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She Said God Blessed Us: A Life Marked by Childhood Sexual Abuse in the Church Paperback – August 14, 2020
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When Gail Hovey was a teenager, her local Presbyterian church hired Georgia, a seminary-trained Christian education director. Brilliant and charismatic, Georgia used the language of faith to seduce several of her students, swearing each to secrecy. When she eventually abandoned the others and focused on Gail, Gail believed herself uniquely blessed and for the next 15 years modeled her life on Georgia's--the seminary degree, the minister husband. The relationship had a profound and lasting influence on the woman Gail became and left her a legacy of guilt and shame. Shedding light on the largely invisible issue of sexual abuse of girls by women, Hovey's brave memoir relates her decades-long journey--from East Harlem to South Africa to Brooklyn--to break free of an overwhelmingly powerful and deeply destructive first love.
- Print length267 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherExposit Books
- Publication dateAugust 14, 2020
- Reading age18 years and up
- Dimensions6 x 0.54 x 9 inches
- ISBN-101476682771
- ISBN-13978-1476682778
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“Gail Hovey’s brave and honest book shows us that clergy who abuse can also be women. This beautiful and yet haunting book is a must read for anyone concerned with stopping cycles of violence in our churches and institutions.”―Serene Jones, President, Union Theological Seminary, New York City
“Gail Hovey’s memoir is an inspiring and transformative story, brilliantly told. She takes the reader along deeply personal churns and turns, to reach powerful insights into life marked by childhood events. Gail’s imagery of the facets of violation, power, damage, as well as clarity, comfort and completion, echo familiar sentiments in the stories of military sexual trauma survivors I’ve heard, who seek a fit for events that don’t, in their heroic lives.”―Christine Burnett, Military Sexual Trauma Prevention and Response Program Manager, San Antonio, Texas
“Gail Hovey’s memoir is harrowing and haunting. Searingly honest, full of terrible truths, She Said God Blessed Us shows us, in agonizing truth, the effects of sexual abuse in her church. Hovey’s story shines a light on a history some would prefer to remain untold--but in so doing, helps us all continue our search for justice, and for grace.”―Jennifer Finney Boylan, author of Good Boy and She’s Not There
“In She Said God Blessed Us, Gail Hovey introduces us to a firebrand who confronts her world with a fierceness and determination to fight for change. As she participates in several of the pivotal social justice movements of our times, from the fight against American racism in the 1960s to the campaign to end South African apartheid in the decades that followed, Hovey grows to recognize how abuse of power also shaped her young life--abuse at the hands of her religious mentor. Wrenching and celebratory, Hovey’s memoir depicts a long struggle to move through guilt and pain toward a peace she can claim as her own.”―Elliot Long, Emmett Till Interpretive Center.
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Exposit Books (August 14, 2020)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 267 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1476682771
- ISBN-13 : 978-1476682778
- Reading age : 18 years and up
- Item Weight : 13.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.54 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #3,591,981 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,201 in Sociology Books on Abuse
- #5,818 in LGBTQ+ Demographic Studies
- #33,894 in Women's Biographies
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
![Gail Hovey](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/912NvPkY92L._SY600_.jpg)
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The writing is excellent and character development very compelling. I found myself rooting for Gail and wanting her to understand how she is manipulated by her abuser’s skill and power over her. But she leads you through her process over a lifetime of learning who she is despite and as a result because of this part of her history. This is very satisfying. Her story is more than the history of her abuse, because Gail has lived an extraordinary life of social and political service through extraordinary times. She has persisted and found fulfillment and happiness in the end in her life as a mother, wife and fighter. Many people who have suffered will find strength and courage to do the same from Gail’s powerful story.
in awe of our youth pastor, though not erotically, went on to seminary, didn’t go into the ministry. Gail Hovey nails it.
More importantly, she tells a poignant story with painful honesty and extraordinary eloquence. This is an important book, not only—or even mainly—because of its timeliness, but because of its humanity.
Eloquent portrayal of intersection of gender, race, class & nation ✔
Incredible memory and incredible honesty with self ✔
Sensitive portrayals of other persons featured in her stories ✔
Of interest to those who have faced similar personal issues ✔
Of interest to anyone ready to connect the personal and the political ✔