Equipping Christian Ministries to Address Spiritual Abuse

Dr. Melodie Bissell (Plan to Protect), and Naomi Wright, LSW (beEmboldened), will go live to discuss the launch of their partnership in offering a one-day workshop on Spiritual Abuse, and why being informed and prepared is an absolute necessity for any faith-based organization.

[@recrutme54321]

I'm trying to wrap my head around the gospel presentation for children ages 5-12. My church wants to participate with a national group that takes biblical "classes" to our local elementary school weekly. As I'm looking over the material available to me, I have concerns. Every lesson talks about the child's sinfulness and Jesus' death. Of course his death, burial, and resurrection are CORE to our understanding of salvation, however having taught 5-7 year olds before, their understanding isn't where I think all of them can tolerate being told every single week how they're sinners and Jesus died because of their sin. Jesus blessed the children brought to him and the Bible tells us that children are innocent and special to him. What I don't want to happen is that in 5-10 years, those same kids think we trauma-bonded with them in these classes because there can be no deviation in the material. I can't "read the room" and focus on certain aspects. I'll never forget a little 6 year old boy in my AWANA Sparks class panicking about "everyone dies" and becoming upset about his mom dying one day. My daughter, who's finishing her BS in Psychology" pointed out trauma bonding just when I gave her a brief overview of what is expected. Could something like this fall under the umbrella of Spiritual Abuse? I don't want to be fearful, but neither do I want to contribute to authority abuse. Am I just way too sensitive about the matter? No one else seems concerned.

[@beEmboldened]

Hello! It sounds like you have valid concerns about the curriculum. I would have to talk with you more and look at the curriculum to better respond, which I'm happy to do. If you or a small group would want to connect on this, please feel free to email us at hello@beemboldened and we can talk about options for either meeting with myself or someone else from our direct services team (Teasi Cannon or Anna Kitko). As an aside, I used to tell myself that I was too sensitive, too...now sometimes I am the problem (or part of it), but in these situations, I most certainly was not. Again, happy to help you navigate this!