Part of growing up has been shedding fungelical beliefs for grace-saturated ones, because *that* is the Gospel. The Gospel is fifty proof grace and restorative Shabbat, the belief that you are always secure and loved in the arms of Christ, and that if he must correct us what better parent to turn to, because he will do so justly, rightly, full of love for His child, His friend, His bride.
I'm convinced abusive people come to religion to use it as a weapon, because they can use a two-dimensional view of submission and forgiveness to their advantage. This is why I think it's extremely important for churches to teach that it's okay to disagree with people in authority, it's okay to say what you think, oppressors should be punished and removed from any position of authority, and when people make mistakes (or sin, but that's a word that's been loaded with so much baggage for me that I'm not sure I can use it except when it's in the liturgy, and it's not because I don't believe the concept, but because the three lettter word itself has been distorted for me), you fall hard on the grace of Christ, not the shaming of your elders.
Thanks for this, Gina. Sometimes it is hard for me to tell if "abusive people come to religion to use it as a weapon" or if the weaknesses the person already has feed off of certain religious teachings until that person becomes an abuser. Maybe a little of both...
ReplyDelete