Watch your language and your beliefs, sex abuse survivor tells the church

“These are the characteristics we associate with men, and having a God like that essentially reinforces and justifies men having exclusive power over women, children, feminized men and marginalized other people,” Shaw said during a recent episode of The State of Belief, a podcast moderated by Interfaith Alliance President Paul Raushenbush.

“We really wanted to explore the ways those images, that language and those beliefs have created a framework that enables abuse in the church and then at the same time minimizes what happens to survivors because they’re merely women or they’re less important.”