In my book club we are reading Byron Katie's book, "Loving What is". This the first book that told me it was okay to not only accept my reality but it was also okay to move in harmony with what is.
She writes, "Alcohol is honest and true: It promises to get you drunk, and it does; it promises to make things worse, and it does. It's always true to its word. It's a great teacher of integrity. It doesn't say, "Drink me." It just sits there, true to itself, being what it is and waiting to do its job."
She is the one who taught me that Pedophiles rape, fondle, and do sexual things to little children. She taught me not to argue with that, but to fully accept it.
In the first weeks of my niece saying that my father abused her, there was total confusion; our family was trying to fit this new definition into their old worlds.
It came to me really quickly that we all would have to pick just one of our now two choices; Either he was a Father or a Pedophile, but he couldn't be both.
That is exactly what happened, but it was a very slim minority that could see him as a pedophile and then take the steps needed to show that. Most instead found it within them to keep the father and to glance but not stare at the pedophile ways.
There is no one in our family who doesn't know he has pedophile ways, but there are some who believe they can keep watch on him, to see that he doesn't molest again.
He is only doing what he has always done. He has been the most authentic person in our family...as a pedophile he is doing perfectly his job...he always abuses little girls when give the opportunity. He never fails.
As we read and become more familiar with Pedophiles between Penn State and Sheldon Kennedy's story, we can see the timeline, the history and path of integrity these pedophiles have, they stay true to form, but we as the public or the bystanders waver and fail.
We fail to see what their actions are screaming at us.
We fail to hear the stories others tell us about them.
And we fail to act like there is a pedophile in our midst.
We want so desperately to instead keep our first image, be it true or false, we are the ones who fail reality....NOT reality.
In reality, in the history of my father, starting with me...he abuses little girls. My abuse started in the 1960's and he continued to stay true to course and my niece's abuse happened in 2004. He never failed us.
We failed him. We failed to catch his signal...each time we didn't tell, didn't go to the authorities. We failed to shut him down. He is doing what pedophiles do. Just as a murderer kills people, a pedophile sexually molests children. When you fail to accept or acknowledge that It is you who is wrong not him. He is showing you who he is...Believe him...as Maya Angelou says.
My father is a pedophile and most have been acting deaf and blind, pretending not to know know know...
For if you know know know it, then you will have to begin to change your whole life.
My whole life changed from being a daughter to being a victim of his pedophile ways. If I ignored my abuse, I would not be living an authentic life.
My authentic life is that I was sexually abused, raped by my father.
To ignore my abuse is to be inauthentic to me.
Some may think that it is unkind to speak of this, to openly discuss what happened, that it taints the man who clothed and fed 14 children, but if I don't speak of it, it taints us all anyway.
Somehow we believe that the words will wreck the family, tear up a relationship etc and that we can somehow manage to salvage a father daughter relationship.
Really? How? He stopped being a father the moment he raped me and I stopped being a daughter and instead became a victim of incest, of a criminal sexual act.
My mother even has written to me saying, "I failed you as a mother, but can we not meet then as friends..."
Really, you just want to switch to a new role? How?
Can we just re-label who we are and go on?
Can we just slide in place labels that make us feel better so we don't have to be that which we are?
How can my mother turn from mother to friend? She will always be my mother. A mother who knew and did nothing about her pedophile husband, except say she would be vigilant.
Vigilant about what? It seems she was the most vigilant about keeping a husband and her marriage.
Yesterday it came to me that I have been wanting so desperately for you all to accept reality of many pedophiles being pedophiles in the church, while you all are wanting so desperately wanting to keep 'good christians' there.
I give up. Just as I had to accept within my family, that many would not remove the label father, I get it now that you all refuse to change your images of who preaches from the pulpit.
You are allowed to keep that image...I am no longer going to tell you to drop it. Hold it dear, hang on with vigilance to your church being the church of your dreams...It is not my job to change your minds.
This whole exchange has brought me great clarity. It wasn't that the Huhta family wasn't worth saving, it was that your mind was incapable of being changed.
There was nothing a Huhta could do to make you all act any differently; Not the cutest among us or the most articulate or funny, not the blue eyed innocence...it wasn't us, it was always you.
There literally isn't anything any of us can do about what you think...only you can.
Inside each of you, you too get to pick....Is he a pedophile or is he just another minister? You and you alone decide....and you and you alone will reap the consequences of your thoughts.
How beautiful and kind the Universe is to deliver up to us bloggers, us victims of criminal sexual abuse by members of the FALC, to have another great example of Penn State, where we can see how authority has much to lose if the word got out, that there are members of this organization who are abusing children.
I see Don Daavettila as Joe Paterno.
I see The FALC as Penn State.
I see that the boys stories are being told....Carl, Jim and Josh.
I see that the girls stories are being told, Me and Leah.
I see and I see.
And yet so many will not see. They want the 'game' of religion to go, they want the 'coaches' to remain someone to look up to.
We are telling you what is going on and it is up to you to sit in the pews or not. It is not up to us. We are free.
Just as it was with my family, it would have been easier if I didn't care, if I didn't give a rats ass about what you all thought. But, sadly it is your thoughts that keep allowing children to be abused.
You have active pedophiles doing what active pedophles do, today, right now within your organization. And there is nothing I can do to change your mind about it...you are the Penn State people who knew and did nothing.
What I see is active blind and deafness where this subject is concerned...minds convinced against their will are of the same opinion still.