“How Moral Panics Help Maintain Immoral Practices”

A recent piece by Pro Publica details a pattern of suppressing and dismissing cases of sexual assault on the campus of Liberty University. Liberty University is a private evangelical Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia. As reported by Pro Publica, some female students would report their assault, and campus officials would submit them to a version of victim-blaming. The officials suggested that the students had violated the “Liberty Way,” the school’s campus policy against drinking and fraternizing with the opposite sex. Students told Pro Publica that some school staff did not even report their cases to the Title IX office, a legal requirement. This has been going on for years.

How?

How can an institution of this size and visibility carve out this immoral space and thrive in it for so long? What allows staff to feel justified in minimizing complaints of sexual assault? While there are many explanations, including the obvious one that Liberty University was concerned about their image of producing good Christian women and men. But I want to offer an explanation that may not be so obvious.

Mary Kate McElroy reported her assault to her coaches, but the officials at Liberty did nothing. How does this kind of thing happen? Image from Pro Publica

Moral panics.

By moral panics, I mean taking anecdotal instances and making them seem more prevalent than they actually are (the panic) and then demonizing the groups associated with these…