This is your place to gather and share in an open format.
Reader Comments on My Bitterness and Hatred for Posting about Tullian Tchividjian’s Clergy Sexual Misconduct
What Tullian did was disgusting. But I am telling you, Julie Anne, your relentless pursuit of this story is not helping in the compassionate stand-up-for-justice way you think it is. My prayer is that your eyes are opened to the bitterness and hate that you are catering to, and how anti-Christian this material is.
SSB Sunday Gathering – September 15, 2019
This is your place to gather and share in an open format.
Book Review Series – “The Excellent Wife” by Martha Peace – Chapter Eleven – Mutual Sex or Sex on Demand?
In so many of the godly wife books we see that the wife's duty is to provide sex for her husband whenever he wants it. At least she identifies that a wife has a desire and need for sex.
Another Ravi Zacharias Falsehood Unearthed: Ravi’s famous first doctorate story was doctored
Ravi Zacharias has proven beyond any doubt that he is, in the words of Canadian theologian Randal Rauser, a “fabulist” who never lets the truth get in the way of a good self-promo opportunity.
SSB Sunday Gathering – September 8, 2019
This is your place to gather and share in an open format. Scripture is taken from the Book of Common Prayer, Readings for Ordinary Time, Year 1 and may be found here. Psalm 163 A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah. You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you;… Continue reading SSB Sunday Gathering – September 8, 2019
Spiritual Abuse: Black/White Thinking Can be Used to Harm and Control
In black/white churches, you have two choices: follow along with the pastor, or you are immediately castigated as someone who has made the wrong choice. If people know of your "bad" choice, you may be called a sinner or rebellious.
SSB Sunday Gathering – September 1, 2019
This is your place to gather and share in an open format.
Dr. Albert Mohler tweets: “. . . to be human is to be a parent.” Oh, really??
"I read it. “To be human is to be a parent,” is false in any context, and harmful. But beyond that, your posture of condescension in this tweet towards those saying they were hurt by your words only deepens the wounds you’ve already inflicted."
Kathi’s Personal Story on the Challenges and Benefits of Self-Care
I hope this encourages everyone to really think about self-care. What does that look like to you? Do you find it hard to take care of yourself? What are the barriers? What is one small change you can make toward self-care? How can you encourage someone else to practice self-care?
SSB Sunday Gathering – August 25, 2019
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UN-accountable: Case Study in Systems Analysis and Ministerial Accountability ~ Part 5, Accountability Systems Breakdown
Part 5 focuses on the other side of Mr Tchividjian's misuse of his platform as a Christian celebrity minister, speaker, and writer – his accountability system victims: superiors, peers, and subordinates.
What courage must it have taken to publicly post a call for Tullian Tchividjian to repent? To apologize for having amplified his impact? To resign from the board of his newly resurrected non-profit? To remove from their ministry website various resources he'd produced? To cancel contracts that would extend his influence?
What did it cost those who were close to him in terms of ministry – especially those who held authority to oversee his recovery plans, and those who'd been his platform peers?
These are the kinds of questions we should consider as we read this final piece in the case study of Tullian Tchividjian and the details of his abuse of systems, ministry, and accountability ...
UN-accountable: Case Study in Systems Analysis and Ministerial Accountability ~ Part 4, Accountability
It’s not the job of any supervisor, peer, or subordinate to prevent Tullian Tchividjian from sinning, whether he does so mildly or spectacularly. It wasn’t the role of his non-profit board, church sessions, publishing house legal departments, counselors, friends, etc. It’s not even possible. He himself is responsible for his own choices and their impact.
UN-accountable: Case Study in Systems Analysis and Ministerial Accountability ~ Part 3, Industrial Complex
... there were over 150 individuals in at least 10 institutions who had direct connections with Tullian Tchividjian as his superiors, peers, or subordinates. And yet, it seems nobody could keep him from his two extramarital sexual involvements he has already admitted to (after they were discovered or disclosed), or from his reported predatory/seductive behavior patterns, or from his reported multiple failures to tell the full truth.
UN-accountable: Case Study in Systems Analysis and Ministerial Accountability ~ Part 2, Repair
What does real-world remediation / repentance look like? How can we see what it takes in both attitudes and actions to accomplish damage repair? This post gives three examples of remediation (repair work) — one dealing with a product, one with a denominational organization, one with a social system. Each is notable for seeking to engage in a constructive way parties who were directly involved, and in some cases those who were indirectly affected.
UN-accountable: Case Study in Systems Analysis and Ministerial Accountability ~ Part 1, Systems
Systemic abuse always includes a degree of relational manipulation to get/keep people hooked in, as well as deception in order to hide the truth.
SSB Sunday Gathering – August 18, 2019
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Book Review Series – “The Excellent Wife” by Martha Peace – Chapter Ten – R.E.S.P.E.C.T., Find Out What it Means to MP
Peace likens the wife's position to her husband as a soldier to his superior officer, which leads to the biggest problem I have with this chapter: the husband being viewed as the position of authority and the wife respecting her husband because of that position.
Julie Anne’s Personal Story on the Redemptive Gift of Grief
So, then the question I'm learning to ask myself is: what pain am I avoiding, and why am I avoiding it? Isn’t numbing pain simply prolonging it? Why would I want to prolong pain? What would happen if I moved toward the pain and wrestled with it? What would that look like?
SSB Sunday Gathering – August 11, 2019
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