Current students, former students, and alumni of Reformed/Evangelical seminaries *have* exhausted all the possible channels to address abusive and unhinged faculty members as well as toxic cultures within the institution. We've spoken to these faculty members individually
and in groups, we've written letters to Presidents and Boards of Directors. When nothing ends up being done about it for years and years and more and more students end up cycling through and getting more and more of the abuse, there is no other option but to bring the
abuse and toxicity into the light and out of the jurisdiction of the institution alone. We've gone above and beyond our call of duty, and there is a time when the next right thing to do is to make public what the institutions want to be kept in the dark.
Here's one of many stories.

timothyisaiahcho.medium.com/spiritual-abus…

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More from @tisaiahcho

17 Feb
As someone who has been on the receiving end of severe, unrepentant spiritual abuse from Christian leadership, I want to begin by saying that it not only exists in the church, but that it is often empowered and propagated by other leaders and laypeople. timothyisaiahcho.medium.com/5-signs-of-spi…
Victims of spiritual abuse are never to blame — rather, it is the deficiency of advocacy within the church that causes the cycle of spiritual abuse to continue. Other Christians and other leaders side with silence rather than advocate for victims...

timothyisaiahcho.medium.com/breaking-the-c…
People who have experienced spiritual abuse have ultimately undergone a traumatic experience with long lasting effects. Many experience symptoms that are parallel to if not identical to what we see in cases of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

timothyisaiahcho.medium.com/when-your-fait…
Read 6 tweets
16 Feb
There have been several occasions where people have implied that I look "effeminate." Other Asian American men have experienced this as well.

According to some research on gendered racism, this effeminization of Asian American men has a long history.

When Chinese men came to
California to work in mines and on the railroads, the KKK employed racial terrorism that forced Chinese men to work in "feminine" jobs like laundry and housekeeping.

Xenophobic laws prevented Chinese women from immigrating to the US, and antimiscegenation laws prevented Chinese
men from marrying outside of their race, resulting in tons of single Chinese men. Whites then used the media to make mainstream the idea that Asian men were either uninterested in sex or were homosexuals.

Further, White supremacist ("White is right") definitions of masculinity
Read 7 tweets
25 Jan
The Bible is full of strong, independent, and influential women. In fact, the Bible seems to depict more women who are like that than the "paragon of womanhood" espoused by many complementarians.

In fact, a cursory reading of biblical women who are commended
for their character and actions would include a woman who drove a tent peg into the skull of an enemy leader, a woman who led Israel as a mighty judge, a queen who risked her life for the sake of her people, a priestess who helped lead a revival of covenant fidelity,
a wife who led her husband to disciple Apollos in the way of Jesus, a Moabite woman who basically proposed to a kinsman redeemer for the sake of her mother-in-law's family line, women who were present at the crucifixion of our Lord when nearly all of the disciples fled in fear,
Read 7 tweets
24 Jan
The Bible uses many different metaphors and imagery to describe the work of Christ: ransom, redemption, legal declaration, adoption, satisfaction, justice, etc.

What becomes dangerous is when we do theology and don't take all of these metaphors into consideration
and instead put all of the emphasis on one at the expense of the others. An overemphasis on substitution and satisfaction at the expense of other familial and self-giving metaphors makes the work of Christ sound like either divine child abuse or Christ twisting the arm of
a reluctant Father into loving us.

Another danger lies in obfuscating the metaphor and making it literalistic, as though there is, for example, a literal courtroom in heaven, or that the ransom is a literal payment made toward the justice of God. We end up over-interpreting.
Read 8 tweets
16 Jan
Years ago, I talked to one of my former classmates and friends about the spiritual abuse my family received at the hands of a church leader. I still remember him telling me that I should consider all the "good things" that leader had done in planting churches and paving the way
for great things in the denomination. It was as though he was saying that the spiritual abuse my family (and countless other families before us) was worth it in his eyes for the sake of "ministry."

Our friendship ended from that point on. The cost of spiritual abuse
is not just the abuse itself but all of the friendships and support networks you lose through it all. It's the large amounts of people who say they believe you but will do nothing to help you when they have the power and influence to do so. It's the well-intentioned people
Read 5 tweets
16 Jan
Here are a couple of screenshots of highest paid employees and their salaries from several well known Reformed and Evangelical nonprofits:
Read 4 tweets

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