New News: From Paradise Recovered's Joyfully Sublime to IHOP's Sadly Tragic

The Joy

If you haven't taken up this invitation offered here a few weeks ago to watch the film, Paradise Recovered, today is a good time to catch up. It is available via streaming with Amazon, Netflix, Blockbuster, iTunes and a couple of other providers, or you can simply buy the video about the journey of a young woman who risks leaving her cultic Christian group. On the Paradise Recovered blog right now, they're taking a month to note the people who inspire them with daily hat tips of recognition. I didn't think that I could be more proud to see No Longer Quivering, Quivering Daughters, and Free Jinger listed there this past week, as I have proudly participated with all of them. Most people do not realize how formidable it can be to risk everything to leave the Quiverfull and Patriarchy movements, the very thing that prompted me to start this blogging business in the first place. Not only is it beyond difficult for most people to walk away, it takes a tremendous amount of valor to speak openly about the movement's special variety of suffering and injustice. People who leave suffer great loss, and those who come forward to speak generally suffer even more. I couldn't be more proud of these valiant ones.

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Cult Exit and Cult Recovery on MSNBC Tonight at 10PM Eastern (Teen Mania and Children of God)

Doug and Wendy Duncan have been working with MSNBC to produce a series of shows concerning cult recruitment and recovery, and the first program will air tonight on MSNBC. (Wendy, a social worker and a seminary graduate of SWBTS, is the author of I Can't Hear God Anymore, a book about her experience in a Bible-based cult.)

This pilot episode premiering tonight focuses on the Teen Mania program and features several former participants, one of which attends the monthly cult recovery support group hosted by Doug and Wendy Duncan in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. After counseling with them, a couple of these former members set up a Teen Mania recovery support website, www.RecoveringAlumni.com.

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Emotional Abuse and Your Faith on BTR and Additional Resources Concerning Domestic Violence

This past Friday afternoon, Jocelyn and I invited Hannah Thomas, the host of Emotional Abuse and Your Faith, to blogtalkradio. Please visit the archives and listen to the show in the player below (or look for Jocelyn Andersen on iTunes podcasts)! It was my very first opportunity to talk with Hannah, and as usual, we didn't have nearly enough time to talk about all of the topics that we wanted and plowed through several. I'm also very grateful to Hannah for listening to our shows and for being so supportive of us in this effort. I love to see her pop in our show's chat room, and it always gives us an extra measure of loving moral support.

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Savvy Sisters and Stylish Blogs

My Savvy Sisters is an online magazine dedicated to providing resources, inspiration and guidance to women that will empower them to survive and thrive in life. We encourage self sufficiency, self love and resourcefulness. The publisher recently contacted me and asked for an interview which was a great joy for me to do.

The effort flourished into three articles, the first of which features the publisher's own account of her spiritual abuse story. Notably, she speaks about the experience that so many others who escape spiritual abuse report: the subtle and not so subtle curses of woe that will befall someone if they a group. Along with the griefs associated with leaving, spiritual leaders often predict that some evil will befall those who leave their group, partly in efforts to keep the member from leaving. For many group leaders, however, I believe that they tell these tales so often that they believe their own bad press. Te-Erika relates her own experience of this feature of spiritual abuse and how she triumphed over it, and she continues to use the wisdom she learned to help others in a new adventure that awaits her.

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Versatile Blogging

A few days ago, I received an email from Paula Fether, honoring me with the Versatile Blogger Award. I am deeply honored that someone for whom I have so much respect thought to name me. Paula knows the Bible, loves it and does not compromise. I love her dearly.   Her blog is entitled "Words of a Fether."

In keeping with the versatile tradition, I'm to tell readers seven things about myself that you probably wouldn't know about me. I waited a few days to finish up my video editing for the Seneca Falls 2 Convention, as I could only think “VIDEO...”  All I could think about writing at the time had to do with video editing. (That strategy may have backfired, as I'm fixated on something else this morning...)

The Versatile Blogger Rules:

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Under Much Grace Plans and Housekeeping

My plans for upcoming posts include finishing a walk through the topics in James Sire's 1980 book "Scripture Twisting" for a review of standard ways that cults and Christians misinterpret the Bible, sometimes intentionally and sometimes just through ignorance.

In a week or two, Dr. Margaret Jones will be stopping by here on her book tour for her work, "Not of My Making." (I may even consider opening up commentary, as she has much experience with the Matthew 18 process.)

I plan to review Doug and Wendy Duncan's recent radio interview discussing spiritual abuse (see below). In addition, I would like to take some sections out of Wendy's book at some point and feature them here, too. And when I finish these tasks, I would like to go through my impressions about Kathryn Joyce's "Quiverfull" book which I have found to be slow going thus far. It is well-written, but I get stuck on some errors in the material and the secular perspective that does not do justice to a balanced Christian perspective, presenting only an unbalanced view of some important Christian concepts.

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Thoughts for the Day

Quotes from Around the Web This Week

1. Confronting Deception

"Truth is an absolute defense against charges of libel and slander."

(Hicks)

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Links to Blogs and Ongoing Discussions of Abuse in the Church

In an article I referenced in the last post, Ron Henzel notes that the term “abuse” gives many Christians pause and problems. He discusses what I call the “culture of victimhood” that was so encouraged 20 years ago when everyone was a victim of something and needed some sort of therapeutic measure to be made whole. It seemed like a select few people had been victimized and began to heal, and they projected that experience onto everyone else on the planet with the good news of their deliverance from their personal evils. And our culture drank too deeply from the fountains of the victim mentality and developed quite a sour belly full of it.

The problem is that there is a serious and what I would define as a growing problem with real abuse in the church today. Just because others have overused and extended the term should not turn into a reaction that ignores real abuse. We have problems with neglect of those we should be ministering to within our walls and outside of them, but that is not abuse as many have defined it. That problem is yet another problem, a different one. But I mean serious, actual abuse. Reflecting upon the Lord’s work in my life in recent years, a dear friend wrote to me yesterday, stating that “those times have given you the insight to address many of the imperious, life-strangling movements in today's church.” And I see more instances of abuse now than I did then, even when I was very hypervigilant and still suffering the active pain that those abuses brought with them.

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Wade Burleson's Smoking Hot Blog Posts

Southern Baptist Pastor Wade Burleson of Enid, Oklahoma (who formerly served on the International Missions Board for the SBC) took a sabbatical from blogging, but he's back at it and going strong. I've enjoyed nearly every one of them lately. Though I am not a Baptist, the same concerns I bear for the Church now currently also challenge (plague?!) the Southern Baptist Convention.

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A VLOG on Spiritual Abuse and "Narcissistic PASTOR Disorder"

From a series of videos (vlog?) on You Tube by another bleating sheep discussing her experiences using the characteristics of Narcissism as a framework and format. As my husband once said about a letter I wrote to an abusive pastor who didn't have the time of day, it's a view from the back of the church where they put those whom they tell "be ye warmed and filled..."










She says to stay tuned for the next installment, but I could not find that follows this last video.

The preceding post contains her full list of characteristics on video, to the music of the Foo Fighters "Best of You."

Link to Mrs. Elfrog's Vlog on YouTube to read the interesting commentary. If you connect to each video on YouTube, Mrs. Elfrog lists all sorts of resources and links to additional information.

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A Video Primer on Spiritual Abuse

I've posted much of the same information already (see tag list), but this is a great review and summary via video, complied by a Vlogger who calls herself Mrs. Elfrog.

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From the Lyrics of "Best of You"

Some (but not all) Lyrics from

“Best of You” by the Foo Fighters

Very descriptive of my own feelings and experience of spiritual abuse, and a "must see" according to VLOGGER, Mrs. Elfrog.

....................

I've got another confession to make
I'm your fool
Everyone's got their chains to break
Holdin' you

.

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A "Roar" for Powerful Words!

Jo at www.followtheroadlesstraveled.blogspot.com has bestowed upon me the “Roar for Powerful Words” Award!

 It seems that it all started with this interesting fellow in New Zealand who wanted to encourage “good, powerful writing on the Internet/Blogosphere.” So in order to increase exposure to his writers circle called “Shameless Lions” and to demonstrate that there are good bloggers out there producing valuable stuff, he created the “Roar Award.”  He thought that it was also a good opportunity to stimulate thought about “exactly what it is that makes writing good and powerful.” As a recipient, Seamus Kearney asks that I choose and distribute the award to five other “blogs I love, can’t live without where I think the writing is good and powerful.”

I’m also to define those qualities of writing that I find essential to writing good and powerful blog posts. Hmmm. The person who nominated me blessed me with words that humbled me greatly, considering that I found it strange to be nominated. I post mostly things recanted from many far wiser than myself and don’t really write much prose. (…although I do display and actual, original poem as my first post on the Under Much Grace Blogspot!) So I would have to say that, in regard to this type of writing here, I would encourage others to first write something of some lasting value so that the person is changed for the better in some lasting way. I believe that this is always a goal. Second, I don’t think that I can get away from the instruction to be direct and concise. (After already winning awards for writing in many competitions, I went to have my first college research paper reviewed before turning it in for a grade.

The poet, Paul Martin, advised me then to always write in active voice, so I consider that to be an essential element of being direct and concise.) And though I personally fail at this quite often (as if I don’t at all the others?), I believe that is a must to write everything as an act of worship unto God. As a Christian, I believe that all men (and women) must give an account for every word that they communicate over the course of their lives, so how much more should we endeavor to worship God in our blogging, there for every soul with a computer to see? I now bestow this honor upon five blog authors that I absolutely cannot live without, although I do not frequent some of them that often. Keep in mind that this is an honor for those who write powerful words and those that are also literary.

To avoid too much cronyism and possible Lion Inbreeding, I’ve picked the most trenchant of blog hosts, so don’t be disappointed if you don’t see your own blog here…. I hope that you will visit these blogs of the newest award recipients!

 Andrew Sandlin of “Andrew Sandlin. net” and the "Center for Cultural Leadership” ( he who first noted that my writing was “trenchant” and probably why I like his work)

Robin Phillips of “Robin’s Readings and Reflections” (well known for his work on courtship that he could sell for financial gain but offers online for free)

Molly Aley of both “Adventures in Mercy” and “Complegalitarian” (for so eloquently tackling the topics that I would like to devote myself to but have too many other things to communicate first) 

Cheryl Schatz of “McGreggor Ministries Outreach,” JW Info Line and “Women In Ministry” (Yes, I can nominate her for her excellence even if she is one of those fully fledged egalitarians and I'm just mostly so!) Dusman of Grace in the Triad (who I discovered via remarkably wise comments made on Cheryl’s Women in Ministry site)

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