Things We Don't Talk About
- \'rant\ : to talk in a noisy, excited, or declamatory manner, Exposing Legalism, Things We Don't Talk About
Shhh! Don’t Talk About the Can’t Talk Rule.
As I continue my way through “The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse” I am recognizing more and more that the extreme circumstances I faced as a teen and young adult are just a tiny piece of a larger problem. It is making me rethink the focus of my blog and the book I want to write. It’s easy to get tunnel vision looking at your own experiences. It’s easy to judge people who grew up like I did and left Christianity. But I’m realizing they have very valid reasons… “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them” (Ephesians 5:11 ESV). There is a lie spread throughout…
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An Uncomfortable, Awkward Topic – Spiritual Abuse
This book, “The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse,” that I am reading…wow, it’s eye opening! I resonate with so much of it from my own life experiences. When I started this blog just over four years ago, I thought I was writing to people hurt by legalistic systems like Bill Gothard’s Institute in Basic Principles (the place that wounded me). But as I wrote and heard back from my readers, I realized that many of you had never heard of Bill Gothard. And yet, we still struggled with similar false ideas about God and performance based faith. At first I thought maybe Gothard had subtly influenced more of Evangelical Christianity that…
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“Church Hurt” is a lot Like Miscarriage
I’m starting to think that “church hurt” is a lot like miscarriage. It’s way more common than we would ever imagine but no one talks about it. It’s been a busy couple of weeks. I had a dinner date that made me rethink my entire book idea…Devoured a book that blew up my old “cult” and it’s leader…And am in the middle of another book focused on spiritual abuse. I feel like I have been thrown ten miles up into space and am looking down with a new, much wider perspective. What do these have in common? What is the theme that is emerging in my mind? Broken people break…
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A Plane Ride, Politics, and Pharisees
Full Disclosure: This is a rant which may mention politics. But it’s more than politics. I spent the entire flight home talking with a beautiful woman named Patricia. She was sweet, kind, passionate, friendly, and liberal. Listening to Patricia, I was reminded again where Christians and the Conservative Right went wrong. Don't miss a thing. Click here to sign up for my newsletter. Patricia loves people, but she doesn’t sense that love from conservatives. She was raised in a church but struggles to link Jesus with the people and politics that claim His name. I feel her pain. Too often, Christian and political conservatives have one thing in common.…
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There is No Magic Formula, But We Still Have Hope…
In my last post, I wrote about ways we try to manipulate God, twist His arm, and push the right buttons on His “heavenly vending machine” to get what we want. While most of us would never come out and say it this bluntly, the formulaic way we treat God speaks for itself. We believe the lie that there are specific spiritual steps we can follow to achieve a desired outcome. We try to claim Bible verses (out of context) and say they promise things like physical healing. And when none of these things work, we blame ourselves or others for a “lack of faith” (as though there is a certain…
