In a podcast on Religion News service, Rabbi Jay Michelson says that leaders among religious progressives have been avoiding talking about what we can only presume at this point is a government cover-up about the Epstein sex trafficking ring.
I’m not sure if I qualify as a religious progressive leader, but I haven’t been talking about Epstein, or about Ghislaine Maxwell, or about Donnie Trump’s possible connection to their pedophile ring, because I don’t like giving a lot of air time to human traffickers who got money and power trips out of exploiting girls. It always seems to be that the sexist assholes in this world take over all the conversations.
So let’s talk about Haley Robson, who was molested by Epstein when she was 16 years old. When she was 15, she had been raped, and her rapist was still stalking her and humiliating her; as a result she was probably extra vulnerable to Epstein’s emotional manipulation. So Epstein molested her, but stopped short of intercourse, telling her that she should go recruit other girls for him. An article in Psychology Today covers this part of Robson’s story — it’s a very ugly story.
In an interview with BBC News posted just a couple of hours ago, Robson talks about why we should not talk so much about Epstein and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell. Instead of talking about them, Robson says:
“I’d like to start talking about the women who have sacrificed and poured their blood sweat and tears to get the little bit of justice [they’ve gotten]. I would like the conversations to stop revolving around a billionaire pedophile — not a billionaire financier, let’s call him what he is — and I would like to stop having those conversations. I would like everyone to stop glorifying this monster and [stop] giving him the time of day. All you’re doing is sensationalizing him and it doesn’t need to happen any more.” [my transcript of the interview]
The whole Epstein saga reminds me far too much of the sexual misconduct cases I’ve seen in smaller organizations (like organized religion, and sports teams, and schools, etc.). A person in a position of authority uses their power to sexually exploit vulnerable people — then when they get found out, everyone focuses attention on the person in the position of authority, neglecting or ignoring or forgetting the vulnerable people who got exploited.
So I respect Rabbi Michelson’s opinion that religious progressives should not cede the conversation about the Epstein cover-up to the religious right. But I feel that Robson has the right idea — I don’t want to sensationalize or glorify either Epstein, or his proven and alleged accomplices. If we do decide to talk about this case, let’s make sure our conversation is focused on the people who got molested and manipulated, and how we might get justice for them.