Over the past several months, many people have felt compelled to come out as victims of sexual assault through the #MeToo movement. Jules Woodson is one of the women who used the movement to bring to light what happened to her when she was 17 years old.

Andy Savage, now a pastor at Highpoint Church in Memphis, was a youth minister to Woodson in Houston when he was 22. Recently, Woodson emailed Savage and asked him if he remembered assaulting her, to which she received no reply. This accusation came out and Savage addressed it in front of his church congregation in Memphis and received a standing ovation after admitting to and taking full blame for his "sins."

My question is: why does he receive a standing ovation from the church for his admission of wrongdoings but Jules Woodson doesn't receive the same sort of recognition for bravely coming forward about what happened to her and how the church treated it when she was a child?

It should be mentioned that the church knew when she was 17 that this incident had happened to her. She told one of the head pastors about it and his question was, "So, you're telling me you participated?"

That's a baffling question to ask a 17-year-old girl after she admits to you that one of the pastors under you assaulted her. Regardless of her participation or not that doesn't mean she consented willingly (consent by guilt, coercion, or because he was an authority figure over her doesn't mean she consented fully). I mean this man was her youth pastor, she trusted him.

During the incident, she wasn't sure why he was doing this and thought maybe it was because he loved her. She was a teenager that he was supposed to be helping guide spiritually. The pastor she told said not to tell anyone about it and that they would handle it, but obviously a teenage girl can't silently struggle with this and word got out to some people.

Savage left the church with no one fully knowing why or what had happened. Instead of immediately hearing this and taking action to remove Andy Savage from his youth pastor position, they waited until more people than they would have liked knew about it and decided he should leave.

So here we are 20 years later, Savage is working in the ministry again at Highpoint in Memphis after resigning for some time. His co-workers at the church were fully aware of the incident upon his hiring and believed that he had resolved it and has received redemption from God. This comes up and he addresses it publicly to the church rather than answering Woodson's email privately and it being dealt with that way.

That raises a red flag for me.

Savage said, "I apologized and sought forgiveness from her, her parents, her discipleship group, the church staff, and the church leadership, who informed the congregation. In agreement with wise counsel, I took every step to respond in a biblical way. I resigned from the ministry and moved back home to Memphis. I accepted full responsibility for my actions."

A couple things about this statement: First, there should have been no doubt that he took responsibility for his actions. He was the adult during this incident, he instigated the incident and begged her not to tell anyone after it happened. Second, Woodson has issues with his statement because it isn't what she says happened. She has told WMC News that this wasn't what he did.

"His apology isn’t enough because number one, he's lying about how he handled it. He never came to me, the church told him he couldn’t talk to me and they told me I couldn’t talk to him," said Woodson.

I firmly believe that this public address was all for show and just a way to show that Savage as a pastor has struggled like any other person has, and to let people know that you can be "forgiven" for the things you do in your past no matter how they affect someone's life.

This isn't a way that I as a Christian feel Christianity should be looked at. If you think about this way, Woodson could have stood in front of that congregation and told what had happened to her by Savage and she wouldn't have gotten that response, no one would have given her a standing ovation or even applauded her bravery for speaking up on such a difficult topic that the church tried to suppress. Because in many churchgoers eyes, it's blasphemous to even consider the idea that someone leading your church could do this, that it must have been her fault, she seduced him, she made him do it by what she was wearing or whatever ridiculous excuse they come up with.

Andy Savage shouldn't have been allowed to be in a leadership position in the ministry after this incident. The church shouldn't have tried to silence Jules Woodson and keep this from the congregation to save the face of the church. Yes, it's a difficult topic to discuss at church but when someone is put in charge of helping guide your child's spirituality and ends up taking advantage of that trusting relationship there is an issue, not to mention the irony of him teaching a True Love Waits seminar after the incident.

Silencing victims only leads to more turmoil and hatred towards the incident for them. Church is supposed to be a refuge and a place where people find answers to guide them. The last thing it should be is a place where you should worry about being sexually assaulted by the person who should be helping you.