If you want the trauma survivor to understand that God is a refuge, then be one.
13.06.2025 15:02
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If you want the trauma survivor to understand that God is a refuge, then be one.
Ryan McElrath, 40, now former high school pastor at Fellowship Bible Church in Jackson, pled guilty to use of a facility & means of interstate commerce to persuade, induce, entice a minor to engage in criminal sexual acts & has been sentenced to 252 months in prison.
“When a willing victim, who has committed no treachery was killed in a traitor’s stead … the Table would crack and death itself would start working backwards.” www.christianitytoday.com/2025/06/died...
How the head of an embattled Tennessee youth detention center held on to power for decades despite multiple investigations, the use of seclusion
wpln.org/post/how-the... @paigepfleger.bsky.social @wpln.bsky.social
The bad news is that when we dehumanize others we dehumanize ourselves in the process. The good news is that when we rehumanize others, we also rehumanize ourselves.
Tennessee foster kids are “deteriorating physically, psychologically, emotionally and educationally"
Class action lawsuit by a team of national child welfare attorneys catalogues systemic failures in states' care of kids
tennesseelookout.com/2025/05/21/l... @tennesseelookout.com
Kudos to the persistent individuals who spoke out. It shouldn’t take 40 years to stop a serial child predator.
"When I dispair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they seemed invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it... always." Mahatma Gandhi
A sobering truth on display at The New England Holocaust Memorial. A message that is still true today.
You will never meet, talk to, walk with, or work beside a human being who has not been purposefully knit together by the hands of our Father. Never. We are all one race, and in that race, all are image bearers. There are no exceptions.
Yes, I believe someone can realize this occurs by accepting someone’s testimony. I think it would help if the testimony is made as relatable to the hearer as possible and the hearer is open and curious.
Thanks for the webinar and addressing the topic. Lament is woven through scripture, and I agree that it’s been ignored in the modern church. You discussed lament as a part of worship. I’ve been encouraged by this song from an album called Lamentations. bifrostartsmusic.bandcamp.com/track/o-god-...
For all the talk of having the 10 commandments in classrooms, I cannot recall the last time I have seen them displayed in a church.
Pain is a protest that something is wrong, yet often we rush to quiet it. Healing begins when we make space for lament.
Join me & Phil Moore as we discuss lament in the Church:
Why it matters.
How it helps survivors.
How we can create a culture that truly listens.
Register now - buff.ly/7SZIELd
A truth-teller disturbs, alerts, awakens, and warns against indifference to injustice and complacency about the needs of human beings. To be silent about injustices in this world is to be a partner with those who carry out violence, evil, and corruption.
Support services for domestic violence and sexual assault victims are crucial. Inadequate resources for these services have dire consequences not only on the direct victims but also on those that rely on them or those they rely on.
“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.”
~ Proverbs 31:8, 9
Johnson City has agreed to pay $28 million to settle a class action lawsuit brought by women who alleged police failed to investigate their sexual assaults and conspired to shield a serial rapist from justice. From @anitawadhwani.bsky.social.
Have you ever witnessed the repentance of the leadership team of a church? open.substack.com/pub/michelle...
I have witnessed partial recognition of vague sin or harm from individuals in church leadership. The church and members miss out as God repeatedly states his desire to show mercy and compassion to those who repent.
19If you are willing and obedient,
you will eat the good things of the land;
20but if you resist and rebel,
you will be devoured by the sword.”
Despite a thoroughly corrupted and diseased state, there is a path toward wholeness.
18“Come now, let us settle the matter,”
says the Lord.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.
This passage crossed my mind today.
Isaiah 1:5,6
Your whole head is injured, your whole heart afflicted.
From the sole of your foot to the top of your head
there is no soundness—
only wounds and welts
and open sores,
not cleansed or bandaged
or soothed with olive oil.
“But as Firefly demonstrates, the abuse was carried out or covered up by a variety of people in the church and fell into consistent patterns. Also, kids today are being abused by their pastors. But like Bickle, the pastors aren’t going to be caught for another 20 to 30 years.”
“Until 2016, we lived in a democracy governed mostly by elected officials who loved this country and wanted to do right by it, even if they held sharply divergent views of “right.” Now we live in a country governed by a party of cruelty…
We have to stay heartbroken about this.”
BREAKING NEWS! TEXAS - Senator Angela Paxton has filed Senate Joint Resolution 51 and Senate Bill 1167 aimed at eliminating the civil statute of limitations for survivors of child sexual abuse, allowing them to seek justice at any time.
“Every one of us must do everything in our power to ensure abusers…
are dismissed from positions of community leadership. We must all work to change the discourse in the community, so that shame falls only on the perpetrator and never on the victim, especially when the victim is a helpless child.”
The author mentions outside accountability.
“This might include criminal or civil prosecution, firing, deplatforming, issuing public statements to the community, and whatever other steps are necessary to ensure that the harm ceases, and the offender is prevented from repeating the offence.”
7 He gathers the waters of the sea into jars[a];
he puts the deep into storehouses.
8 Let all the earth fear the Lord;
let all the people of the world revere him.
9 For he spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm.