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Book Review: "He Still Moves Stones"
May 20, 2013 // 2 Comments -
From Clear Conscience to Clear Thinking: Journey from G ...
May 16, 2013 // 11 Comments -
When We Criticize The Church
May 13, 2013 // 11 Comments -
The Gospel of Pragmatism
May 9, 2013 // 28 Comments -
We Were The Normal Ones
May 6, 2013 // 75 Comments
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How the Teachings of Emotional Purity and Courtship Dam ...
July 22, 2011 // 341 Comments -
A Matter of Basic Principles-A Review
March 23, 2012 // 244 Comments -
A Response to Bill Gothard
January 30, 2012 // 233 Comments -
Dear Grace: Overbearing Parents
January 10, 2013 // 206 Comments -
Exploited Innocence: Sexual Harassment at HQ
April 20, 2012 // 193 Comments
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I was Homeschooled, raised in a conservative Bapti ...
May 21, 2013 -
[...] there’s ample evidence available that courts ...
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May 20, 2013
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Darcy, It is exciting what the Lord is doing in ...
May 20, 2013 -
That first quote is amazingly powerful. It helps ...
May 20, 2013 -
I do, Heather. Thank you for saying it. I guess ...
May 20, 2013 -
Reading through this, my heart goes out to you all ...
May 19, 2013 -
Except for that darling and adorable bit where ALL ...
May 19, 2013 -
I don't remember if I gave that much credence to t ...
May 19, 2013 -
You still don't know what it's like to be raised i ...
May 19, 2013 -
Bingo, Alfred, your verse nailed reality tv on t ...
May 18, 2013 -
Remember the ice-cream-cone-shaped illustration in ...
May 18, 2013 -
Also Alfred, here's a question: Suppose you wer ...
May 18, 2013 -
Alfred, you didn't just compare the Duggars to pri ...
May 18, 2013 -
Having the privilege of knowing the Duggars a bit ...
May 18, 2013 -
Hannah, I remember that story. It was a girl. She ...
May 18, 2013 -
You don't know me well enough to understand delibe ...
May 18, 2013 -
[...] Doug Phillips and Michael Farris and Bill Go ...
May 18, 2013
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Book Review: “He Still Moves Stones”
“Legalism is a dark world” (Lucado 118). In his book, “He Still Moves Stones,” Max Lucado speaks to circumstances of loss and pain in order to address the question of “Where is God when I hurt?” I was shocked to find that one of these chapters was about pain caused by legalism. I’m not sure [...]
When We Criticize The Church
We were sold a package deal. Truth and lies, hope and despair, real and fake — all tied up in a neat package with a bow and sold to us with the label of “Christianity.” The men in the suits with all the words told us that what they taught was true. They said it [...]
How “Counseling Sexual Abuse” Blames and Shames Survivors
Versions of the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) document “Counseling Sexual Abuse” were distributed at Advanced Training Institute (ATI) Counseling Seminars for over a decade. The document speaks for itself, but Recovering Grace would like to point out how victim-blaming and/or callous dismissal of abuse survivors’ pain is built into almost every one of [...]
Why We Care About Sexual Abuse
April is national Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Last year Recovering Grace dedicated the month of April to bringing these stories of darkness into the light, and we are doing so again this year. Why do we choose to focus our attention on this emotionally disturbing, heart-wrenching subject? It takes only a glance at today’s news [...]
Commitments, Vows, and Promises of Greatness: The Art of the Spiritual Con
…The above memory (albeit a bit foggy with the years) is a typical example of how Mr. Gothard spoke to apprenticeship students at various IBLP and ATI (Institute in Basic Life Principles and Advanced Training Institute) functions I attended. One of the effects of this type of spiritual manipulation was that I began to have unrealistic [...]
Toxic People: Narcissists in Ministry
The most read Hope Blog posts in the last four years have been the the series addressing toxic people and how to deal with those in your life who are unrepentant human destruction machines. These posts have received tens of thousands of hits over the last few years as those searching have come across the [...]
Words that Wound
Most of us have been there. You venture outside your pain and tell someone you have been spiritually abused. You test the waters, saying, “I’ve been hurt.” Sadly, others, especially those who profess Christ, can utter words that cut deep, invalidate your experience, and leave you like the traveler on the side of the road, [...]
Identifying Religious Brainwashing: Doctrine Over Person
[Editor's note: This is part 7 of an 8-part original series. Not all parts have been published on Recovering Grace. To read all 8 parts, please refer to the links below.] This is the seventh in an eight-part series on how to identify brainwashing in a destructive group or cult. It is based off of Dr. [...]
How to Identify Religious Brainwashing ~ Part One
Aki Ray, a former child-soldier in Cambodia, is now one of the world’s foremost mine-clearing experts. He walks through the jungle looking for landmines and then defuses them one by one. He’s alive because he knows what to look for in the weeds. Can you identify the subtle signs of mind control? I couldn’t. That’s [...]
Spiritual Abuse?
Do you think it is possible to be abused spiritually? What does that look like? Can we learn the signs? How can we tell if others have been spiritually abused? How does a person heal when things like prayer, scripture, and music, which many find comforting, have been used to wield damaging blows? When pulling [...]