Mental illness is the loneliest and quietest of illnesses. Sometimes we do not know we have it. Or, we do not acknowledge it. We do not talk about it much. We do not want to. Few people know or understand. Yet the hurting is profound, confusing, and lonely.”
Gaslighting is a common tool of abusers to make their victims feel like they must be wrong, they must be crazy. Gaslighting involves the victim questioning their view of reality, their experiences, their knowledge, and uses their emotional reaction against them.
Are we meant to feel guilty and depressed on Good Friday? We don’t feel “good” about Christ suffering. Are we meant to feel the pressure to be grateful for Jesus’ torment?
At the root of the LGBT movement is the search for something that people of faith also cherish: authenticity. In other words, to live freely according to one’s moral code in public and in private, to be unburdened by others’ judgments of what constitutes the good life, and to thrive peacefully alongside others with different ideas. You might call that equality.
It is my belief that those who will be attending worship on Easter long to hear a word that connects the “power of the resurrection” to the vicissitudes of their lives.
Traditional efforts to literally scare the hell out of people can and have caused significant damage, especially to children.