Domestic Abuse Victims are All Around Us

Woe to those who enact evil statutes And to those who constantly record unjust decisions, So as to deprive the needy of justice And rob the poor of My people of their rights, So that widows may be their spoil And that they may plunder the orphans. (Isaiah 10:1-2)

I am frequently asked “how many people are in your church?” I reply, “about 20 and then around another 20 who join us online regularly on Sundays.” And you can see in the questioner’s eyes – “Hmmmm….” and read their thoughts – “Nothing happening there.” A response like this betrays the fact that the person asking the question is ignorant of the Lord’s ways. They haven’t given a thought to questions such as – “How many people faithfully follow Jesus? Or Paul? What expectation does the Bible give us as to how many people are going to genuinely follow Christ?

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
(Mat 7:13-14)

But let me get to my main point. Local churches very typically have in their membership RASNs who are hiding behind a saintly disguise. And when they are exposed, they lash out, blame, accuse, and leave. They do not repent. They leave. The darkness hates the light. And this is what has happened here in our own church, and it will happen in any church that brings the light of God’s truth upon evil faithfully. We have experienced all of this and we have concluded, correctly so, what the headline of this article states – Domestic abuse victims are all around us. They are not a rarity. RASNs (revilers, abusers, sociopaths, narcissists) LOVE to hide as saints in the church. They are the creeps who creep in among us. And in most cases, they are very comfortable there as they enjoy safety from the naivete and even willful blindness of professing Christians.

I say that domestic abuse victims are all around us, and that means also that RASNs are all around us. Not only have I seen the proof of this statement in our experience in our church over the years, but I see it in my contacts with people “out there.” In everyday contacts with strangers. When the situation and the conversation warrants it, I bring up the subject. I might hand the person a copy of my book – Unholy Charade – when I see that “look” on the person’s face that says, “I know this thing. I have or am in it right now.” Or “I have a son/daughter who is in this very situation.”

And what I am saying here is that such reactions are not rare. Once a number of years ago I spoke at a pastor’s conference, having been assigned to present the morning “devotion.” What “devotion” means in such cases is “find something in the Bible to make everyone feel good at the start of their day.” But I didn’t. What I did do is expound on Jude’s statement that creeps creep in among us in the church, abusers, sociopaths, child predators, narcissists, and I gave personal illustrations of exactly how such creeps had attacked our own church from within. Well, the crowd went totally silent. Remember, these were pastors, their wives, elders, and other church leaders. Dead quiet. An uncomfortable silence. Why? Because I had shone light upon the very evils that they had among them in their own churches and had been ignoring or simply did not know what to do about it.

Afterwards, two things happened. First of all, a number of people came up to me and said “We have exactly such a situation in our church,” or in other cases a woman might give be a look and thumbs up and mouth the words “thank you.” The second thing that happened was that one of the conference organizers called me and said that the leadership had decided not to upload my “devotion” to the group’s website, as is normally done, because “it was too sensitive a topic.” And guess what? Not too much time afterwards the ugly truth was uncovered that the very leadership of that organization had been for years covering up one of their own pastors who was abusing children in his church. That guy is now in prison and a very large number of churches left that organization.

RASNs and their victims are all around us. We need to bring up this subject in the course of our daily contacts and direct them to the truth of God’s Word about it. One way I choose to do this is to give them a copy of my book, Unholy Charade, (I am not trying to sell my books here by the way) and to provide them with the website address of this blog, send them to our site at sermonaudio.com/crc or our Youtube site at Light for Dark Times, Jeff Crippen where they will not only find truth about RASNs, but will hear about Christ and the salvation He has effected for all who will turn to Him in faith and repentance. I encourage you all to do the same as you can.