Archive | August 2013
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Frankenstein Faith: Love Thy Neighbor but Hate Thy Parent (Part 1 of 10)
In this series, we’re talking about ten distortions of scripture which lead to spiritual abuse and/or mistreatment of other people. You can read the intro to the series here. This first post (a long one—sorry) is about the misguided practice of shunning parents who may not agree with their son or daughter’s involvement in a […]
Seven Obnoxious Jesus Jukes (Re-Post from “Mercy not Sacrifice”)
[This was written by Morgan Guyton on August 21, 2013 and originally posted on his blog, “Mercy not Sacrifice” There is something beautiful about re-posting a well-written piece. It’s like, “Wow, that’s exactly what I wanted to say, but I couldn’t have written it as well as you did.” Thanks, Morgan, for always making me think. I’ve […]
Fixing a Frankenstein Faith: Ten Distortions of Scripture and How to Correct Them
In yellow lamplight I stayed up late the other night talking with my wife, burdened about another church gone to seed in Texas. The sect looks so much like my former church in Maine, a Bible cult which maximized suffering and overlooked grace. The platitudes and sermons coming from the group sound so familiar they […]
Whelp, there it is: 15 Signs of False Humility
The leader of a Texas sect once wrote a letter to me in which he said that he wished he could open a vein for me in order to save my soul. That sounded quite nice, though I already follow Jesus—a point I had (fruitlessly) made in several private Facebook messages back and forth with […]
When Abusers Act Like Victims, Victims Get Abused
Abusers of all types act like gods in their houses of horror. But when they get dragged blinking into the light, they often act like victims. I recently read an article about Ariel Castro and his jaw-dropping denial and self-pity. It turned my stomach. But it also sounded familiar. Almost every victim of abuse–whether verbal, […]
Liberty for Captives 