Bullying in the church
It’s agonizing to be bullied. And in the church? The agony multiplies exponentially when victims have believed deceptive abusers to be godly Christians.
It’s agonizing to be bullied. And in the church? The agony multiplies exponentially when victims have believed deceptive abusers to be godly Christians.
"How long will you try to go both ways?" Elijah cried. Where people identified with God cling to deep double-mindedness, they empower a two-headed snake.
Even in suffering, even in exile, may you find growing within you: A life energetic and blazing with holiness, conceived by God himself. Life healed and whole. Laughter and singing. Genuine faith proved genuine. Living hope. One-anothering love. A future that starts now.
It's the best-loved verse in Jeremiah, and God says it to exiles. He announces to people who feel they have no future at all: "I know what I have planned for you. I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you. I have plans to give you a future filled with hope."
The work of exile – the work God wants to do through it – is to free you from bondage that masquerades as relationship, to draw you to himself, to show you what is and is not love. Perhaps the hardest thing you can do in exile – and by far the most freeing – is to stay there until it has done its work.
Long ago and far away, God promised a scattered people, “I will be a sanctuary to you during your time in exile,” and, “I will gather you back.”
I believe in breaking the silence of secrecy that abusers impose. I also believe that, for a survivor, silence is sometimes the most spiritual choice.
This book is a call to cultural humility by a woman who writes with a lot of humility. It's a call to us who are white to press in to see that what we count "normal" may not be others' normal at all.
Review of "Forgive Us: Confessions of a Compromised Faith" - a book that offers compelling histories of some of the church's greatest shortcomings, along with heartfelt confessions and reasons for hope.
"I would like to share this prayer with you and ask you to pray with me that, as the Bride of Christ, we will continue to learn to 'walk in beauty' with our fellow man and God." - Mark Charles