The teaching of the church has compounded much of this hurt rather than alleviating it. Victims of continued abuse have been told they must stay married, and if they do get divorced, they have been told they cannot remarry until their former partner has died. And sometimes those who have…
Read MoreCategory: Churches/Church Response Page 18 of 23
I don’t like to think about spiritual abuse, or abusive churches, or abusive pastors. I don’t like it. For one reason, this is because the abusers I have had to deal with over the years as a pastor LOVE to accuse me and our elders and our church of having…
Read MoreLuk 6:27 “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, We saw an example in last Friday's post of how "christian" fiction and fantasy does great harm, especially to victims of abuse as it hides in the church. That example, published…
Read MoreOur Daily Bread, a daily devotional publication, posted the following at odb.org for August 20, 2019. It was entitled Touched by Grace and written by Sheridan Voysey. Here it is: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. (Luke 6:27) In Leif Enger’s novel Peace Like a River, Jeremiah Land…
Read MoreHeb 5:11-14 About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. (12) For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need…
Read MoreMatthew 6:1-8 Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues…
Read More1Jn 2:27 But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him. 1Jn 3:10 By this…
Read More2Co 11:13-15 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. (14) And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. (15) So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond…
Read MoreMatthew 5:17-20, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law…
Read MoreEph 5:22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. Gal 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Patriarchy has great appeal. It appeals to pastors, to many…
Read More