You will be shocked to find out that one of the leading Christian magazines,
Christianity Today for more than 12 years,
there was a rampant culture of sexual harassment that was well reported.
And absolutely nothing was done to protect the multiple women
who came forward time and time again to talk about the experiences that they had.
A story about this was actually run in the magazine by editor Daniel Silliman,
who at the top of the story wrote this.
This story was reported by CT news editor Daniel Silliman,
edited by the senior news editor, Kate Shellnutt, and
published without prior review by ministry executives.
Neither editor had access to personnel files or
meetings regarding the allegations or investigation.
Maybe this is the only way that they could get it out there, I don't know.
But they say that effectively two executives, for
many years was conducting rampant sexual harassment.
The accusations are against former editor-in-chief
Mark Galli as well as former advertising director Olatokunbo Olawoye.
And they say that this happened at the Carol Stream, Illinois office and
the actual procedure for reporting this was almost non-existent, almost as if they
didn't care about making sure that this sort of thing wasn't happening.
And yet the reports did actually happen.
Women at CT said that they were touched at work in ways that made them uncomfortable.
They heard men with authority over their careers make comments about
the sexual desirability of their bodies.
And in at least two cases,
they heard department heads hint at openness to an affair.
More than half a dozen employees reported harassment from the two sided executives
to a manager or HR between the mid-2000s and 2019,
this is up until just a couple of years ago.
Neither leader was even written up.
There were no formal warnings, no suspension, no punishment,
despite repeated accusations of the same nature against the same people.
Nothing was done time after time, after time.
And this is at Christianity Today.
And they would go on to say maybe we'll get into it,
about how that they're an environment of purity and godliness and all that.
And meanwhile, they were protecting serial predators in their midst.
>> Again, so look guys, when I was growing up, I was told by culture,
society, and media, that we should respect authority figures,
that they were worthy of respect and that they were more likely
to be correct than people without power and authority.
My God, I've never been told a bigger lie in my life.
So you should be more skeptical of authority figures not less, why?
Because they have more power and the nature of humanity
is that power corrupts and of course absolute power corrupts absolutely.
So, when you have any position, where they have a ton of authority that is
hard to question, you should think, boy, we should put a lot of checks and
balances there to make sure they don't abuse that authority in power.
So military comes to mind, especially the less checks there are in the military,
the more likely to be abuse of commanders abusing people below them.
But when you talk about religion, it's not that the religion is at fault.
It's that the structure is at fault and it happens in almost every religion.
So you have an authority figure and they're not supposed to be questioned and
there are no checks and
balances, because theoretically they're only reporting up to God.
And then they're usually have access to children and
let alone women that work underneath them and like in this situation,
whether its Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, it doesn't matter.
They're gonna abuse that power because they're human and
that is what's gonna happen and well, what have we done historically?
No, those are the people you shouldn't check in on because they're the most moral
among us.
That is a sick joke.
>> Yeah, when you attach guilt and shame to daily function and
it is done to you by someone who you look up to, cuz a lot of us look up to
those figures of authority within our churches when we were growing up.
But the thing is that multiply that by, I don't know what number.
And the funny thing is, somebody was commenting on one of my pages about one of
my jokes about how hard it is to be a woman was like blah blah blah,
women make more money.
You have no idea what it is like, that you're not safe in church.
You're not safe walking down the street.
You're not safe in the bathroom at McDonald's,
you're not safe in every single place you go, you are at risk of
dealing with some man's ill messages about what he is able to do.
Now you give that man power and it is a hot mess and
Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, all of it.
Women have always been the victims of these types of men and
how they think and it's disgusting, it is gross.
And to sit here and say that it doesn't happen in the church because it's pure and
around the church is a lie and we need to stop telling that lie.
Because you are accountable for the word and how you deliver it and
your actions shall be, you shall be held accountable for those actions,
just like everybody else.
If you truly believe what you're spitting to the people.
When I say spit, I mean, bars wrapping my Urbanus comes out.
But if you believe all of the doctrine that you are showering people with daily,
then why do you think you're not accountable and
you're not subject to the consequences that come from those
actions according to God, burning in hell, hellfire.
If you believe it, then why are you not scared of that?
>> Yeah, that's another great point.
I mean on top of everything else, on top of the abuse,
of course they don't believe what they're saying.
If they believe that they wouldn't do it at all,
they would definitely be scared of that eternal fire, they are total frauds.
So, people in power should not have less accountability.
They should have more accountability.
That's just common sense, but common sense that we have not applied, guess why?
Because the people in power set the rules.
So it's time that we upend that and we protect all of us.
And Aida makes a great point and I just wanna end on that.
Look, if you're a guy, just for a second, put yourself in the shoes of women.
So I'm a big guy, I've never been afraid in the bathroom.
Okay, I've never been afraid in any of these contexts.
But the first time that a woman said, now, think about what if you are my size and
you're a woman and don't think what would I do?
I assume you guys are decent guys.
But think about all the rando weirdo guys, you've ever met in your life,
women have to deal with them too, okay?
And then what if you were in their situation, and even if just 15% of guys
are terrible guys, who might do something terrible, you don't know which 15%.
So you're constantly looking around and worried.
Our job as a society and as decent human beings, is to look out for one another,
that's what we're asking you to do.