Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
2023 Blog #39
October 2, 2023
Dr. Pam on The Pulse
Each month, Dr. Pam and the Hudson River Counseling Center is featured on “The Pulse” with Peter B. The Pulse is a cable TV show that is shown in Hudson County. Among other things, Dr. Pam uses this platform to advertise her program, “My Sanctuary Healing” which is a support group for those who have been the victims of religious abuse. Peter B. told Dr. Pam that each month when she and “My Sanctuary Healing” is featured, there is good viewership and many positive emails because of these segments. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
I’m not being sarcastic. I’m happy that people are seeing these episodes and are responding but I am sad that so many people can resonate with abuse whether this abuse takes place domestically or in religious settings. I know what Jesus is thinking about abuse done in his name. What is the matter with Jesus’ disciples who are perpetrating these crimes or allowing others to perpetrate these crimes on church property or in Jesus’ name.
Dr. Pam filmed a new type of segment recently which will air in October. In this type of segment, she answers questions that viewers email in. Sadly, many of the emails that were mailed in had abuse as the subject and some of those involved church abuse. Clearly, this is a greater problem than most of us wish to acknowledge.
Many times, we in the church, tolerate abuse in various forms for a variety of reasons. Many of us are conflict avoidant. Many times, we excuse bad behavior because the perpetrators are volunteers, and we don’t wish to offend people who do volunteer work for us. In some instances, we excuse bad behavior because the offenders are “old, long-term members” and we give them too much leeway in behavior.
Yet, we complain that our congregations are shrinking as we meet more abuse victims who are leaving churches. Can we not make the connections between people being mis-treated and treated rudely and our shrinking congregations? It seems to me that we can make a connection between how congregations act and how many people are leaving.
It is up to us, who are part of the church, to discipline one another. When people are treated dis-respectively how can we expect them to want to worship with us. In many cases, such people have not lost their faith in Jesus, but have lost faith in the church. I hope that this blog is a wake-up call to everyone of us who profess to be disciples of Christ. Whenever we gossip, whenever we are rude, whenever loose our temper with others, we are hurting others, the church, and Jesus himself. It is time that we reclaim a pillar of Christ’s church, discipline. We need to police ourselves as well as one another. Each time we treat others in ways that we would not wish to be treated, we weaken the church that we have pledged ourselves to support.
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#BadBehavior #ChurchDiscipline
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