Beware the illusion of refuge: Abuse in the church
Be wary! Leaders in a church system can create an illusion that refuge for the abused exists, where it does not. Here are four warning signs.
Be wary! Leaders in a church system can create an illusion that refuge for the abused exists, where it does not. Here are four warning signs.
When people manipulate, intimidate, dominate in the church – that’s witchcraft. See how it looks and how fully it can fool us.
Church leaders bullying people. Rejecting God. Leading their followers to do the same. The day I realized I'd been seeing it for years.
In the middle of that dark-valley time, I often found myself alone with God, crying aloud and writing passionately in my journal. During that time too, I came to identify with David, the shepherd-poet-warrior-king, in ways I had not before. For David was also ostracized by people he trusted. And he cried out in distress - and in faith.
I will change your name! From wounded, outcast, lonely, afraid. To Confidence, Joyfulness, Overcomer, Faithfulness, Friend and Seeker of God.
Frustrated, exhausted, I realized: I would never count as an adult in my church system. Free at last, I’m embracing the adulthood God works in his own.
Waylaid by God, I saw Peter embrace good news he had resisted knowing. And I began to grasp, at last, God’s good news for women.
My first attempt to expose the abusers and abusive systems that hide in plain sight.
What if the ways the Southern Baptist Convention has handled clergy sexual abuse in its midst reflect the ways a narcissistic abuser handles getting caught out?
Cliques are by nature, exclusive. Where they occur in the church, they fragment the church. They prevent the people of God from becoming one.