“Thank God I was raped”

If you find that headline offensive, don’t take it up with me; talk to the folks at ThankGodI: Empowering You To Inspire The World. A cursory glance at ThankGodI.com shows they want to establish their woo credentials right off the bat. The site features endorsements from the creators of Chicken Soup for the Soul and contributors to The Secret, which is another way of saying, “This offer is not available to rational human beings”.

The crux of the biscuit, so to speak, can be found in their helpful video, featuring a cavalcade of things for which to be grateful, including “Thank God I Have AIDS” and “Thank God My Baby Died”:

I don’t want anyone to think that I’m making fun of rape victims or people who have experienced profound tragedies; believe me, that’s not my intention at all. What I want to point out is that the people at ThankGodI.com are the ones making light of people (and $$$ from, most likely) wishing to overcome tragic events.

As much of an antisocial fuckhead as I am, I would never in my life wish rape on someone, so I find it hard to place ThankGodI.com’s philosophy in the second person and say, “Thank God you got raped.” I’m all for people overcoming personal tragedies, but in spite of ThankGodI.com’s claims of being about victory, not victimhood, I think coming out and proclaiming gratitude for horrible events in your life is a bit self-indulgent and tends to place the focus on the tragedy, not the solution to coping with the tragedy.

For example, a drug addict who finds a solution in a church, twelve-step program, or any other means of recovery shouldn’t be grateful for being a drug addict, they should be grateful that they found a productive means of escaping the life of addiction.

Even though I’m an atheist, I don’t see religion as a bad thing. If someone wants to use God, Jesus, the teachings of Buddha… or whatever else to help get through some sort of crisis, more power to them. Nevertheless, I can’t fathom expressing gratitude to a deity for something horrible. A person might say, “thank God I was raped” or “thank God my baby died,” but what happens if they get raped again or have another miscarriage? Should they be even more grateful, or do they start wondering if God has it in for them?

I’m guessing that this concept is geared to people with extremely poor coping skills, as well as an inabilty to emapthize with others. The ThankGodI program surely must be a difficult sell to those who have experienced tragedies involving loss of multiple lives. Someone saying, “thank God for September 11,” would come across as incredibly insensitive, regardless of how many loved ones they lost in the World Trade Center attacks.

I’ve always been grateful that I don’t know anyone who is into The Secret, and I certainly hope the ThankGodI concept doesn’t catch on. To put it another way, Thank God this shit isn’t very popular.

Tip of the hat to Mark