“It happened on a Sunday night, even though I’d been a good girl and gone to church that morning.”
Ruth Everhart shows bravery in writing this book about the sexual assault she experienced as a college student. She sends an important message to her daughters and other young women in this book–even though their lives might be changed by an event, their intrinsic value will always remain the same. The robbery and assault she speaks of happened in the college community where I was also a student at the time, so it was good to get her personal version of that tragic night.
Everhart articulates so well the fraught-full inner life after trauma. She covers all aspects of it: personal, physical, and spiritual. She describes the confusion and pain and shame that occupied the spaces where hope and joy and peace used to live. Religious platitudes she learned as a child no longer held any meaning or comfort for her and in fact infuriated her, challenging the very faith she had once felt was her strength. The puzzle pieces of her faith didn’t fit any longer. Her picture of God had become all wrong–how could this be God’s will? The good girl that God loved was gone (ruined), but who was there in her place? She is hard hitting in her message which highlights the harm the church and the patriarchy can sometimes do by loving purity more than people who have suffered.
This is a memoir that may be hard to read or triggering for some, although she handles the difficult parts compassionately. I really appreciated her honesty and vulnerability. Everhart later became a Presbyterian Pastor, author, feminist, and speaker. Her latest book is titled: The #Me Too Reckoning: Facing the Church’s Complicity in Sexual Abuse and Misconduct. She recently was enjoying partial retirement travelling across America with her husband in a truck camper named Big Blue. To follow her journey, click here. However, there’s nothing after Dec 2021 so maybe they went home? I found it an interesting travelogue up to that point, especially since my husband and I enjoy travelling in our RV as well (although not full time!).
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