For seventeen years I was beaten. For seventeen years I had to live under their rule of spare the rod spoil the child. Fear wasn’t an incident for us. Fear was a lifestyle. It was a way of life. For seventeen years I suffered while my parents hurt their children to save them. We attended church twice on Sunday and on Wednesday or whenever there was a church revival. For seventeen years I heard gospel singing about the love of Jesus being wonderful in one instance and then the pastor telling parents that if they didn’t spank their kids and break their will — their kids were going to hell….

so they did. Over and over and over and over ….sometimes till I couldn’t even cry anymore. I couldn’t make a sound.

My sister was raped, repeatedly by my grandfather. His choice was ‘go to church or go to jail’, so it happened again. Both of my sisters were eventually kicked out and at the age of 17, I had enough. I took my parents to court to make them stop. At 17. I should have been worrying about school, prom, homecoming, but instead I had to fight off the Taliban man like Jack Hyles, Lester Roloff, John R. Rice, giants in the fundamentalist movement ruled my life. Men, I never met held power over me.

This is not a foreign country. This happens here. All over this country.

This is the latest: https://www.apnews.com/e9404784f9c6428a8d4382f5ada8f463

For the love of God, stop these people.