Sexual abuse in the church makes news, hurtful news. People use their positions of honor and power for personal pleasure. Brothers and sisters, this should not be.
1 Corinthians 6:18 (NIV)
Flee from sexual immorality.
Our enemy looks for every opportunity to give Christ a bad name, to hinder ministry and hurt believers. Let us take every opportunity to pray for purity, unity and safety:
Mighty God, make our churches safe spaces for those who are vulnerable. Lead our leaders “not into temptation;” teach them to flee from all immorality. Deliver us from the evil of sexual abuse, in our churches, in our communities, in our country, in Jesus’ name.
The church should be the safest place
one findeth in this life,
and if it’s not, the touch of grace
starteth with a knife.
If the eye offends, it should be plucked,
and the hand should be removed,
and the abuser shall be (redacted)
when a hard man finds his groove.
I really am not violent,
my voice a smooth piano,
but I am not hesitant
to create a new soprano
with that charming old-school art
pour l’encouragement les autres.
‘piano’ in this sense is used as an adjective, meaning ‘soft’
Your voice a smooth piano, Andrew? More like a trombone, I think, with a few gentle tones between the usual jazz and blast.
I really am soft-spoken. I try to hew to the Byronesque ideal:
He was the mildest manner’d man
That ever scuttled ship or cut a throat.