I’ve been busy elsewhere!
I was really honored to have Rachel Held Evans ask me to guest post for her on SGM a couple months ago, and she was patient with me as I kept pushing it off to recover from crazy life stuff. I finally got her a draft, she pared it down from it’s original [ridiculous] 8 pages of text, and goodness. What a response. Thank you, folks.
From the post:
If you’ve believed the lie that your worst day is better than you, the sinner, deserve, if you’ve identified yourself with the name of Sinner for so long it’s inseparable from your self-confidence, let me dare you to believe that you are worth more than that. The New Testament overwhelmingly refers to those who love and follow Jesus as “believers” or “brethren” or “saints.” Not sinners. Saints.
If your experience in SGM was negative in similar ways to my story, please hop onto the comments and tell SGM pastor Stephen Altrogge that my story isn’t unique. I’m not surprised at his response — as a man and a pastor in SGM, you are insulated from the insanity and instead become a cog in the system. Help him see his blind spots?
Thank you, Rachel, for hosting this. Your support of survivors of spiritual abuse is heartening.
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Back in April, my friend Kristen posted on Facebook that she wanted some models for her StoryTime workshop students to practice on. I had the day free, so I volunteered. I didn’t expect what happened next — I met the smart, sensitive, and delightful Megan Luckeroth, and we went exploring the Farm Park in Gaithersburg after talking for nearly an hour over coffee. We found flowers, horses, amazing trees, and got rained on. I loved it. She posted the shoot on her blog this week, and WOW. If you need a photographer in the Baltimore/DC area, she’s your gal.
I’ve been reading your blog for a while now, as I, too, am an SGM survivor. I appreciated you sharing your story with RHE, and it makes me sad when guys like Stephen bust in and try to discredit what happened to you (which also implies that what happened to me wasn’t “representative”). While it’s not surprising that SGMers do this, I think it’s crazy that they try to ignore all of the blogs and lawsuits filled with people sharing their stories of abuse.
Keep telling your story, and I hope one day they really listen.
Please do keep telling your story. Stephen has contradicted himself now, and I have to call him on it, he has already admitted to legalism and harsh teachings in the past, and now he is denying them. http://fiskingfeminist.wordpress.com/2013/07/08/the-silencing-of-the-oppressed-in-sgm/
Hey, great post on RHE. Thanks for sharing your story. I did respond to Altrogge, but it looked like many others responded well in your defense. I am going to add your blog to my reading list.