not, the replies of course referred to the reason the OP was written and this thread created than to the 'silver lining' you just brought to our attention.

Incidentally, this is not the first time Liberty University was chosen to be so vilified. You may recall the flap over Jerry Falwell's son and successor as president of the institution. The University handled that, but as for Liberty being seen as a good example for having taken action to address the problem, the response from the critics' corner was *crickets.* No surprise there.

 

[bekkilyn]

I certainly agree with you about that, but it wasn't the message of the OP. Because it was not, the replies of course referred to the reason the OP was written and this thread created than to the 'silver lining' you just brought to our attention.

I just feel somewhat transformative today.

 

[GreatLakes4Ever]

While what you say may be true, it seems that this incident could potentially be a great opportunity for Liberty to be a good witness for Christianity amidst all the media attention. Perhaps the motives for all the attention were in bad faith, but Liberty still has the choice of how to handle it and hopefully in a Christlike way that shows the light of Christ to all people.

If punishing rape victims is in anyway Christlike, I have clearly made the right decision with not wanting to follow this vicious belief system. This isn’t a bad egg like other colleges. This is significantly worse than other colleges whether secular or Christian. I would think the smart move for Christians would be to rake Liberty over the coals for this diabolical behavior but rather they have for some reason rushing to their defense? Why? Liberty certainly isn’t the standard bearer for all of Christianity but if Christians are going to rush to defend them then lumping all Christians in with them is the right move.

 

[bekkilyn]

If punishing rape victims is in anyway Christlike, I have clearly made the right decision with not wanting to follow this vicious belief system. This isn’t a bad egg like other colleges. This is significantly worse than other colleges whether secular or Christian. I would think the smart move for Christians would be to rake Liberty over the coals for this diabolical behavior but rather they have for some reason rushing to their defense? Why? Liberty certainly isn’t the standard bearer for all of Christianity but if Christians are going to rush to defend them then lumping all Christians in with them is the right move.

I didn't at all say anything even remotely to the effect that Liberty should punish rape victims or even make suggestions as to what actions they should specifically take. What I suggested was that they have the *opportunity* to show the light of Christ to the world in whatever actions they choose. Whether or not they actually take that opportunity remains to be seen.

 

[GreatLakes4Ever]

I didn't at all say anything even remotely to the effect that Liberty should punish rape victims or even make suggestions as to what actions they should specifically take. What I suggested was that they have the *opportunity* to show the light of Christ to the world in whatever actions they choose. Whether or not they actually take that opportunity remains to be seen.

They already showed their light by punishing rape victims. Christians have the opportunity to show their light by denouncing Liberty and many here are choosing to be mad at the messenger rather than Liberty. Would you like to destroy your Christian witness and try to explain how Liberty punishing rape victims could be in any constituted as Christlike?