Christ-follower. Husband to 1. Father to 8. Licensed Mental Health Counselor. Counseling Professor @AsburySeminary @GodsBibleSchool @CrownCollege. Tall.
We are not called to protect our institutions, nor do we protect the God of truth by covering up sin and/or a crime. To do so is to “protect” a cancer—and cancer kills. We honor God by caring for the wounded and by dragging sin to the light and calling it by its right name.
The use of verbal and emotional mistreatment to silence a victim, coupled with power used to prevent exposure of an abuser, can have catastrophic outcomes in a person’s life. The combined abuses constitute a life-destroying tsunami.
Ben Sasse is uniquely extraordinary…but if you watch that interview and wish we had more civically serious leaders like him, please understand that’s a choice. Voters can demand it.
The work of the church is not the call to ministry. Our true work is that of manifesting likeness to Christ in all things, whether in success or failure, criticism, or praise. If numbers, growth, and fame were God’s measures, then Jesus would be deemed a failure.
Christianity does not look like praying and singing and giving money while ignoring the screams, unspeakable suffering, filth, and death of others. Christianity is not calling others *them*— somehow unlike us, not human, deserving of their suffering.
At some point, words fail. Federal agencies that are supposed to serve all Americans have now twice deliberately misrepresented the circumstances of a killing within hours of it occurring—maligning the victims as “terrorists” out to “massacre” officers. To any rational observer, the strategy of government officials is clear: avoid or shape the political ramifications of the reality that Americans all see as quickly as possible and with complete disregard for an investigation or truth. They believe they can fashion truth out of thin air, by flooding the zone, by creating confusion and sowing doubt. This is Soviet Union stuff.
It is increasingly difficult to understand or even recognize the country that I love. In our 250th year, we are letting slip a golden inheritance earned in the blood and sacrifice of generations of Americans. It’s all unraveling so quickly.
We are not called to protect our institutions, nor do we protect the God of truth by covering up sin and/or a crime. To do so is to “protect” a cancer—and cancer kills. We honor God by caring for the wounded and by dragging sin to the light and calling it by its right name.
Systems that cover up abuse through deception, coercion, or abuse of power mimic the perpetrator and re-victimize the victim. Many lives have been sacrificed on the altar of secrecy for the sake of the church or the mission.
We are complicit with ungodliness when we turn a blind eye, support, and protect existing perversions in the name of success or anything else. Examine the longings of the systems you belong to because they make you vulnerable to fulfillment in once unthinkable places.
This Friday (October 10, 2025) is the (virtual) Global Church Mental Health Summit.
It's FREE to watch more than 50 TED-talk style presentations by ministry leaders and mental health professionals.
Click here for more information:
https://t.co/5sJrqvnDyu
#cmhs2025
Systems that cover up abuse through deception, coercion, or abuse of power mimic the perpetrator and revictimize the victim. Tragically, many lives have been sacrificed on the altar of secrecy for the sake of the church or the mission.