When I was 14 or 15 years old and still a Christian, a boy who was older than me (17, I think) told me that God wanted me to be his girlfriend. I didn’t reciprocate but I was worried enough about it that I asked an older female friend, Cathy, what she thought. Luckily for me, she said that if God wanted me to be in a relationship with him, I would feel the same way about it. Thank you, Cathy. 

And thankfully the boy accepted that the answer was no.

The girl in this story (Sarah Carr) didn’t have a Cathy. She finally got justice after nearly 25 years.

The pastor who was betrothed to a child — Friendly Atheist

She has also started a group to help people in the same situation:

the Reclamation Collective, a non-profit group that creates space for those “harmed within religious and spiritual spaces.”