When you say I am biblical Christian, I hear “I have an inability or unwillingness to appropriately read and interpret and ancient literary work, so I use it to bend it into my liking to fit my own narrative”.

1/
When you say “that’s just what the Bible says” to justify harm, I hear “I care more about my interpretation of an ancient literary work than I do about the human beings right in front of me”

2/
When you say “the Bible is how I know how to love people,” I hear “I have not developed critical thinking skills, emotional intelligence or the humility to listen to those in front of me, telling me I am causing harm and my behavior isn’t love.”

3/
Using the Bible to justify the harm caused by your religious stance, isn’t a valid argument. It is just evidence that you have forfeited your own relationship with the divine within, your inner wisdom, what you call the Holy Spirit; and traded it for your indoctrination.

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More from @JoLuehmann

11 Feb
Predatory theology:

Teaching people not to trust their intuition and convincing them emotions are “from the flesh” and shouldn’t be trusted.

Equating submission to church leaders to submission to God.

Convincing people they are but “filthy rags”.

1/
Equating forgiveness with impunity, and telling people those who don’t forgive won’t be forgiven by God.

Demonizing non-Christians.

Telling people they’ll be in danger of spiritual attacks if they leave the church or the faith.

Demonizing those who leave the church.

2/
Asserting that honoring authority figures pleases God.

Teaching women that “do not make your brother stumble” makes us responsible for men’s behavior if we wear, say or do anything that could be taken as flirting.

Asserting volunteer work at a church is God’s will.

3/
Read 7 tweets
31 Jan
Policies in regards to church abuse are often set to protect the church from liability, rarely to protect people or any current victims and survivors. They are the appearance of change, a way to look like something is being done, but not a commitment to protecting people.

1/
If churches refuse to address the theology that fuels the abuse then no amount of policies, trainings or events will actually ensure they are safe spaces for people or result in true needed change.

Want to do better?

2/
Let’s talk about some of the theology, structures and beliefs that are abusive in nature and enable abusers:

Purity culture is rape culture, not to mention psychological sexual abuse.

3/
Read 23 tweets
27 Jan
“Don’t leave the church because of the people who hurt you. Nobody is perfect, only God”

I’ll explain why this comment is not only not helpful at all, but also very harmful.

1/
The comment assumes we can’t tell the difference between people and toxic theology, it assumes our issues are with a few people who are outliers and misrepresented God, and we just seem to think that’s the totality of divinity. Which makes us appear unintelligent and petty.

2/
But, that’s not the case at all. I didn’t leave because a few people hurt me in the name of God, in fact I stayed long enough to get hurt again, and again, and again, and again. Because it’s not a few bad apples hurting people in the name of God what we are dealing with.

3/
Read 15 tweets
22 Jan
9 myths on why sex has to wait until marriage:

❌It honors God’s word.

The Bible is filled with all kids of both healthy and unhealthy sex. Mostly unhealthy. At the very least it has institutionalized r*ape, sexual assault, men practicing polygamy, sex with enslaved women,
1/
incest, and also sex between a married hetero couple, sex with sex workers, and maybe even sex between two men.

❌Less “emotional baggage.”

“Emotional baggage” doesn’t come from having ser before or after marriage. It also doesn’t come from having multiple sexual partners.

2/
Emotional trauma related to sex comes from not having adequate information and education in regards to sex and sexually, as well as from sexual assault and sexual abuse (purity culture is sexual psychological abuse).

3/
Read 14 tweets
16 Jan
Anger like any other emotion is a biological state brought on by an event or stimuli. A response of our nervous system. If we call our responses sinful, we learn to hide them or repress them causing not only separation from self, but also a sense of danger that doesn’t exist.

1/
Because we are telling our brain we cannot show our emotions openly and in a healthy way. And that they are sinful or bad. Our brain feels in danger every time our nervous system fires these valid response, and learns to protect us from them. That’s psychological trauma.

2/
Over time, psychological trauma changes our personality, our brain, and our chemical responses. We learn to cope with it as we find ourselves in perpetual cycles of trauma (because emotions never go away). And we remain distanced from our true self.

3/
Read 6 tweets
3 Dec 20
A gentle reminder that using Pharisee to mean hypocrite or “bad guy” is antisemitic.

Believing Christians are the “new” chosen people and replaced Jewish people is supersessionism and its antisemitic.

1/
Using Old Testament to mean Hebrew Bible is a type a supersessionism that sees Judaism just as a precursor of Christianity, and it’s antisemitic.

Believing the Hebrew Bible is about Jesus as messiah, and only properly understood under that lens;...

2/
makes Jewish understanding of their own Scriptures “incomplete”, and it’s antisemitic.

Appropriating Jewish traditions for Christian purposes, like lighting a menorah for Christmas or hosting a Passover Seder for Easter, is very inappropriate and disrespectful.

3/
Read 11 tweets

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