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Keith's avatar

I watched the video....well, some of the video and felt so motivated to tithe that I subscribed to webworm! I feel more virtuous now! You will all now be blessed in the future by my comments.

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Sam Tanner's avatar

Regarding those who blamed themselves: Dr Hillary McBride (@hillarylmcbride on Twitter) summed up a lot for me the other day when she wrote "Spiritual trauma is someone handing you an inner critic and telling you it’s the voice of God." That speaks to what happens in the theology and culture of these places and why it gets so complicated. And why many people who leave church have to go to therapy.

I've also had a few people responding defensively after sharing this article, most of it boils down to "but they do so much good, it surely outweighs this"; "no church is perfect"; and of course attacking you, David, for the way you reported it. But thank you for giving voice to the victims and bringing this to light.

I do feel sad for those defending Arise/churches in general because when I was younger I would have been one of them, and I understand how difficult the cognitive dissonance can be when you are confronted with something that doesn't line up with what you believe so deeply (i.e. that Arise/the church is making the world a better place). I personally think that some people know unconsciously that if they start to "pull out one brick in the wall" (for example, accepting that Arise church has done some terrible damage to a lot of people) then further bricks will follow (i.e. what contributed to this happening and am I complicit on some of these contributing factors in church/christian culture) then the whole wall will come tumbling down. So for so many, it's easier not to pull the brick.

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