WARNING: Graphic Images
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Category Archives: Child Abuse
Gnosticism and Pedophilia
Ancient Greek pederast kissing a young boy (4th Century BC), Louvre Museum (Accession No. G 278), Author Marie-Lan Nguyen (PD)
Many today are adherents of a pernicious philosophy, a false religion, whose name they do not know [1]. It masquerades as ancient wisdom, secret knowledge, a path to self-fulfillment. But it incorporates Satan’s oldest and most effective lies.
Gnosticism is a heresy that seeks to undermine Christian doctrine. It promises that men can become godlike, and exalts inner “perception” over outer reality. Its beliefs are at the root of the Transgender Movement, and are paving the way for the normalization of pedophilia [2][3][4].
This is not to say that Gnostics are pedophiles or even aware of the connection to pedophilia. Most Gnostics would undoubtedly dispute the connection. Not that pedophiles need much help in normalizing their perversion.
Legitimizing Pedophilia
B4U-ACT is part of a growing movement to legitimize sexual attraction to children [5]. Founded by social worker Russell Dick and convicted child sex offender Michael Melsheimer, this Maryland group maintains that sexual attraction to children is not a psychiatric disorder, but an identity to be affirmed.
A list of pedophilia advocacy groups can be found on Wikipedia [6]. Like B4U-ACT, they hold that attempts to reduce or control pedophiles’ attraction to children through cognitive behavior therapy or drugs are not only pointless, but unethical.
Never mind the lasting harm pedophiles do to children. Continue reading
Filed under Child Abuse, Child Molestation, Christianity, Emotional Abuse, Justice, Law, Neglect, Physical Abuse, Religion, Sexual Abuse
The Bunny Ranch – Prostitution Exposed
“The Damned” by Luca Signorelli (1499-1502), Chapel of San Brizio, Orvieto, Source Web Gallery of Art (PD)
The A&E Network has been running a series titled “Secrets of the Bunny Ranch”, an expose of legalized prostitution at the infamous Bunny Ranch in Nevada. Episodes can be viewed online at https://www.aetv.com/shows/secrets-of-the-bunny-ranch.
Marketing v. Reality
Some years ago HBO aired a puff piece on the Bunny Ranch titled “Cathouse: The Series” [1]. Presented as a documentary, this was essentially a marketing and recruitment device which portrayed brothel life as fun, lucrative, and safe. Nothing could have been further from the truth.
By contrast, the A&E series examines the sordid underbelly of prostitution: the grooming, the trafficking, the rape, the drugs, the violence, the financial irregularity, and the law enforcement corruption.
Virgins are auctioned off to the highest bidder. Pregnant women are offered for sale by the hour to those with a fetish for them. Sex workers are regularly abused, and kept in permanent debt bondage.
Many prostitutes already have a history of childhood abuse and/or domestic violence. They are already wounded, their choices severely limited. Continue reading
Feeling Dirty
Showerhead, Author DO’Neill (CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported, GNU Free Documentation License)
- You are scrupulous about personal hygiene.
- You change clothes frequently. You cannot bear to wear the same shirt or blouse a second time before washing it. This has nothing to do with vanity.
- Your clothes fade quickly from overwashing.
- You change the sheets whether they need changing or not.
- The hamper fills up constantly. You do laundry several times a week, though you live alone.
- In the shower, a feeling of relief washes over you, along with the water. A sense that you are clean again, restored. But the relief does not last long.
If any of this sounds familiar, you may be experiencing a little known symptom of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
The sensation of “feeling dirty” – a sense of self-disgust – is now recognized as a result of sexual abuse or sexual assault [1]. The feeling of uncleanliness produces an urge to wash in the absence of physical contaminants. Rape victims have been known to scrub their skin raw, in an effort to remove any last taint of their assailant [2].
But that taint has been internalized. We, ourselves, are the source of contamination. We, ourselves, have become impure.
This is a measure of our violation.
It is not, of course, true that we are any less pure or any less worthy than before we were violated. But we do feel that way, and desperately want to rid ourselves of the literal and figurative filth to which we were subjected. Desperately want to restore our own integrity. Continue reading
CSAM Apps – Monetizing the Sexual Exploitation of Children Online, Part 1
Image “facebook testify zuckerberg”, Author <a href=”http://www.thoughtcatalog.com” rel=”noreferrer nofollow”>www.thoughtcatalog.com</a> (CC BY-SA 2.0 Generic)
“Underlying every sexually explicit image or video of a child is abuse, rape, molestation, and/or exploitation. The production of CSAM creates a permanent record of the child’s victimization.”
-US Dept. of Justice [1A]
The US Dept. of Justice defines Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) as any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a minor under the age of 18, in other words, child pornography [1B]. Visual depictions would include photos, videos, live streaming, and digital or computer generated images (including AI-generated content) indistinguishable from an actual minor [2].
Scope
Due to rapid technological changes, online child sexual exploitation is daily increasing in scale and complexity [1C]. The violence and sadistic content depicted in CSAM have increased as well [1D].
Child pornography is readily available through virtually every internet technology, including social networking platforms, file-sharing sites, gaming devices, and mobile apps [1E].
On the Dark Web, where anonymity and encryption make it more difficult to trace perpetrators, a single active website dedicated to the sexual abuse of children had over 2.5 million registered users as of 2021 [1F]. The same year the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) received nearly 30 million reports of suspected online child exploitation [1G].
Smartphones
Modern smartphones are the ideal child exploitation tool for offenders [1H]. Smartphones can be used to photograph, record, or watch live child sexual abuse. They can both store child pornography, and access such stored pornography remotely. They can connect to other offenders worldwide to receive or distribute child pornography, through an ever expanding variety of apps. Continue reading
False Guilt
Courtroom gavel, Author onaeg news agency, (CC BY-SA 4.0 International)
“There are two kinds of guilt. One is true guilt, that is, it stems from sin against God; we are responsible for it and we have to deal with it. The second is false guilt, which Satan places on us; this occurs when the devil accuses us of not living up to God’s standards.
Many people live countless years under such deceptive guilt. They never feel as if they can quite get God’s acceptance; they think they never quite measure up and never quite please God; they believe they will never be all that God wants them to be.”
–Charles Stanley in How to Listen to God
Abuse victims are all too familiar with guilt.
Told from childhood that we did not measure up, that everything wrong in the family was our fault, we grew up virtually enveloped in guilt. This is compounded by the fact we are likely to believe we brought the abuse on ourselves (an outright lie, but one of which Satan is particularly fond).
All this is false guilt.
If confronted, we would have difficulty reciting our supposed “sins”. This is because they do not exist. Which is not to say that we do not commit real sins. We are as fallible as the rest of mankind, in that regard.
But the guilt that is unrelenting – the guilt punishing, even crippling us – is false guilt. We were not responsible for the abuse inflicted on us – whether it was emotional, physical, sexual or took the form of neglect. We did not engender it. We did not deserve it.
What we needed and deserved, but were deprived of, were love and care.
Unfortunately, what false guilt does is convince us we are still undeserving. We labor under the weight of this lie, sometimes turning it into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Continue reading
Trauma Bonding
Cycle of Abuse Chart created by Avanduyn (PD)
A trauma bond is the emotional connection between a victim and perpetrator that arises from cyclical abuse (discussed below) [1A]. Trauma bonds can form in connection with the parent/child relationship, friendships, romantic relationships, sex trafficking, and in other contexts [1B].
Cyclical Abuse
Cyclical abuse is characterized by increasing tension and placation; an incident of emotional, physical, or sexual abuse; surface reconciliation; then a calm interval (however brief), after which the cycle repeats [2][3A].
Trauma Bond Components
Trauma bonds are based on terror, dominance, and unpredictability [1C]. Two main factors contribute to their formation: a power imbalance, and intermittent reinforcement (reward/punishment) [1D].
Trauma bonds can have multiple components:
- Love for the abuser (or who the abuser appears to be on a good day). Hope and promises that the abuser will reform feed into this.
- Compassion for the abuser, if he or she had a difficult past.
- Fear of escalation, with the victim often receiving death threats, if departure is contemplated. Because of this, many victims conclude it is “safer” to stay with their abuser, despite the abuse.
- Fear for the safety of loved ones, whose lives may, also, have been threatened.
- Diminished self-esteem, as a result of the abuse.
- Lack of financial resources. Victims are commonly deprived of these by their abuser.
- Shame. Public opinion is frequently that victims are “weak” to stay with an abuser or “materialistic”, if the abuser is well-off financially. As a result, victims are likely to hide the abuse from others. This serves to further isolate them.
The first instance of abuse is often viewed as an anomaly, a one-off [1E]. A profuse apology and professions of “love” lull the victim into a false belief that the abuse will not recur [1F].
Repeat instances of abuse generate a cognitive shift, i.e. a belief that preventing (or escaping) the abuse is no longer in the victim’s power [1G]. By this point the trauma bond has been well established [3B]. Continue reading
Healing from Abuse
Healing from child abuse is possible. But healing is a process [1]. In this regard, healing from domestic abuse is not very different.
Necessary elements include recognizing the full impact of the trauma we experienced; processing the emotions the trauma generated; developing healthy coping mechanisms; and rebuilding a sense of safety and self-worth.
Both healing from child abuse and healing from domestic abuse require courage and patience with ourselves.
The Impact of Trauma
The impact of childhood trauma is multi-faceted. It can range from rage, self-hatred, anxiety, depression, and PTSD (nightmares, flashbacks, emotional detachment, etc.) to sexual addiction, sexual dysfunction, chronic physical ailments (migraines, backaches, etc.), drug or alcohol addiction, and eating disorders [2].
Similarly, domestic violence can result in anxiety, depression, PTSD, and a host of physical ailments from gastrointestinal and cardiovascular issues to traumatic brain injury [3][4].
It bears mention that child abuse and domestic abuse can both result in death, either at the hand of the abuser or by way of suicide years later.
Professional counseling can be of great assistance to survivors in dealing with trauma, re-establishing necessary boundaries, and developing healthy coping skills [5].
Rebuilding Self-Worth
At the deepest level, victims must reclaim a sense of self-worth. This is an enormous challenge. Child victims of abuse are taught from the outset they are dung. Adult victims (having survived turbulent childhoods) are gradually deprived of their power and self-respect by abusive partners. Continue reading
For Vanity’s Sake
Kim Kardashian (a celebrity who has had multiple cosmetic procedures), Source https://www.flickr.com, Author Love Lira Fashion
We women would do almost anything for men. We want, of course, to be attractive to them. And society – through celebrities and influencers – has convinced us that is not possible without radically modifying our bodies, sometimes at the risk of our lives.
Over $16 Billion
Over $16 billion was spent on cosmetic surgery in the United States in 2024 [1]. This included breast augmentation, liposuction, abdominoplasty (the so called “tummy tuck”), and buttock augmentation.
In 2022 alone, there were 26.2 million surgical and minimally invasive cosmetic and reconstructive procedures performed [2].
Women accounted for some 86% of these procedures [3]. While the percentage of exotic dancers who are patients cannot be determined, one club owner estimated that over 90% of his strippers have had surgical enhancement of one kind or another.
Discount Clinics
An increasing number of procedures are performed at discount plastic surgery clinics, where pre-op, surgical, and post-op care are less than optimal [4A]. These clinics target low-income women, particularly those who are Hispanic or African American.
Physicians who may never have formally trained in the specialty of plastic surgery often perform as many as 10 procedures a day, far in excess of what best medical practice would consider safe.
Multiple operating rooms – particularly in Florida, which is not well regulated – may be “overseen” by a single physician, while procedures are actually performed by untrained and unlicensed assistants. Dozens of women have died. Continue reading
A Voice Reclaimed, Surviving Child Abuse and More 