Why Bother With Church?

We're exploring the complexities and challenges of the church. Trying to engage honest conversations about church hurt and spiritual abuse, acknowledging both the inevitable pain and the unacceptable trauma inflicted by religious institutions. Through these discussions, we're seeking to create a space for hope and healing, emphasizing that while the church is flawed, it remains a place where Jesus resides and where restoration can be found.

References:

• "Spiritual abuse is a distortion and exploitation of spiritual authority to manipulate, control, use, or harm others, mostly through shame and fear. Spiritual abuse include intolerance for questions and doubts, using the Bible to arouse fear and rigid “us vs. them” binaries, and leaders who demand unwavering loyalty, often threatening anyone who doesn’t comply with being cut off from the community or God." Rachael Clinton Chen

• “This is the church. Here she is. Lovely, irregular, sometimes sick and sometimes well. This is the body-like-no-other that God has shaped and placed in the world. Jesus lives here; this is his soul’s address. There is a lot to be thankful for, all things considered. She has taken a beating, the church. Every day she meets the gates of hell and she prevails. Every day she serves, stumbles, injures, and repairs. That she has healed is an underrated miracle. That she gives birth is beyond reckoning. Maybe it’s time to make peace with her. Maybe it’s time to embrace her, flawed as she is.” Rachel Held Evans

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