As a young girl I witnessed the rape of a young relative. She protested by telling an adult, but no one believed her. The perpetrator did not face any consequences for his actions. Members of the village—the church, our family and our community members remain silent and choose to whisper their speculations instead of addressing the reality of incest and rape.

In our text, Tamar was not quiet. She boldly protested her rape by removing her fine garments and wearing ashes upon her face while wailing publicly. Yet two years went by with silence and inaction from her community and when action took place, it was a fatal act. Sexual oppression is real and it is not something that will go away with silence. There are countless stories in biblical liturgy that demonstrates the harsh ramifications of not only the violent acts of sexual oppression, but the act of not speaking out to reject these behaviors.

Author and scholar Marie Fortune writes, “We must name the unmentionable sin and look to resources from scriptures and tradition to inform us.”¹ We can learn a lot from Tamar’s courageousness and her public outcry against her oppressor. But we can also learn from the silence in her story. We can learn from the tragic response to Tamar’s rape and the cycle it created for her family. We can learn from the social norms that forced Tamar to remain in the village that further perpetuated her oppression by focusing on protecting the perpetrator and the family’s good name over standing up for what was right and just.

Silence is not golden when persons are being hurt and stripped of his or her humanity by sexual oppression. Let us examine the biblical narratives and use the stories of survivors like Tamar to reject sexual oppression and break the silence.

Prayer

If you or someone you know is a survivor or experiencing a form of sexual oppression (rape, incest, molestation, etc.) there are resources available for adults and children. If your life is in immediate danger, call 911. You may also visit RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) www.rainn.org or Darkness to Light, www.darkness2light.org for confidential support.

¹ Fortune, Marie M. Sexual Violence The Sin Revisited. Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 2005.