All the perpetrator asks is that the bystander do nothing. [They] appeal to the universal desire to see, hear, and speak no evil. The victim, on the contrary, asks the bystander to share the burden of pain. The victim demands action, engagement, and remembering.   Judith Herman

The church reforms when sufficient numbers of [people] demand integrity and honesty from themselves and force transparency and accountability from those who aspire to serve and lead. It has always been so.   A.W. Richard Sipe

A church leader who sexually victimizes anyone should never be in a position of power again.   Boz Tchividjian

What is MAP?

Envisioning such awareness, transparency, and accountability in our institutions and communities that no one is able to sexually abuse, Mennonite Abuse Prevention (MAP) aims to make it easier to report and prevent sexual abuse and related misconduct through documentation.

With media articles, court documents, church files, and other credible documentation, we are building a database of cases in Anabaptist or other pacifist church traditions of proven or credible allegations of sexual harassment or assault, boundary violations, abuse of power, and related misconduct.

Our primary focus is on cases of abuse by those who have served in a leadership position, lay or ordained, paid or volunteer (including such roles as Sunday School teacher and council member), in any church or affiliated institution (schools, mission organizations, financial or healthcare institutions, as well as congregations).

In every case we publish, we aim to show how church leaders and communities respond to sexual violence, including the policies they use and the systems of power in play. From congregations leading in accountability to others who are less transparent, we aim to provide a resource for tracking and understanding institutional responses, as well as information that can improve those responses.

First and foremost, we serve victims and survivors, prioritizing cases brought to us by them or by witnesses and whistleblowers. We also offer our service for community groups and institutions.

You can help by alerting us to cases or sending us documentation. Also let us know if you see any errors or omissions in our work.

Read more about how our service works here.

Why is this important?

Sexual violations of all kinds pose serious risk of deep physiological harm. In religious communities, harm is compounded by the spiritual authority of leaders who abuse their power, and theological frameworks for handling abuse have proven inadequate and further abusive.

Sexual violence in Mennonite and other Anabaptist communities has lived in deep silence for generations, minimized and enabled with piety, peace theology, and good works. Church leaders and members have refused accountability to survivors and to the broader community in the name of protecting the church. They have inflicted the devastating harm of institutional betrayal. They have allowed perpetrators of sexual abuse to continue in positions of power, risking further abuse and sending the message that the structures enabling abuse will not change. We must be willing to upend the power structures, personal and systemic, that have enabled abuse.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette series “Coverings” (May 2019)

Opening Church Files on Sexual Abuse is a Ministry of Reconciliation, Women in Theology (February 2019)

How Pacifism Can Lead to Violence and Conflict, LitHub (November 2016)

Mennonite Quarterly Review issue on sexual abuse (January 2015)

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We need victim-led and community-led systems to routinely uncover and address sexual violence as it exists in our own religious and cultural traditions, or it will continue to happen.

Social-ecological community tools can complement, fill gaps, or resist injustices of other prevention and response systems, including restorative justice, internal church processes, and the criminal justice system.

MAP aims to provide a service that makes it safer for those who have been harmed to come forward and supports them and their communities in preventing further harm. This is one strategy among many for addressing a systemic and intersectional harm. We believe the most effective strategies require listening carefully to what many different people who have experienced sexual harm are saying, learning from them, and learning from the wealth of interdisciplinary resources for understanding violence and trauma.

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MAP offers individuals and communities in the Anabaptist peace-church tradition a resource for reckoning, remembering, and ongoing accountability to each other and to everyone with whom we share our world.

Those who abuse do so as part of a pattern of behavior, often targeting more than one person over time, even after confrontation. Without broad accountability, those who have sexually abused often continue their pattern of behavior, adapting to restrictions or moving locations to get away from them.

The damage of sexual violence ripples out beyond victims and perpetrators to their families, congregations, and wider communities. It is costly to public health, and it passes through generations. Yet collective memory, and institutional memory, can obscure what we would rather not remember.

On reporting and receiving reports

Were you sexually violated by someone in a Mennonite or other Anabaptist community of faith?

Maybe it happened a long time ago and you have never told anyone. Maybe it happened to someone in your family and you carry their pain. Maybe you are currently being abused or you love someone who is being abused. Maybe the only evidence you have is your own experience.

We believe you. It’s not your fault. You are not alone.

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If you have suffered, seen, or suspected sexual violence or related misconduct, we encourage you to contact an independent, expert advocate to access support services and consider options for reporting.

We encourage this before choosing to report to church leaders or others who may have a conflict of interest or little expertise. The church insider you chose to tell may be a close associate with the person who harmed you. If they receive a paycheck from the church, serious conflicts of interest come into play. You may become, in their eyes, a potential adversary in a legal battle requiring them to hire their own legal counsel. That legal counsel is usually hired to protect the institution’s best interests, not yours. The needs of the victim, witness, or whistleblower often do not remain a priority when a church insider or employee is the first to receive a disclosure.

The RAINN hotline, or a local crisis center can connect you with urgent care and other support services. For assistance from Anabaptist or Anabaptist-adjacent advocates, please consider contacting us at MAP, or A Better Way, or Into Account.

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If you have received a report of sexual violence or related misconduct, we encourage you to clearly prioritize support for the person who has reported.

When we “start by believing” those who report, we need not override the rights of the accused. Those who report are vulnerable to serious harm when they are not carefully supported. Preventing sexual abuse everywhere demands we treat everyone who reports with great care.

When a victim files a complaint or tells someone about being abused, they ask others to help them bear the weight of what has happened, to take on a piece of the pain so that it might be more manageable for all. The community can help carry some of the pain so it doesn’t overwhelm and debilitate the victims.

Abuse allegations can bring pain for a community, but they are not creating the pain, they are sharing the pain: many hands can make lighter work for the most vulnerable. Thanks to Prof. Hilary Jerome Scarsella for articulating this idea.