A List of
Links
Though I've owned
her book for many months, I finally visited Janet Heimlich's website
a couple of weeks ago to discover a
great of resource links for people who are working to transcend a
wide variety of types of spiritually abusive experiences. Please
take time to read through them. I think that the variety of groups
listed there from across so many different religious groups serves to
remind us of the tendency of well-meaning and idealistic people to
fall into harmful patterns of behavior. We can all become misguided,
despite the best of intentions, and I find that lists like this
remind us of this tendency of us all to be very human. In that
sense, we tend to be very much alike in our failings. And if we are
alike in our bruising, may we heal and grow to be alike in liberty.
And just as a
reminder concerning great lists of links, for those looking for
resources about domestic violence, I think it's hard to beat the one
offered by Hannah Thomas at Emotional
Abuse and Your Faith.
Guidance v. Complusion In Spiritual
Training
I was struck by the wisdom offered by
an article on a Muslim website concerning the thoughtful and
respectful way that a parent can raise a child in a religious faith
without crushing or abusing them, and I thought it well worthy of
consideration. As I've mentioned in several recent
posts, I believe that true and valuable insights should be
honored, even though I may not share the belief system of the source,
though it saddens
me that too many Christians stand to learn a number of things
from this insightful post. I'm grateful for the admonishment, though
it would be so much better to see this kind of advice offered at No
Greater Joy and Christian sources that go to such great lengths to
teach parents to use compulsion and abuse instead of loving
nurture. May those who advocate anything other than this be put
to shame. (Another “hat tip” to Janet
Heimlich who made me aware of this article.)
From Parental
Lessons in Guidance, Not Compulsion, In Religion by Safiyyah
Ally:
If parents have brought their children to this place of freedom, it is imperative that they help them thrive. It is no longer enough to appeal to tradition or authority. This doesn’t mean that parents cannot encourage or admonish their children to behave or act in ways that are in keeping with their religious understanding. What it does mean, however, is that parents need to cultivate a greater motivation for action amongst their children.From a young age, parents need to help their children develop a love of God, such that their life is oriented towards wanting to please God. They have to appeal to their children’s minds in order to help them appreciate the wisdom behind God’s commands.
From the Sublime to the Ridiculous
I rarely address
Mark
Driscoll, one of the Complementarian favorites and an advocate
for The New Calvinism.
Several people have already addressed the ridiculous degree of
spiritual absue practiced at his church. I don't follow his material
because I find nothing about him to be of any remote interest, save
that he is an exemplar of the extremes of Complementarianism. I'll
refer you to Lewis for his links to all of the details which you
can explore if they are of interest. I feel that they are not worth
the expenditure of my own energy and frustration. Aside from being
vulgar which I assume that some people find titillating, I don't
understand Driscoll's popularity. But it's worth mention because of
the real life example of spiritually abusive dynamics.
Lewis also wrote a few of posts addressing the review I wrote about the film, Courageous, which appear here , here, and another more peripheral one here.
