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Liberty University fined $14m over ‘culture of silence’ around sexual assault (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 8 months ago by nkat2112 to c/[email protected]

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Christian evangelical institution punished victims ‘for violating the student code of conduct’ as ‘assailants were left unpunished’

Some of the initial content - the article is well written:

Liberty University fined $14m over ‘culture of silence’ around sexual assault

Liberty University has been hit with a $14m Department of Education federal fine for creating “a culture of silence” around sexual assault, failing to support victims of violence and then failing to properly report them correctly under the law.

Announcing the fine on Tuesday, the department said in a statement that the Christian evangelical institution had punished sexual assault victims “for violating the student code of conduct”, while “their assailants were left unpunished” – a violation of federal law.

Liberty was founded in 1971 by the television preacher Jerry Falwell Sr, the Baptist minister who, eight years later, created the Moral Majority movement that mobilized the Christian right to the cause of the Republican party. The university was notified two years ago by the department that it would be conducting a review of the institution under the Clery Act, which requires the disclosure of campus security information.

Students of the university, which is located near Lynchburg, Virginia, are required to follow The Liberty Way, a student honor code that prohibits sexual relations outside of “a biblically-ordained marriage between a natural-born man and a natural-born woman”.

But signs that aspects of the code – and law – were failing came in 2021 when Liberty spokesperson Scott Lamb was fired for standing up for 22 female students represented in a lawsuit that claimed the university “enabled on-campus rapes” and suppressed complaints of sexual assault and rape, a violation of federal Title IX statutes, in what it said was “the weaponization of the ‘Liberty Way’”.

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[–] nkat2112 23 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Liberty University said in a statement that it had made mistakes and committed $2m to improve campus security, but had faced “unfair treatment”.

That strikes me as a "Sorry, not sorry" kind of response.

Then there's this:

The claims of sexual assault by nearly two dozen women came a year after Jerry Falwell Jr, son of the founder, was forced to step down as president of the university after he posted an Instagram photo of himself standing with his trousers unzipped and an arm around a young woman.

That came after Giancarlo Granda, a Florida pool attendant, claimed that he had a six-year relationship with Falwell’s wife, Becki, that involved having sex while Falwell watched. Liberty will also be required to face two years of federal oversight.

Remember the "pool boy," folks?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

That strikes me as a "Sorry, not sorry" kind of response.

This is an evangelical organization so that's probably all you're going to get. They have an entire culture built around perceived persecution so, even when they're forced to apologize for something, they're going to think they're the victims of the scenario.

source: I used to be one of them

edit: I guess I shouldn't make such sweeping generalizations. my opinion is based off my couple of decades as an evangelical and another couple watching my family continue with it

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

An absolute unit of a misuse of the word "Liberty".