Tuesday, August 27, 2013
The Anger Clock
David Hayward presents a cartoon and commentary, showing how Christians so often try to hurry people through their honest, natural feelings of anger over being abused—whether the abuse has come from a pastor, or church, or family member, or anyone else. Hayward writes the Naked Pastor blog on Patheos, describing himself as a “graffiti artist on the walls of religion.” In this “anger clock” post, he writes: “Give [anger] all the time it needs. Don’t let people turn it around to make it your fault or a symptom of your weakness. Don’t allow people to guilt you into thinking you’re sinning when you’re angry. They are just spiritualizing their discomfort and protecting the perpetrator and blaming the victim.” Women who have been abused in marriages often feel they have no right to feel anger. The same is true of people who have been abused by their churches, a topic Hayward writes about often. Related. To see spiritual abuse in action (specifically, abuse by a religious leader), watch this video that Tom Breen has posted on the Hot Dogma blog.
