Didn’t hear about this until a commenter at Boundless mentioned it.
According to letters released by federal prosecutors last week as part of the government’s sentencing memorandum, Schaap wrote to the teen that his sexual relationship with her was “exactly what Christ desires for us. He wants to marry us + become eternal lovers!”
If Lisa Biron is representative of the caliber of people representing the Biblical perspective on the issues of the day, then I would suggest that the Christian right is hosed.
The difference between the Church and the world? Sometimes, it’s hard to tell. This is one of those times.
I mention the case of Claire Russo–a Marine officer who was raped at a Marine Corps Ball by a fellow Marine–to point out how bad our world is.
But first, a couple disclaimers:
(1) Claire Russo–like the others cited i the story–did not deserve to be raped.
(2) Claire Russo–by any reasonable standard–acted prudently.
Fact is, she was an Officer. She was attending the Ball with her cousin, who was a Naval Aviator. She was introduced to a fellow Marine, who gave her a drink.
She had no reason not to trust that she was in good company: she was an officer at a military function, with a cousin who was himself an officer, and was in the company of fellow Marines.
I’ve mentioned it a couple times on these pages: NEVER, EVER ACCEPT A DRINK FROM ANYONE WHEN YOU ARE AT A BAR OR A PARTY!!!
Claire Russo trusted a guy to whom she was introduced by a cousin, AND SHE STILL GOT RAPED.
Russo’s case may be the extreme, and it may not be a high percentage of gals to whom this happens, but–if you’re Russo–the “chances” might as well have been 100%.
IF YOU ARE IN THE MILITARY, DO NOT BUY THAT CRAP ABOUT CAMARADERIE AND BROTHERHOOD.
If you are female, there’s always going to be at least one jackass out there who has your number. Count on it. Whether you believe rape is about sex or about power, it doesn’t matter: there are going to be guys with designs on your flesh. Period.
And they will do anything–fair or unfair–to get your clothes off and get you into a compromising position. And those types are always going to hang out in bars, parties, and Military Balls. Especially where there is alcohol involved.
If you go to these functions,
(1) Go with a group of people who know, and stay in that group.
(2) Do not accept a drink from anyone other than a server.
(3) Go home with the people you came with. If there is alcohol involved, keep your drinks numbered: a beer or a glass of wine at most. If a guy offers you a ride home, DECLINE! Stay in your group.
I am not offering legalistic, hard commands here; far from it. I am offering advice.
As Russo can attest, the world is full of shady people.
You read that correctly.
THE Pennsylvania State University needs to get the death penalty.
Not the football program.
Not the athletic department.
The whole university!
This isn’t about one pedophile (Jerry Sandusky) using his position to prey on children, or a legendary coach (Joe Paterno) trying to cover his legacy, or an Athletic Director who acted more like an Athletic Supporter, or even a President who swept the whole mess under the rug.
No…this is about an entire university systematically covering up what they knew to be true: one of their coaches was sexually assaulting children.
One of their coaches even caught him in the act, and PSU leaders did not bother to go to the police.
Joe Paterno–who marketed himself in terms of winning “with honor”–was an integral part of the coverup. His failures were not simply a matter of failing to make that extra phone call: he had multiple opportunities to do the right thing, and passed on every opportunity.
The football program will–and should–get a death sentence. When that happens, booster donations are going to fall like a brick, costing the university substantial revenues.
Alumni contributions will drop like a doomed paratrooper, costing the university even more revenues.
Sandusky’s victims–a large number–will have a very big lawsuit in the making. And they will–and should–win the suit.
When that happens, Penn State will enter a period of “financial exigency”. In the academic world, those are the words no one wants to hear: that means they will be slashing everything they can: from staff to faculty to entire degree programs and academic departments. Tenured professors won’t even be safe.
At that point, the people of Pennsylvania will be faced with a very large elephant in the room: will it even be worth it to continue the university as a going concern?
My answer is NO.
Forget about business models and revenue forecasts and regaining solvency. It may take 50 years for Penn State to rebuild their image. It isn’t worth it.
There are already plenty of fine colleges and universities in Pennsylvania: Bucknell University, Carnegie-Mellon, University of Pittsburgh, Lehigh University, Drexel University, Temple University, University of Pennslyvania, Kutztown University, Shippensburg State University, Millersville University, Messiah College.
The good departments–such as engineering and sciences–could easily be annexed by Carnegie-Mellon or Lehigh or Pitt, with the rest of the university dissolved.
The taxpayers don’t need the albatross of Penn State. The state is better without the university.
Former teacher Christopher Hooker–the 41-year-old scumbag who left his wife and children for an 18-year-old student at his high school–is now over a barrel.
By playing as he has,
(1) He no longer has a job;
(2) He no longer has his family;
(3) He no longer has the girl for whom he left his family;
(4) Any semblance of a life that he thought he had before, is now gone.
And if Jordan Powers’ inclinations are correct–and they probably are–then he will be in danger of receiving a substantial prison sentence.
WARNING: OBSCENITIES IN THIS POST
In testimony today, Penn State assistant coach Mike McQueary provided some explanation for what he saw and reported in the 2002 incident, in which McQueary allegedly saw former Defensive Coordinator Jerry Sandusky sodomizing a child in the showers.
What is interesting here is the way he chose his words when reporting the incident up the Penn State food chain:
McQueary’s story is central to the case against Curley and Schultz. They testified to the grand jury that McQueary never relayed the seriousness of what he saw.
McQueary said he had stopped by a campus football locker room to drop off a pair of sneakers in the spring of 2002 when he happened up Sandusky and the boy in a shower.
He said Sandusky was behind the boy he estimated to be 10 or 12 years old, with his hands wrapped around the boy’s waist. He said the boy was facing a wall, with his hands on it.
McQueary said he has never described what he saw as anal rape and couldn’t see Sandusky’s genitals, but that “it was very clear that it looked like there was intercourse going on.”
He said he peeked into the shower several times and that the last time he looked in, Sandusky and the boy had separated. He said he didn’t say anything, but “I know they saw me. They looked directly in my eye, both of them.”
McQueary said he reported what he saw to coach Joe Paterno.
He said he did not give Paterno explicit details of what he believed he’d seen, saying he wouldn’t have used terms like sodomy or anal intercourse out of respect for the longtime coach.
He said Paterno told him he’d “done the right thing” by reporting what he saw. The head coach appeared shocked and saddened and slumped back in his chair, McQueary said.
Perhaps there is a lesson here: sometimes we must cut the niceties and tell the ugly truth about what we are seeing.
Imagine that, instead, McQueary had (a) decked Sandusky, then (b) called 911 and said, “JERRY SANDUSKY WAS FUCKING A KID UP THE ASS, SO I PUNCHED THE SHIT OUT OF HIM. GET OVER HERE AND GET THIS PIECE OF FILTH OFF MY PRECIOUS CAMPUS, AND HELP ME GET THIS POOR KID TO SAFETY!!!!”
I’m sure the latter approach would have elicited a more decisive response from the police and university officials.
The latest Sandusky defense? He was teaching proper shower technique.
This is worse than the “Pete Townshend defense.”
To say that former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky is in a mother lode of hot water would be an understatement. As it stands now, he has at least 10 credible accusers ready to flay him alive in court. And that is likely not to be the end of it.
But his attorney–Joe Amendola–isn’t helping him too much. Recently, when asked about the account of then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary, who allegedly saw Sandusky raping a child in the showers of the Penn State athletic complex, Amendola said, “I suggest you dial 1-800-REALITY.”
Well, it turns out, that phone number will land you on a gay sex chat line.
My $0.02 on The Steubenville Rape Case
While it is true that “boys will be boys”, there are some things–whether you are Christian or not–that you just don’t freaking do. Ever.
There are some lines–particularly when it comes to sex, whether you are Christian or not–that you don’t freaking cross. Ever.
The two Steubenville football players crossed those lines. The community–seeking to mitigate the incident in deference to the two football players–nearly denied justice to the 16-year-old girl–I shall call her JD (for Jane Doe)–who was raped.
While JD was wrong for getting drunk, she did not deserve to be raped. That she compromised herself by being stupid did not give others the right to her body.
I fully support the prosecution in this case, and those two guys deserved what they got. While I would be hesitant to beat them down the way I would an adult offender, they need to feel some pain here. They need some valuable training in boundaries. They need to apologize to the victim–and offer some restitution–not just for violating her but also for employing digital media in the process.
With that out of the way, we have this screed by Marthe Weyandte.
This is nothing new. It is not uncommon, for example, for public assaults–not just those against women–to go uncontested. There is a predisposition among Americans not to mess with other people’s businesses. That is both a good and a bad thing. Complicating matters, the larger question is what kinds of people are going to be present at those kinds of parties? When I was in high school, I almost never went to parties. The few I did attend had no alcohol and were chaperoned by coaches who were of good repute. We had none of this type of mayhem.
OTOH, I knew of other parties–hosted by others of less repute–where the drugs (including cocaine and pot) and alcohol were plenteous. And yes, there were hookups, although that was mostly on the fringes. The types of folks who went to those parties were not the kinds of folks who would have intervened if there was an assault going on.
Now let’s look at Weyandte’s take on why this happened:
Bullhockey. We live in a FEMINIST society. We have a system that PEDESTALS women. Our education system is DESIGNED around girls and PUNISHES masculinity.
None of that, however, explains why these boys did what they did.
My take: they were party animals, veterans of the hookup culture, and were having fun. In doing so, they totally crossed boundaries that no one should ever cross. Sadly, JD will pay a terrible price. The boys will also have to face the reality that they did a very bad thing that cannot be undone.
If those boys lived the straight life as former Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) has, they would not have committed rape.
Having said that, it would be nice to know what kind of parental instruction these kids had regarding how to treat a woman. If a child grows up seeing his parents respect each other, he will learn to do this. If a child grows up in a home where parents are actively teaching them to respect other people’s bodies, they’ll learn to do that. Some will still do horrible things, but those occurrences will be less likely.
I’m not biting on that. It’s easy to blame these acts on the vices of the day–today it’s social media and video games whereas 30 years ago it was various brands of rock music, combined with movies.
In fact, I could make the case that, but for social media, those boys would not have been prosecuted.
The double-standard exists in no small part because women are the gatekeepers for sex. It is quite easy for a woman–even one who is not attractive–to get sex. The same is not true for a man: even an Alpha is only successful about 30% of the time.
This is why women who have many partners are viewed negatively by men whereas men who have many partners are viewed positively by women.
Calling me names will not change that reality, because I didn’t create it.
Oh, and you can thank feminism and their ardent supporters–including Bill Clinton–for the hookup culture. As President, he insisted that oral sex doesn’t count. After that, the percentage of teens engaging in that skyrocketed…
Yes, where is the love? We live in a throwaway society, where women are allowed the throw away their babies if they don’t want them. We live in a throwaway society, where people can throw away their marriages with near-impunity, two-thirds of such dissolutions pursued by the women.
Please don’t lecture us about how horrible this society is, because you have the society you asked for.
You wanted the prerogative to be as promiscuous as the men, and you got it.
You wanted to be able to end a marriage at will, and you got it.
You wanted to be able to kill your babies in utero, and you got it.
You wanted a government that pedestals women and attacks masculinity, and you got it.
You wanted unwed motherhood destigmatized–even pedestaled–and you got that.
So don’t sit here and complain about the unintended consequences.
Having said that, it would be a stretch to blame the Steubenville rape on these factors.
We must hold individuals responsible for their actions, and–while society has issues–what those boys did was nothing new, and we are doing ourselves a disservice by pretending otherwise.