Britney Spears: The Rollercoaster Journey of Fame, Freedom, and Redemption
Britney Spears has been one of the most iconic figures in pop culture history, and her journey from a beloved pop star to a fierce symbol of personal freedom has captivated the world. For over a decade, Britney was under a controversial 13-year conservatorship, which controlled much of her personal and professional life. The #FreeBritney movement, fueled by fans and activists alike, became aâŠ
Resenha de "The Woman in Me" (3 estrelas): "It's Britney, bitch!"
Journalismâs Role in Moral Narratives and Synopsis of Clergy-Related Abuse
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): The Humanist
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/03/12
Three days ago, I addressed a Croatian Christian association via virtual conference on clergy-related abuse, emphasizing journalismâs essential role as a watchdog exposing institutional misconduct. I argued that victims should be the primary voices, institutions secondary, with journalists facilitating balanced narratives. I urged acknowledgment of abuse without condemning entire denominations, advocating evidence-based investigations, interfaith dialogue, and robust reforms to protect victims and faith integrity. Citing historical scandals and cultural movements as context, I stressed that transparency and accountability are imperative. This speech within the context of the entirety of the conference will be shared with the Ecumenical Patriarch, EU Parliament, Roman Catholic Church, UN in Geneva, UNICEF, World Council, World Council of Churches, World Health Organization, and other major institutions, ensuring accountability and healing universally.
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Journalism, first and foremost, is a human enterprise. Itâs built on human observation, written for human consumption, and, primarily, concerns human enterprises. Just democracies, fair societies, accountable power, and the like, require journalists as critical watchdogs to bring otherwise hidden stories to the forefront. Clergy-related abuse is a complex and subtle issue with blunt outputs.
The primary voices of clergy-related abuse should be the victim who can give indications of patterns and see firsthand weaknesses in institutions that have misbehaved, abuse, and, often told lies or merely partial, softened truths about it. The secondary voices are everyone else in the institutional setup leading to the abuse in the system in the first place. Religious institutions have a minority of persons in positions of authority, unfortunately, who have abused. Journalists are a tertiary voice around these two.
The role of journalists is working with victims, with the majority of clergy who have not abused, and other researchers, to gather the narratives and collate those to get the wider scope of the patterns of the minority of clergy who have abused. People take the accountability problem seriously, as itâs bad for the victims, bad for the laity, bad for the image and authority of the clergy, and, essentially, bad for the representation of the faith. If you care about the future of Orthodoxy, then you care about this as an issue relevant to the integrity of the faith.
So, I wanted to take these few minutes to recognize the substantial problem before us, for a few reasons. Some factors played into the situation in which we find ourselves. First and foremost, the crimes of a select number of clergy. Second, these crimes went institutionally unchecked for many, many years in the largest denominations of Christianityâalmost as a prelude to the broader cultural movements witnessed in many Western democratic societies.
Third, a tendency to reject the claims of victims when the prevailing evidence presents the vast majority of reported cases in the extreme cases of misconduct, i.e., rape, as evidentiarily supportable. False allegations happen, but these are a small minority and should not represent a false dichotomy of support. Institutions should establish robust processes to investigate all claims, addressing false allegations decisively while preserving trust in genuine victims.
Fourth, the diversification of the faith landscape of many Western cultures, particularly with the rise of non-religious communities and subsequent ways of life. One result is positive: Citizens clearly are more free than not to believe and practice as they wish. One negative result, the over-reach in non-religious commentary stereotyping churches as hotbeds of abuse, which creates problemsâlet alone being false. It doesnât solve the problem, while misrepresenting the scope of it. It makes the work of the majority of clergy to create robust institutions of accountability for the minority of abusers more difficult and onerous. Itâs comprehensively counterproductive.
If we want to reduce the incidence and, ideally, eliminate clergy-related abuse, for the first, we should acknowledge some clergy abuse without misrepresenting The Clergy of any Christian denomination as a universal acid on the dignity of those who wish to practice the Christian faith. Itâs a disservice to interbelief efforts, makes the non-religious look idiotic and callous, and blankets every clergy with the crimes of every one of their seminarian brothers, and occasional sister, in Christ.
For the second, we should work on a newer narrative context for the wider story, see the partial successes of wider cultural movements, and inform of unfortunate trends in and out of churches for balance. For the third, we simply need to reorient incorrect instinctual reactions against individuals coming forward with claims as the problem rather than investigations as an appropriate response, maintaining reputation of accused and accuser, while having robust mechanisms for justice in either case. For the fourth, some in the non-religious communities, who see themselves as grounded in Reason and Compassion alongside Evidence, should consider the reasoning in broad-based accusation and consider with compassion the impacts on individuals in faith communities with the authority who are working hard to build institutions capable of evidence-based justice on one of the most inflammatory and sensitive types of abuse. Interfaith dialogue can be slow, quiet, but comprehensive and robust in the long-termâmore effective and aligned with both the ideals of Christ or Reason, Compassion, and Evidence.
To these four contexts, journalists can provide a unifying conduit to the public in democratic societies to discuss the meaning of justice in the context of the Christian faith living in democratic, pluralistic societies. We cannot âsolveâ the past errors, but can provide a modicum of justice for victims and create a future in which incidents are tamped to zero for a new foundation to be laid. Then âupon that rock,â we do not have repeats in the Church as we have witnessed in other contexts discussed over the last few decades:
1991 â Tailhook Scandal (U.S. military sexual harassment scandal)
2012 â âInvisible Warâ documentary (exposing military sexual assault)
2014 â #YesAllWomen (response to the Isla Vista killings)
2017 â Australiaâs Royal Commission Report (child sexual abuse in institutions)
2017 â #MuteRKelly (boycott of R. Kelly over sexual abuse allegations)
2018 â #MeTooBollywood (Bollywoodâs reckoning with sexual misconduct)
2018 â #MeTooPublishing (exposing sexual harassment in the literary world)
2018 â #WhyIDidntReport (response to Brett Kavanaugh hearings)
2019 â Southern Baptist Convention Abuse Scandal (Houston Chronicle exposĂ©)
2019 â K-Popâs #BurningSun (sex trafficking and police corruption scandal)
2020 â #IAmVanessaGuillen (military abuse and murder case)
2021 â #FreeBritney (exposing exploitation and control of female artists)
2021 â Haredi Jewish Communitiesâ Abuse Cases (journalistic investigations by Shana Aaronson & Hella Winston)
2002-Present â Catholic Church Sexual Abuse Crisis (Boston Globeâs Spotlightinvestigation)
2017-Present â #MexeuComUmaMexeuComTodas (Brazilâs movement against misogyny in media and politics)
2020-Present â #MeTooGymnastics (Larry Nassarâs abuse in U.S. gymnastics)
2020-Present â #SayHerName (Black women and LGBTQ+ victims of police violence)
2021-Present â #MeTooIncest (focus on childhood sexual abuse within families)
License & Copyright
In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. ©Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use or duplication of material without express permission from Scott Douglas Jacobsen strictly prohibited, excerpts and links must use full credit to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with direction to the original content.
#BurningSun #FreeBritney #IAmVanessaGuillen #MeTooBollywood #MeTooGymnastics #MeTooIncest #MeTooPublishing #MexeuComUmaMexeuComTodas #MuteRKelly #SayHerName #WhyIDidntReport #YesAllWomen
Britney Spears
đ | https://tinyurl.com/23ovenxw
Tags: #Actress #American #BritneySpears #Singer #FreeBritney, #BritneyArmy, #BritneySpearsMusic, #PrincessOfPop, #SpearsFan, #BritneySpearsFan, #BritneySpearsLive, #BritneySpearsAlbum, #BritneyMovement, #PopIconBritney
Britney Spears
đ | https://tinyurl.com/2xo7mtuc
Tags: #Actress #American #BritneySpears #Singer #FreeBritney #BritneyArmy #BritneyMusic #PrincessOfPop #BritneySpearsFan #PieceOfMe #BritneyMastodon #ToxicLove #ItsBritneyBitch #SpearsRevolution
Britney Spears
đ | https://tinyurl.com/26r9lybh
Tags: #BritneySpears #Celebrity #Video #YouTube #BritneyArmy, #FreeBritney, #BritneyMusic, #PieceOfMe, #OopsIDidItAgain, #Toxic, #Womanizer, #BritneyPopIcon, #BabyOneMoreTime, #StrongerBritney
Britney Spears
đ | https://tinyurl.com/26gnkrwx
Tags: #BritneySpears #Celebrity #Video #YouTube #BritneyArmy, #FreeBritney, #BritneySpearsMusic, #PopPrincess, #PieceOfMe, #ItsBritneyBitch, #OopsIDidItAgain, #BritneySpearsFan, #BritneyStrong, #Godney
https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/116066-001-A/britney-sans-filtre-1-5/?utm_source=ios&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=116066-001-A
Petit retour en arriĂšre et dĂ©cryptageâŠ
#freebritney #sexisme #popmusic
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It looks like a #FreeBritney operation part two.
"I love Britney Spears!" - HANNAH, #FreeBritney, Rehash #rehashpodcast #BritneySpears #HappyBirthdayBritneySpears
Watched that Framing Britney Spears episode on Hulu, & it makes a pretty damn good case for just letting her have the freedom to be her own person--the kind of person none of us ever really allowed her to be. Hope she one day gets the freedom she has always deserved. #freebritney
