Tea at Trianon: Spiritual Abuse by Your Church

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, August 5, 2023

Spiritual Abuse by Your Church - Survivor Wisdom Series

This is a difficult topic that people of Faith are just beginning to recognize, although spiritual abuse has long driven troubled people away from God and the Church. The lady who writes is from a Protestant congregation, so it is not just a Catholic problem. From Confusion to Clarity:

I told them he had a drinking problem. I was told that unless my husband admitted to a sin they could not rebuke him. They would believe what he said as a way of showing him respect even though he got his second DUI while we were in active counseling. He then admitted he had a drinking problem and they loved on him instead of rebuking him because he confessed.

For a while the pastor’s wife was very supportive and it seemed like her husband was on board with her, but when my husband and I got together with both of them I could tell he didn’t understand what was going on. He said we need to both listen to each other. So I decided I wasn’t going to keep talking to her. My husband wrapped the pastor around his finger and is now his best friend in the church.

The pastor said, "Well at least he hasn't had a stroke and you have to take care of him." He did refer us to a psychologist.

My preacher told me, regarding my husband's physical abuse of my son, that "sometimes we need something like that to set us straight." And regarding my husband's emotional and psychological abuse of me, he said, "There are a lot of people in this church that are dealing with way worse things and they're still married." He also told me that the less he knew, the better. (Read more.)