The following is a story from a year ago, an experience that kicked off an intense year of “coming home” in my own heart and mind. ___________________ “He’s a wonderful man,” the woman smilingly assures. Her mind is working, and compassion dawns in her eyes. “He’s a chaplain. My husband and I are very close friends with […]
Do You Have Questions About Sexual Abuse and the Appropriate Responses/Reactions?
After posting Sexual Abuse Is A Crime (why the Josh Duggar story needs to matter to Christians), I have seen a lot of questions (primarily on Facebook! Thank you for sharing!) kind of along the lines of “okay, so it’s a crime and ought to be reported/treated as such. What then?” A friend of mine […]
Boz Tchividjian on How Christians Should Respond To Abuse
Relevant Magazine has published and excellent interview with Boz Tchividjian, the founder and executive director of GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment) titled “How Should Christians Respond To Abuse Situations Like The Duggars’?” Please read it. GRACE is a non-profit ministry/organization which works to educate churches on Godly and appropriate responses to abuse situations within their own congregations, […]
Sexual Abuse Is A Crime (why the Josh Duggar story needs to matter to Christians)
preface: this is not a judgement on the characters or motives of any one person or family. this is a judgement on the culture’s tendency to overlook victims and the christian church’s tendency to minimize abuse. RECAP Last week news broke about the criminal misconduct of Josh Duggar, who is the eldest son of […]
Wednesdays In The Word: John 1:14 (hits home)
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14 (I promised last week to write more about the word skenoo, but that will have to wait.) This will be a personal post, today, and it’s going to […]
Perform
There was a huge barrier to writing–and see, here I am writing about writing again, despite my noblest of intentions–that had its roots in a pressure to perform. One could say the same for living, for being. The pressure to perform draped my existence much the way a wet wool sweater might: heavy, weighing down. […]
Sexual Abuse: Sex Crimes, Criminals, Questions
One of the questions I have simmering in my brain much of the time is the question of what to do with “The Person” who committed sexual crimes against me when I was a child. I’ve forgiven–I’m sure I have–but he’s still out there, living life with a wife and children, working at a well […]
She Tries Counseling (Almost)
So there it was, my birthday, and I’d just endured an hour and a half of traumatizing dental instruments poking mercilessly into my gums, when I decided to drive two blocks over to the Christian Counseling Center. My heart was already as traumatized as my mouth, and in preparation for an appointment with a therapist I […]
Why I’m Writing About Sexual Abuse
As I work on making pages for the menu bar up there, I will periodically post the text of the pages in my regular posts. The following is the text for the Menu Page titled “Sexual Abuse.” To the following I will add this: It has taken me many years to come to the […]
Talking Some More About Childhood Sexual Abuse, Part 2
Brave -Part one here- I have a gone a long time in my life without careening into my old nemesis, sexual abuse. But perhaps in part because my own daughters have reached an age where their experience splits drastically from my own, and in part because I am deliberately writing about the subject, I am again confronted […]