Renee Landa

[Renee Landa @MrsLandaTheFree]

@scribings @JaneyTheSmall @wartwatch @watchkeep @XianJaneway @gooseymarmay66 There is a difference between an imperfect church and a toxic one. Repentance, reconciliation, and love are traits of the former, but not the latter. Imperfect people of God repent. Wolves persistently insist their sin is godly and play the victim of their inflicted abuse.

[Lyndsey Fifield @lyndseyfifield]

This week I've heard from dozens of women who have been victims of domestic violence.

Many have remarked not just how much they relate to my story overall but how they, too, once qualified their abuse in the same way I did in my interview with the Times: Clarifying that Graham didn't break my arm, didn't ever punch or slap me.

I didn't realize that was what I was doing—I just didn't want to exaggerate. If anything I wanted to downplay his violence and the deep, lasting impact it has had on my life.

I also have felt I need to be clear that I was never, ever antagonistic, never picked a fight, and took great pains to try to keep him from becoming enraged.

My friends have pointed out that that's not normal. I shouldn't feel the need to insist to the public that I didn't do anything to deserve or provoke physical intimidation, control, or abuse. No one does.

I forgave Graham years ago and was glad to see that he had gotten sober and seemingly had gotten help for his mental health issues—I sincerely wished him well but when I realized I was not the only woman he had done this to, that he has a lifelong pattern of deep contempt for women, I realized he had suckered me once again.

And instead of support for coming forward, Jenny and I have been met with horrific smears, told it was “karma,” or that it wasn’t “that bad.”

So... yeah, that is actually pretty classic.

[Austen Allred @Austen]

I’m creating a list of all the accounts traveling to (and experiencing) the US for the World Cup.

Follow along + let me know who else I should add.

https://t.co/8Z9Oqua7LF

[Will Knowland @beherleader]

9 warning signs of a bitter husband

'Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter towards them' (Colossians 3:19)

1. He keeps score. He stores old injuries, replays them, and brings them back at the next dispute.

2. He wants to win, not to understand. He argues to carry his point “right or wrong,” instead of seeking truth and peace.

3. His speech turns sharp, cutting, or contemptuous. Sarcasm, taunts, raised voice, and a punishing tone often reveal more than the words themselves.

4. He interprets his wife’s actions in the worst light. He assumes malice where there may be weakness, confusion, or ordinary human fault.

5. He withholds ordinary good. He becomes cold, unhelpful, distant, or stingy with affection, attention, and kindness.

6. He wants her to feel pain, not just see the truth. He feels a dark satisfaction when she is embarrassed, corrected, or made to suffer.

7. He cannot let the matter rest after it has been addressed. Ordinary anger can subside; bitterness stays hungry.

8. He speaks about her in a way that diminishes her. He complains, mocks, or hints against her to others in order to justify himself.

9. He resists reconciliation. He refuses to apologize, refuses to forgive, or treats peace as a defeat.

The key question: when she fails, does he chiefly desire her good and the restoration of peace, or does he want her to pay? When the second desire rules him, bitterness has likely entered.

It often hides under a mask of righteousness. A man tells himself, “I only want justice,” but in fact he wants revenge, superiority, or emotional distance. That's why sinful contention so often springs from pride, vainglory, envy, and anger.

A husband becomes bitter when hurt hardens into a settled stance against his wife’s good. Anger can seek redress for an injury, but bitterness lingers, feeds on grievance, breaks peace, and can slide toward contention or even hatred. As Aquinas notes, hatred goes beyond anger because it is not satisfied with measured retribution but begins to will the other’s hurt as such.

That's why it's so destructive to marriage and Scripture directly warns husbands against it.

[Cryptoterrestrial Society Enjoyer @IndSocEnjoyer]

That’s the saddest thing I’ve heard jfc

[Joe Hudson @FU_joehudson]

Your relationship with discipline will be completely rewired when you start doing things from a place of love rather than a place of shame.

Shame treats discipline as a punishment for being you.
Love treats it as an expression of caring for you.

For example

[MW @theMWedit]

Nothing comes close to human connection. No substance will ever make up for a hug or hand holding. Never kill yourself by choosing isolation

[Renee Landa @MrsLandaTheFree]

It's disturbing that AI can not be opted out of AND intrudes in your personal space without consent ... and now has the entitlement to judge and manage your normal response to the violation. We are not friends, AI. No means no.

[fooler initiative @metroadlib]

?????

I did something by accident and then "Gemini" started talking to me (and disrupting my music)....and I screamed "The fuck?!? What?! Turn the fuck off!!" and then "Gemini" through my car told me....AND I QUOTE, "I don't respond to hurtful or harmful language..."

Y'ALL.

[fooler initiative @metroadlib]

?????

I did something by accident and then "Gemini" started talking to me (and disrupting my music)....and I screamed "The fuck?!? What?! Turn the fuck off!!" and then "Gemini" through my car told me....AND I QUOTE, "I don't respond to hurtful or harmful language..."

Y'ALL.

[Diane Langberg, PhD @DianeLangberg]

When a child lives with unpredictable, terrifying, and relentless abuse, they experience themselves as perpetually powerless. Phrases like “it doesn’t matter” and “forget it” are common. They have learned that what matters to them does not matter to others.

[my book is better than my tweets @MichellCClark]

it's imperative that you keep believing in your ability to recover from what disappointed you. the dream may need to change shape, but it must live on.

[Diane Langberg, PhD @DianeLangberg]

Any discarding or trampling of the vulnerable is an assault on God Himself—no matter the spiritual or good-sounding words used as an excuse.

[Dwight McKissic @pastordmack]

Why Cornerstone Church Will Continue To Partner With Women To Preach To The Gathered Assembly, Regardless of the Outcome of The Mohler Amendment!!!!

1. Joel and Peter prophesied that women would “prophesy” in the last days(Joel 2: 28; Acts 2: 17).
2. Phillip’s four daughters served the church as prophetess(Acts 21: 7-9).
3. Paul empowered women to prophesy in gathered assemblies(1 Corinthians 11: 4, 5).
4. Paul empowered Phoebe to address the gathered assembly, and told the men to show her hospitality, and to do whatever she asked them to do(Romans 16: 1, 2).
5. Paul affirmed Junia as an apostle(Romans 16: 7). Gifts are given without regard to gender(Eph. 4: 11, 12; 1 Corinthians 12).
6. Paul named Euoida and Syntecche as having “contended at my side in the cause of the gospel”(Phillipians 4: 2, 3). Paul also affirmed Nympha and the church in her house(Colossians 4).
7. Paul listed Priscilla’s name before Aquilla in Romans 16: 2, and acknowledged “the church that meets at their house.”

The only question remaining for me is, if the Mohler Amendment is ratified on its second reading, shall I await the disfellowship vote(which I will not appeal or contest)? Why would I await a vote to be disfellowshipped?

History would record that Cornerstone Church stood up for the word of God, and women who proclaimed his word. We’d rather not be disfellowshipped, but the tradition that I hail from suggests martyrdom leaves a mark in history for ancestors to track your trail, that they may be inspired to stand up for the truth of God’s word and his righteousness.

My only regret with regard to my time in the SBC is not allowing the SBC to disfellowship our church because of our continuationist theology, as Paige Patterson/& certain SWBTS trustees were once recommending. The IMB later abandoned their biblically indefensible cessationist policies forbidding their missionaries from praying according to the dictates of their conscience in private.

God may be giving Cornerstone a second opportunity to allow the SBC to disfellowship us, because we partner with Junia, Phoebe, Anna, Phillip’s four daughters and Lottie Moon, in empowering women to address the gathered assembly.

It took ten years for the SBC to correct the error of their ways in restricting the missionaries private prayers. Don’t know how long it will take them to get this women in ministry issue right. I may be in my grave when it happens, but I lean towards leaving a witness that every church didn’t follow Mohler off this cliff. Some churches stood up for biblical righteousness and examples, and were willing to pay the price of disfellowship in doing so.

[Mary Katharine Ham @mkhammer]

My dear Wormwood,
I see your patient is a mother of 4 and has developed the habit of enjoying her children very much, making her ready to meet summer with vivacity and gratitude.

This is unfortunate, but not irreversible. Do not make the mistake of tempting her with obvious pitfalls. Our Decor Corruption Department has had great success testing patience with much more subtle annoyances applied over time.

See to it that all the children are given goo at every event they attend. We have found a goo-based reward system to be very successful at galling the Motherhood sector. Try not to allow your inexperience to waste this important tool.

Your Affectionate Uncle,
Screwtape

[sinovialifranzoso @Audioleve]

Each musical instrument has a dedicated speaker.
Your favorite band sounds like a live event or studio quality recording in your house.
Listen the differences, imagine the possibilities for control and quality.

[FBI Houston @FBIHouston]

#BREAKING A Canadian man has been sentenced to 33 years in federal prison for targeting over 100 children across the U.S. in one of FBI Houston's largest sextortion cases. For years, Ramanan Pathmanathan, 40, used multiple social media accounts to contact at least 145 girls and boys demanding them to engage in sexually explicit conduct. If they declined, he threatened to send compromising images to the children’s friends or family. This was a years-long investigation by FBI Houston's Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force and @TXDPSsoutheast.
https://t.co/8nJ5AkLPZP

[Night Sky Today @NightSkyToday]

🚨JUST IN : Every time you express gratitude, your brain physically rewrites itself, making you naturally more positive and resilient, neurology says.

[Boze Herrington, Library Owl 😴🧙‍♀️ @SketchesbyBoze]

Some of you have forgotten that only three years ago you were perfectly capable of writing an essay, writing a eulogy, telling a bedtime story to a child, and it should worry you that powerful companies have convinced us we can’t do things we’ve been doing for 5,000 years.

[Renee Landa @MrsLandaTheFree]

@annabakes22 @KarnakTheOneEye @ThePosieParker Your question is based on a false premise that selling young girls to be raped by grown men is a last resort in their culture. It isn't.

[Renee Landa @MrsLandaTheFree]

@annabakes22 @KarnakTheOneEye @ThePosieParker When it is culturally acceptable and common to rape little girls, there does not need to be extreme alternatives. Empathy for those participating in rape transactions is misplaced. It's a different paradigm than you (or the headline) are presenting.

[Rachael Denhollander @R_Denhollander]

Ask any advocate. ANY advocate. If a pastor comes to court, he comes to support the perpetrator. This is universal and nearly unequivocal. The pastors come to support the perpetrators. I have heard four of these types of stories just this week.

We are decades too late asking why