20.5%

What if 20.5% of the people in your church had cancer? What if 20.5% of the people in your church had lost a child? This would be heartbreaking and incredibly hard. People would rally around those who were hurting and try to lift them up out of their hardships. 

But did you know that 20.5% of people in churches are sexual assault survivors? Did you know that not only have they survived sexual assault, but they were sexually assaulted by someone in that very church or another one like it? Did you know that over 38% of women and 16% of men are assaulted before they turn 18 years old? Or that over 93% of sexual predators would describe themselves as religious? And yet, nothing is being done to fight this. No one is surrounding these men and women who are hurting, who feel broken. They are not being lifted up and shown true care. Those 20.5% in churches around the world are being told to hush. 

This must change. Most young girls and boys will not report sexual assault. If they do, it is often dismissed, ignored, covered up. Most men and women who have experienced sexual abuse do not come forward with their stories until much later in life, if they come forward at all due to the stigmas that come with sexual assault. 

There is so much shame that revolves around sexual assault and Hush. aims to cast off this shame. There is so much fear that comes with talking about sexual assault within the church and Hush. hopes to conquer this fear. There is too much quiet that assault survivors feel or are forced to take on by their abusers or because of the obligations of being a religious person. Hush. is a loud voice for those people and is a platform that is standing up against the abusers. 

If you or someone you know is a survivor of sexual assault, know that there are people in the world who are fighting for your stories to be heard. There are people fighting for your abusers to be brought to justice so they cannot harm anyone else. You are not alone, you do not need to be ashamed, you do not need to fear, you do not need to Hush. 

*The statistics found in this post were taken from the Abel Harlow Child Molestation Study by  Harvard and Tufts graduate and clinical psychiatrist Anna Salter, PH. D.*