Hearing the stories of survivors of sexual abuse is never easy. I had the chance to do so just last week as part of this project. How do you console someone who not only was robbed of something so personal but was made to feel bad about it by those who should have protected them?
In their eyes, you can see how their life was completely changed by the event. An event that came upon them one day and caught them in the cold like unexpected rain. An event that for them scarred the image of intimacy that every human desires.
And yet, in them I see a unique strength. A strength that refuses to back down in the face of pain and danger. A strength that determines to see evil fall and good prevail. Because somehow, in the middle of all this, they choose to believe there is still good.
I also see a fresh perspective and unique open-mindedness in their spirits. They do not judge, because they remember how it felt when they were judged. They are open to new ideas because they had to fabricate new ideas themselves in order to survive their ordeals.
They are truly the definition of “survivors”. They have gone from wishing they would never have to wake up to rising in the morning ready to help others.
So if you are in the situation that my friend was in all those years ago, do not give up. There is hope, and it will get better. Keep fighting. Find your people. And believe in that soon coming dawn.
I love my grandmother. She is hardworking, sweet, resourceful, and easily one of the strongest women I know. Some of the sweetest memories of growing up come from making amateur “movies” with her, battling each other in a pillow fight, or tossing buckets of water at her for a summer water battle. And yet, as strong as our relationship is, there are many times that I struggle to understand her and her perspectives on life. If I’m honest, many times her opinions just seem stubborn and foolish to me. But I’m sure she thinks that of me as well.
But what does this tiny, silver-haired Puerto Rican woman in her late 70s have to do with sexual assault in the church, what I usually write about? Well, thankfully nothing, except to illustrate how bullheaded one generation may seem to another when the culture and generation they grew up in is not understood.
To be clear, this is NOT a defense for covering up sexual abuse in the church. But it may be helpful to understand why the older generations are known for sweeping these things under the rug.
I spoke with Tim Baumgarten, a corporate trainer with plenty of experience with intergenerational communication, who spoke to my Interactive Journalism class about why certain generations react the way they do to sexual assault.
This is evident especially in light of the generation many of our grandparents were born into, The Silent Generation, which spans the birth years of 1925 to 1945, roughly. According to Baumgarten: “The Silent Generation [was raised with the understanding] that the greater good always outweighed the individual need. Always. We look at it differently now. This individual person needs justice now, and so we can’t protect this institution over the top of this individual persons’ justice being served.”
Kaleb Eisele, producer of the Humans of Adventism project and Baumgarten’s stepson, elaborated on this.
“Something you talk about a lot [with regards to the distinction between generations] is institutional loyalty and how different generations relate to institutions,” he said. “So if you’re growing up in a generation that is strongly convicted of institutional loyalty, then you say this bad thing happened but I don’t want it to reflect bad on this institution that I love, you’re much more likely to say, ‘Yes, well that happened but let’s not tear down this great thing.’
“I know in [younger generations] what I’ve seen is kind of a flip of that, where…we need to be loyal to people,” Eisele continued. “We need to hold institutions accountable, and you really don’t have this all or nothing mentality. This is a specific issue that has to be addressed and will only be addressed if we talk about it. But there’s’ not really this worry that, like, “Oh, people are going to think terrible of this institution. That’s not in the forefront of somebody’s mind. It’s ‘This person was hurt, and they need justice. ‘”
Perhaps, as we learn to understand the differences in our generations, we will also learn how to better educate each other instead of vilifying. Because while yes, many of the cover- ups done by those who march to the drum of institutional loyalty have been horrific, it’s important to note where it’s coming from and how we can stop it from happening again. Let’s move redemptively in all aspects of this intense subject of sexual abuse.
How common is sexual abuse really? Most of us don’t hear too much about it. Of course, we know that this doesn’t mean it’s not happening. But we might just be shocked to hear exactly how common it is.
I spoke with Nicole Parker, who holds a degree in biblical counseling and pastoral ministry, and teaches a class on sexuality at Southern Adventist University. Mrs. Parker has extensive experience with victims of sexual abuse. So, when I asked her how prevalent the problem was, she had plenty of information to share.
“We don’t have any solid statistics from within the Adventist church, but we also don’t have any reason to think our statistics are less than the world’s,” she said. “Typically, research finds one in three or one in four women is sexually abused, but some research makes it clear it’s probably higher than that.”
Parker discussed the findings of Diana Russell and Gail Wyatt, as discussed in the book, Predators, by Ana Salter. They found 28% of girls were sexually abused or assaulted before the age of 14, and that number jumped to 38% when ages 14-17 were included. However, only 5% of those cases had been reported to authorities.
Parker continued:, “When I was going to church growing up as a kid over 50% of the girls in the church had been sexually abused or assaulted. It was a small church. We all knew each other, and all of us girls were close to each other, and I knew who had been sexually assaulted by whom. Some of the boys were as well. There was one young man in the church who was a year older than me who sexually abused several children in the church. That was just one of them, there were lots of different abusers. All in one little church.”
Parker recalled going to a sleepover once as a kid and hearing half the girls there recount that they had been sexually abused. On a mission trip she went to in Mexico, Parker shared a room with what she recalls were around seven girls total. It was revealed that most of them had also been sexually abused or assaulted.
“One of them was being abused at the time, and she was afraid to tell because she said her stepfather would then start abusing her sister,” Parker recalled. “And I told her as a 16-year-old, I said, ‘Look, your body is the temple of God. He shouldn’t be allowed to do that. You need to tell.’ So when she went home from the mission trip, she did tell. A and from what I heard later, it sounded like he had already been abusing her sister as well, and he did get prosecuted. She would have been 15, I think, at the time.”
Things didn’t seem to improve as Parker grew up, either. “In high school and college, the same thing: about 50% of my [female] friends had been sexually abused or assaulted.”
Parker also spoke about sexual abuse among boys.
“At the very least, about one in five or one in six boys get sexually abused or assaulted as well,” she said. “I think boys are abused a lot more than people know because boys have even more shame about reporting. And often women are their abusers, and if they do tell they’ll be ridiculed or told, ‘Wow, you scored.’”
Parker noted a particular challenge that males face when confronted by sexual abuse.
“Boys often experience some sort of arousal in sexual abuse even if they weren’t willing, even if they don’t want this to happen,” she said. “It’s a physical thing that happens, and then they’re confused, like, ‘I felt pleasure so I must have been complicit. Maybe I wanted this.’ So boys don’t report; that’s what we know.”
This week I was able to rekindle a conversation with Michael Carducci, co-director and founder of “Coming Out” Ministries.
Michael started this ministry years ago after experiencing struggles with a homesexual lifestyle and meeting many people who had numerous sexual struggles within the Adventist church.
“‘Coming Out’ Ministries is not only about the homosexual,” said Carducci, co-director and founder of the ministry. “Coming Out is talking about the biblical coming out of sin and into God’s marvelous light.”
Having interviewed Carducci for several articles, I was able to continue to learn and educate myself about the ministry and the people that it helps.
According to the organization’s website, the ministry focuses on helping “churches, schools, and organizations who are seeking answers and education” regarding sexuality.
The Ohio-based ministry presents its film, “Journey Interrupted,” to students and different churches around the country and even around the world. The film follows the stories of five individuals who are struggling with their sexual identity or sexual addiction. It presents the events that exposed them to the Gospel and helped them embrace God’s plan for their lives.
Personally, it is always a blessing to continue to learn about a topic that I am not very familiar with. It is particularly interesting to see this topic from a completely different point of view such as generational differences in the Seventh-day Adventist church.
Although I was very surprised by some of the findings during this interview, I was also baffled by how little I actually know about the LGBTQ+ community and about how much more work I have to do to be understanding of their circumstances and life experiences, regardless of age, race, and gender. Definitely a good reminder of how to love those who are different from us just as Christ has loved us.
The Collegedale Spanish-American Seventh-day Adventist church was founded as a mission group in 1985. It all started as a group of Southern Adventist University students, both Hispanics and Americans, decided to have a Sabbath school class together. They moved around campus until the university and some Adventists neighbors decided to help them make their dream come true of having their own temple.
I had a chance to sit down with the church’s current senior pastor, Gamaliel Feliciano, and SuCasa’s former and current youth directors, Martha Calderon and Carolina Bonilla, as they explained how the original congregation developed into the SuCasa church. Join me as we learn the history behind a congregation that has found a way to bridge its generational gap.
Kaleb and his stepfather Tim. (Photo courtesy of Kaleb Eisele)
By Megan Yoshioka
Kaleb Eisele is the founder of the storytelling platform Humans of Adventism. Although he grew up Adventist and is a member of the Adventist church today, at one point in his life, he left the church. As a young person and a member of the Millennial generation, he felt unheard and like his opinion did not matter within the church.
“When I left the church, I didn’t feel like my voice mattered,” Eisele said. “I felt like my job was to be quiet and to do what I was told — kind of to just accept the offering plate job. Or, accept the choir singing job, which I didn’t want to do.
“Honestly, as someone who is working full-time, in college, married … I really felt like, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t want to be a junior deacon. I’m sorry I don’t want to join the choir. I have plenty of things to offer the church, but not those things.’”
According to Eisele, his stepfather, Tim Baumgarten, played a significant role in his decision to return to the church. Baumgarten is a member of the Baby Boomer generation and, as a corporate trainer, works often with the topic of intergenerational communication. He applies his skills at work, in church and even within his family.
“One of the great things Tim has always done in our relationship is just ask my opinion,” Eisele said. “And I think that was something really important to me as a young person in Adventism.”
In an interview with our journalism class, Eisele said his decision to come back to the church all started in a living room. On Saturday afternoons, Eisele said he and his family of three different generations would sit down and talk about difficult topics, including religion. In those discussions, Eisele said he felt that his family genuinely desired to get to know him and understand his perspective, even if they disagreed.
“It was really early into those discussions that I felt something different, something that I had been lacking in my other church experiences,” Eisele said.
Through those conversations, Baumgarten said he started recognizing generational differences between himself and Eisele. He also noticed the generational gap within their church and saw a need for better understanding.
“The more I dove into this, the more I started understanding how much none of us knew about each other — and it went in two directions,” Baumgarten said. “We kind of took the living room talks and introduced them to the church. And it really began this journey. It really began to open up our folks.”
Eisele started feeling more heard within his church. He recalled one day when he was invited to speak at the church board meeting about a social media strategy and creating a church Facebook page. Regardless of the board’s decision to accept or reject his idea, Eisele said he just appreciated the fact that they created a space for him to speak and share.
The board actually ended up asking Eisele to present his idea to the rest of the church body. Eisele said he went before the church, introduced the idea and explained the importance of the internet in today’s society. After his speech, two older men approached him.
“Afterward, I had two older men, probably in their 70s or 80s, come forward and say, ‘If you’ll do this for us, we’ll pay for it,’” Eisele said. “‘Whatever equipment the church needs, we’ll buy it. We don’t even have to micromanage it, we believe in you.’ And that really changed things for me.”
Intergenerational communication led Eisele back into the church and opened opportunities for him. It set the foundation for trust between him and older church members. And, according to Eisele, “It all started in a living room.”
“As somebody who was raised Seventh day-Adventist… [and] decided to leave the church for several years, intergenerational communication is something that was very important in bringing me back into the church experience, back into connection with my Adventist family,” Eisele said.
But is sexual assault and abuse really an Adventist problem? To take a deeper look into this question, I looked into the Clery reports of all 12 Adventist institutions in the United States. These reports are required by The Clery Act, which demands that institutions report statistics on certain crimes, including sex offenses. 1
Above are the statistics of the sexual offenses for each university in the last three reported years, which ranged from 2016 to 2019 depending on the institution. For more detailed information, simply visit the safety page of any of these institutions and look for their annual safety report.
Also, it should be noted that there are different ways to interpret these statistics. Just because one institution has higher rates of reporting does not necessarily mean that it is not happening just as much or more on other campuses. The institution may possibly have a better method of reporting, which may lead to more survivors coming forward.
It should also be noted that most sexual assaults go unreported, therefore it is likely that the rates are much higher. RAINN (Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network) reports with information from the Department of Justice that about three out of four cases of sexual assaults go unreported.2
These considerations should be maintained until more data can be collected.
The initial purpose for this research was to determine if there’s a generational divide on race in the Adventist church. The problem is that there’s not a lot of data on that question. Adventist-specific data is harder to come by. That’s where we have to be the ones who find out. Journalism is a truth-seeking field, and the truth on this needs to be sought out.
We looked at the history and took a glance at how the Adventist church has handled race. The results were a bit mixed. But that doesn’t answer the big question: how do Adventists feel about it? Is there a divide? It seems that way, but facts aren’t reported on how things seem. They’re reported on how things are.
To find out how things are, I am conducting a survey. The survey aims to give Adventists a space to respond to how they feel about racial issues and race in America. That’s how we’ll figure out just how divided we are, if we are at all divided. Once we figure that out, we can begin to move forward with bridging that gap. At the very least, we can begin to understand why.
The survey has been out for quite some time and when you read this, we’ll likely have data compiled. But this is an ongoing endeavor and if we really want to fully understand it, then more responses are absolutely critical.
Focus on the Family, a well-known Christian media outlet, posted an article in 2010, over a decade ago. The question posed by the reader sadly rings true to this day.
“How can a nation that was built on slavery and that’s still full of racial discrimination today possibly have ‘biblical roots’?” the person was quoted as saying. “I’ve been hurt by racism in so-called ‘Christian’ America,’ and I just don’t understand why so many conservative evangelicals say this country is based on ‘Christian values.’ As an African American who has faced racial hatred, I find this perspective unbelievable. If that’s Christianity, then I want nothing to do with it!”
Eleven years later, and this is still true, if not worse than it was then. Racial issues have gone nowhere, and Christians don’t seem to be too bothered by that. The Barna Group, an evangelical Christian polling firm, reports that in a July 2020 poll, 19% of practicing Christians believe race is not a problem at all today, an increase from 11% in 2019. This is despite 2020 being a year filled with racial injustices: George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many more have died.
The Barna Group also reports that 30% of self-identifying Christians are unmotivated to address these issues. If we look at the demographics of the Christian church, we can see just who these Christians are. According to PEW Research, just 9% of white Christians are younger Millennials and 13% of black Christians are younger millennials.
The largest group here is the white Baby Boomer segment. They represent 37% of the white population of Christians, which could indicate why the church tends to feel a certain way about racial issues. White people, try as they might, struggle to understand the challenges of being a minority. If we look at the sample size of populations taken for this information, we can see the white population outnumbers the rest of the groups combined. The white Christians sampled for this research is a whopping 17,441. The next closest group is Latino with 2,863.
As we can see, the division between white and nonwhite is striking. Most younger generations sampled for this research are in the vast minority. Generational divide, indeed.
According to PEW Research, Adventists are among the most racially and ethnically diverse American religious groups. The Adventist church in America is 37% white, 32% black, 15% Hispanic, 8% Asian, and 8% are another race or mixed race. That is strong diversity. However, this doesn’t mean you can just walk into an Adventist church and see this diversity first-hand.
This is affected regionally. Forty percent of Adventists live in the South and 31% live in the West. According to Statistical Atlas, 58% of people living in the South are white. That number drops to 51.2% in the West. So, the majority of people in the largest Adventist population locations are white.
This notion of the Adventist church being the most diverse gets put more into perspective when you consider the fact that the Adventist church has a membership of over 21 million people and only 1.2 million of those come from America. It’s true that the Adventist church is extremely diverse. Having 19 million non-American members makes that a true statement.
However, I am studying the American church, which is significantly less diverse and that even depends on the region in which you are located. Diversity will vary. If you go into a Southern Adventist church, it might be less diverse than one in the Midwest or the North.
That’s an important distinction to consider when looking at the diversity of the church and how that plays into views on race, or just racism in the church in general.
