by Rae Halder | Feb 25, 2013 | Free, Our Stories Untold Blog
As a young woman in high school, I engaged in sexual acts that I didn’t necessarily want to do. This wasn’t just out of pressure—though that component definitely existed—but it was also due to a curiosity about sex. Lacking any sort of community or safe place in which...
by Rae Halder | Jan 8, 2013 | Free, Our Stories Untold Blog
When I was 15-years-old I was invited to attend a Baptist summer camp. Growing up Mennonite I had never been exposed to overt “savior” language, nor had I previously received such direct and controlling gendered messages. At this camp I was told it was a women’s...
by Rae Halder | Jan 4, 2013 | Free, Our Stories Untold Blog, Womenundersiege
When I got annoyed with the fact that sexualized violence is a stigmatized and sensitive subject in the Mennonite Church, I began this blog. When Gloria Steinem learned that rape was a widely used and unspoken method of torture, and a result of the Holocaust, she...
by Rae Halder | Dec 18, 2012 | Free, Our Stories Untold Blog
Yesterday I became overwhelmed by the news. First of all, the stories from Newtown, Connecticut are enough to make anyone’s stomach churn. Then my pain doubled when I opened a New York Times piece on a small town rape incident. A teenage girl, only 16-years-old, was...
by Rae Halder | Nov 29, 2012 | Features, Free, Our Stories Untold Blog
This piece was written by Rachel Halder for Unbound: An Interactive Journal of Christian Social Justice, in honor of the United Nation’s International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. It was published on November 28, 2012 and cross-posted on...