In Defense of John of God: Using Sexual Assault Allegations to Manipulate Power Dynamics
João Teixeira de Faria, known as “John of God,” was propelled to spiritual stardom after Oprah featured his healing methods on her show in 2013. Not only did he draw thousands of Braziilian’s attentions, but people around the globe began to follow him and attend his spiritual center in the small town of Abadiânia, in the central Brazilian state of Goiás.
Brazilian police requested that the faith healer face criminal charges related to sexual assault accusations made by by hundreds of women. João de Deus gave his testimony on Sunday (December 16th), when he was arrested, and denied ever abusing his patients at his center.
As John of God has denied these claims, this again brings to the surface deep societal and ethical questions about power and manipulation of political systems through accusations of sexual assault.
#MeToo gained traction for a reason in 2018, and while a positive outcome is that the conversation is being had openly about flagrant systematic abuses of women, a negative outcome has been the loss of reason when it comes to our legal processes and due process. Many accused are now having their careers destroyed publicly based on unconfirmed, uninvestigated sexual allegations.
Something that many fear to speak about is that there exists true power in how women may manipulate the perception and politics to push a certain agenda - without any foundation of truth or investigation to back it up. There is a fear in discussing this, because many have witnessed the downfall of huge public figures, people that are penalized without even sitting in a court of law. Women can be taken advantage of by politicians and men in power to bring down people like John of God who has become a threat to the system while underminind the authority and control of these men.
Take into account Judge Kavanaugh, who had his reputation destroyed before the public in the mere span of a week. Several of the accusations against him have now proven to be falsified, and yet, during the week before his hearing before the Senate, the vitriol was spread far and wide and used to discret a man who had not yet received due process in the eyes of the law.
So where does this leave us as a society? What happens when movements launched to seek fairness and justice morph into crusades built on fear? We need to consider that there are three realities when it comes to sex and manipulation:
1) Women can get manipulated for other’s agenda and fall into the trap of following others’s agendas as victims.
2) Women may even push their own agenda, and use sex to manipulate men in order to gain advantages.
3) Men can also manipulate women’s emotions using false allegations to rig the system and gain upper hand through women.
All of these realities exist and we must face the possibilities. When it comes to defending due process in these highly visible and public cases, which one of us will speak up to defend the rights of the accused?When it comes to someone like John of God, should we quickly make up our minds and destroy one’s credibility and life’s work when as a group we are not asking questions?