Bucking the system: Shunning, submission, Jesus
Jesus grew up in a religious system God had instigated, and people had hijacked to use for their own ends. Jesus’ life shows us when and how to buck the system.
“Burned out on religion? I will give you rest”
“Religion almost killed me,” she said, then paused, waiting for my response. I had no words. But I believed her – and I could identify. She saw it in my eyes.
O say, can you see?
I did not dream that, in my lifetime, leaders in the US church would convince so many to embrace such skewed views of God, Christianity and country.
Exploited in the church, but Leah no more
“I’m Leah!” I cried. I had given myself to a church culture that had used me and used me, while profoundly rejecting my personhood, my adulthood, my worth, me.
Celebrity culture in the church
It’s so enticing, and so much a part of the US evangelical church culture. Yet the lure of celebrity can deceive us into agreeing with much that is not God.
To the exiles scattered by toxic church
Maybe the church has become bewildering to you. Leaders you trusted and people you respected are acting in ways that do not reflect who Jesus is, nor what they profess to believe. They have turned on anyone among them who appears to threaten the status quo. What is going on?
Nat Arnett / freeimages.com
Beware the illusion of refuge: Abuse in the church
Leaders in our church systems can create an illusion that refuge for the abused exists, where it does not. How can we recognize when this is happening?
The truth will set you free
Since childhood, I’ve treasured Jesus’ words, “the truth will set you free.” Now I see this diamond in its setting. I hear the urgency in his cry to us all.
Witchcraft in the church
In the church, those obsessed with manipulating, intimidating and dominating can pose as those serving God. And we can be very fooled for a very long time.
When church leaders bully people and reject God
The day I realized what I had been seeing for years, it broke my heart: church leaders bullying people, rejecting God, leading their followers to do the same.