Categories
christianity misogyny rape rape culture

Retired Greek Orthodox bishop: “A woman does not get raped without wanting it”

The Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Dodoni has a big mouth

A prominent retired bishop in the Greek Orthodox church — known honorifically as the Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Dodoni — has caused a bit of a stir with some bizarre comments about rape.

In an interview with Skai TV, the ex-bishop mused about rape, declaring that there can’t be rape without consent. β€œA woman does not sit and get raped without wanting it,” he told the interviewers, who apparently tried to explain to him how exactly rape works.

The ex-bishop also declared that women can’t conceive as a result of rape, so there is no need to make abortion legal in the case of rape. Oh, and no one should use contraceptives, because the whole point of sex is to make babies.

The ex-bishop’s remarks were quickly condemned by politicians and Greek Orthodox church officials, with the Holy Synod, the church’s ruling body, saying that his comments on rape were β€œunacceptable for an Orthodox cleric and offensive for human beings and especially for women and victims of rape.”

I wonder what Roosh, who is some sort of Orthodox Christian and who once proposed that rape be made legal on private property — would think about all this.

Follow me on Mastodon.

Send tips to dfutrelle at gmail dot com.

We Hunted the Mammoth relies on support from you, its readers, to survive. So please donate here if you can, or at David-Futrelle-1 on Venmo.

46 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
oncewasmagnificent
oncewasmagnificent
2 years ago

The idea is that nothing bad ever happens to good women, so if something did happen, they deserved it. It’s very appealing, because it means you don’t need to take responsibility for your actions, and you don’t need to help people.

Exactly. In this case it might be backed up by ignorance of biology, but really it’s just one more thing on the never ending list of Just World Fallacies. It’s why women are much more likely than men to acquit rather than convict accused rapists.

Come to think of it, a lot of popular – and wrong – ideas about illness or maintaining health are predicated on “just world” ideas. The vitamin industry makes a great deal of its profits from people believing that if they eat and drink the “right” stuff, participate or abstain from certain activities and generally live “right” then they won’t get sick and they won’t die early. When it comes to living “right” then being in the wrong place at the wrong time is “asking for it”. And the beat goes on, rape is always and everywhere, entirely or partly, a woman’s own fault.

So a woman juror or parishioner in the pews, will accept unblinkingly a man’s assertion that rape is the woman’s fault – if it happened at all. I do everything right and I’ve never been raped, she must have done something wrong. The idea that we’re all at risk, all the time, anywhere and everywhere, is more than these people can cope with.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-world_hypothesis

LollyPop
LollyPop
2 years ago

@oncewasmagnificent

Not to boomer-bash (I admit that generational in-fighting is largely unhelpful and based on stereotypes) but I notice this very much in older people, particularly if they can remember the hard work of manual jobs but also benefited from the welfare state, NHS, cheap houses etc.

Because they “worked hard” and this “hard work” resulted in a mortgage-free life and prosperity, a certain kind of person can’t help but feel that this is the natural order of the world and those who are failing aren’t trying.

As an example, heard otherwise perfectly lovely and sensitive people say things like “I believe you can make yourself an invalid” when discussing people needing benefits for chronic illness, because bad things can’t happen to good people right? It must be a matter of ATTITUDE.

It also means people for whom the outcomes were good must naturally have done the right thing. Luck or circumstance had nothing to do with it. It was all down to them being good people and their hard work. Of course, what constitutes hard work is very nebulous in this context. A stay-at-home mum keeping a perfect home with her husband’s earnings is working hard, a single mum struggling with two jobs and a council flat has made poor choices and needs to try harder.

opposablethumbs
opposablethumbs
2 years ago

Because they β€œworked hard” and this β€œhard work” resulted in a mortgage-free life and prosperity, a certain kind of person can’t help but feel that this is the natural order of the world and those who are failing aren’t trying.

@LollyPop, exactly this. The fear of our own helplessness in the face of all the things in the universe we cannot in fact control is pervasive and unbearable, making us not just liable but maybe even desperately eager to embrace the whole just-world illusion. And of course we tend to blur the distinctions between what risks/probabilities we can and can’t affect :-/ (Hence superstitions of all kinds, or even just doing the if-I-finish-this-task-before-the-end-of-the-music-then-X-will-work-out thing, and having to consciously remind oneself that it’s bollocks)

Couple that with a bit of vindictiveness, and robert is one’s parent’s misogynistic sibling; got to believe “they brought it on themselves” because the alternative is unthinkable πŸ™

Last edited 2 years ago by opposablethumbs
oncewasmagnificent
oncewasmagnificent
2 years ago

The better example I thought of later was anti-vax hysteria. Even before Covid showed up we had/have many thousands of parents refusing to vaccinate their kids. “I feed them wholesome food and” … litany of claims to parental virtues. A lot of these morons claim that people, esp baby people, did perfectly fine without vaccinations in previous generations. I have to presume that their outdoor activities never included visits to old graveyards.

but I also have a very nice friend, salt of the earth, do anything for you type of bloke. Ive been absolutely scrupulous about getting vaccinated, avoiding shopping centres, wearing masks. He constantly belittles this approach, All you need is a good strong immune system. I’ve told him again and again that my own immune system is so strong it’s been trying to kill me for decades. He knows how crook I am, he’s very supportive and sympathetic, but he has not shifted an inch in two whole years. He seems to accept that my admirable, sizable collection of auto-immune diseases are real, but it seems nothing will shift him on illnesses and other medical problems. A lot of it is selfprotective denialism I reckon. His partner is partly paralysed, stuck in a wheelchair forever, and suffers horrible pain despite massive doses of high-powered pain medications. It’s not very nice, but it’s a bit easier on him than facing their horrible reality I think.

GSS ex-noob
GSS ex-noob
2 years ago

@Alan:

 robert is one’s parent’s misogynistic sibling

I shall be purloining this forthwith.

opposablethumbs
opposablethumbs
2 years ago

@GSS ex-noob I’m well made up by your liking the phrase πŸ™‚ , and especially flattered to get mistaken for Alan! πŸ˜€ 😁

Last edited 2 years ago by opposablethumbs
Full Metal Ox
2 years ago

@opposablethumbs

I’m well made up by your liking the phrase, and especially flattered to get mistaken for Alan!

Sheepish confession: it took this benighted Yank a whole day to decipher:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob's_your_uncle

Last edited 2 years ago by Full Metal Ox
Alan Robertshaw
Alan Robertshaw
2 years ago

@ opposable thumbs

I’m not sure being mistaken for me is flattering; but do you mind if I have you on standby in case I ever have to go on an ID parade?

As for the phrase, one that gets used here is “Bob’s your aunty’s live-in lover.”

opposablethumbs
opposablethumbs
2 years ago

@Full Metal Ox I generally fail to resist any temptation that’s going I’m afraid, particularly little bits of Silliness with Words :-s

@Alan I’d be delighted, though I’d fail catastrophically at trying to pass myself off as you! πŸ€” (Maybe if I kept silent and wore a disguise… 😎)

Last edited 2 years ago by opposablethumbs
GSS ex-noob
GSS ex-noob
2 years ago

@opposablethumbs: Ack! Sorry. It just seemed very Alan-y!

(The place to type in your comment being at the top doesn’t help.)

At any rate, you get my two mostly-opposable* thumbs up.

*Arthritis, y’know

Alan Robertshaw
Alan Robertshaw
2 years ago

@ opposable thumbs

Maybe if I kept silent 

If there’s one thing that would give away that you weren’t me that would be it. πŸ™‚

Crip Dyke
Crip Dyke
2 years ago

@opposablethumbs:

What, something to make you look thoroughly disreputable? That might work.

opposablethumbs
opposablethumbs
2 years ago

@GSS ex-noob, @Alan
I should endeavour to seem Alan-y as much as possible, but I’m afraid I lack 99.99999% of the requisite backstory etc. – maybe I can masquerade as Alan who for reasons best known to the scriptwriter has gone undercover as a translator, that might work πŸ™‚ . Will get my York nephew to voice-coach me, to improve chances (if you’ve gone Cornwall, though, I’ve got no chance!).

@Crip Dyke au contraire I’m sure Alan looks thoroughly reputable! πŸ˜€
(a bit dubiously reputable is my own natural state, though :-s )

Last edited 2 years ago by opposablethumbs
GSS ex-noob
GSS ex-noob
2 years ago

“A Bit Dubiously Reputable” is the name of my next band. Or at least a song.

opposablethumbs
opposablethumbs
2 years ago

@GSS ex-noob I would so listen to that! πŸ˜„

GSS ex-noob
GSS ex-noob
2 years ago

@OpThumbs: Heck, you need to be in the band! If you don’t have any musical talent, that’s what the tambourine is for.

opposablethumbs
opposablethumbs
2 years ago

Backing vocals, plz! (like, with harmonies and such; I love doing those) πŸ™‚

Last edited 2 years ago by opposablethumbs
Serge
Serge
2 years ago

I really want to know what went through this guy’s head before he gave this interview. Did he think he’d figured something important out, and just had to share? Had he been hanging onto this for years, and figured “fuck it, now or never?” Guys saying outrageous things about rape in interviews apropos of nothing is kind of a trope at this point, and I really want to understand how it happens.

GSS ex-noob
GSS ex-noob
2 years ago

@OT: I adore harmony (which is good since I’m an alto), so it will be so!

Surplus to Requirements
Surplus to Requirements
2 years ago

@Serge:

Guys saying outrageous things about rape in interviews apropos of nothing is kind of a trope at this point, and I really want to understand how it happens.

Trolling.

Or perhaps grift:

  1. Say some bit of outrageous, far-right twaddle.
  2. Await backlash.
  3. Whine about being “cancelled”, via the massive media platforms that are still amplifying your voice, open up a GoFundMe, and beg for financial assistance to fight the big mean liberal media establishment.
  4. Profit!

Also used for ginning up far-right votes if running as a Republican for some American office; just ask Todd Akin and various other Tea Party kooks. This tactic predates Trump by a significant number of years.

@GSS ex-noob:

If you don’t have any musical talent, that’s what the tambourine is for.

Accordion.

opposablethumbs
opposablethumbs
2 years ago

@GSS ex-noob, looking forward to it! πŸ˜€ πŸ₯‚πŸ˜Ž