2024 Round-up

As we conclude another year of advocacy, we’re grateful for our supporters inside and outside the ACNA. 

Our members are taking more time to attend to their personal well-being after years of intense public advocacy, and our work this year has centered on behind-the-scenes support for other survivors and advocates. Our capacity for publishing has diminished, but our educational pieces are as timely as ever. 

In 2024, our most popular blog posts educated readers on domestic violence, community grooming, and betrayal blindness. 

Hidden in Plain Sight: Responding to Domestic Violence

The pressing matter at hand is the need to educate women on what abuse is, how to understand it isn’t their fault, and that they are not responsible for fixing their abusive partner. That need for education extends to churches and church leaders as well. The Church has historically done an abysmal job of supporting women trapped in—or leaving—abusive relationships. This needs to change.

Community Grooming in the Church

How can pastors and other church leaders, tasked with roles that require discernment, character, and spiritual care, be so incapable of identifying abusers, safeguarding the vulnerable, and responding appropriately to disclosures? How can entire communities that are in many ways safe havens for hurting people fall in lockstep behind these leaders, ostracizing victims who rallied the courage to come forward, seek help, and try to prevent their abuser from harming others?

What is Betrayal Blindness

Our inability to see oppressions—such as abuse, racism, and misogyny—can be caused by betrayal trauma and the resulting betrayal blindness. Our closeness to an individual or institutional source of oppression can prevent us from seeing the betrayal.  And we cannot abolish what we cannot see.

If you haven’t read these posts, now is a great time to catch up!