I was reminded of the Good Samaritan today…
This morning on my way into church, there was a vehicle with a flat tire. I told an usher (I don’t usually go there) and he looked out, shrugged and said he didn’t know whose it was. He didn’t go out of his way to find out, either. I told another, and he didn’t help either. After church I waited around. The vehicle didn’t leave… most people did. I left a note under the wiper blade and went back in one last time to ask if it belonged to a friend of mine who lives out in the country, knowing she wouldn’t be able to change it or air it up where she was headed. The pastor was the first one I saw, and I asked if he knew anything about the vehicle. Immediate concern, and then ‘I hope it’s not…’ He looked out, immediately thanked me and went out to look at the tire. It apparently belonged to someone who was struggling with some things. If we’d let them drive off, they might have had to pay for a tire they couldn’t afford, and more than that, they might have wondered if anyone cared. As it was, they came out to find the pastor and a deacon down on their knees looking for the nail in the tire and (I’m guessing) offering to fix it for them for free. Wish those things happened much more often.
I’m still sorting through that. I’ve been debating going regularly to this church. Frankly, the services don’t impress me, but it’s only about three blocks from my house, services are decent, I have several friends there, and… well, several reasons that don’t make it a good church but don’t make it bad either. I like the pastor. He seems to have his head screwed on straight. He listens and is involved but doesn’t put himself forward. If I hadn’t gone back in that last time to check on my friend, and he hadn’t responded as he did, I probably wouldn’t have gone back more than once more. The others I asked really didn’t seem to care. One had even forgotten about it when I went back to ask if he’d found the owner. But his response and the deacon’s (my friend’s husband)… I could live with a church with that kind of heart.
Then too, I was embarrassed because I left after I knew someone would take care of it. But there’s nothing I could have done if I’d stayed. “Yup, it’s flat alright.” They knew that. My extra input on that matter wouldn’t have been helpful at that particular moment. So I know that was a kick back from my former church. I actually TALKED to a pastor (big no-no for me right now) and then I left him in the dirt on the pavement to fix it himself and drove off (which my former pastor would have frowned on if it had been him).
The parable came to mind… who’s your neighbor? I feel I did what God wanted me to do–and more than that, maybe saw what He wanted me to see, whether I decide to go there or not. Just knowing there are people out there who aren’t offended that you don’t do more, take things in stride, and want to help people was a huge benefit to me.
Thank you for your Blog, and kudos to the SpiritualAbuse.org website and Lois’ efforts, even over many years. I was horridly abused, and criminally, in 1985, by a Pentecostal end-times group, well-known enough to earn a place in heavily researched books like ‘The Counterfeit Revival’ by radio-show host, ‘Bible Answer Man’, Hank Hanagraff (who sent me a personal letter by US Mail in the 1990’s). Sometimes the abuse is perhaps less than fatal, but in some cases, the abuse is devastating (please see the Christopher Leonard, ‘Word-of-Life’ case, Oct. 2015, one dead, four in prison). The tip of a very cold ice-berg, many of these so-called ‘deliverances’ and ‘extreme aversion therapies’ result in criminal prosecution for violence, and worse. I can go on and on. The real sadness is that the church in general, the leadership and priests, turn their back on the survivors, who make their way in life much as myself, crippled, emotionally obliterated, sometimes without money, and without friends or proper medical attention, or legal guidance. And all-too often, for whatever reason, the ideal candidate for such highly dubious ‘miracles-in-darkness’, is a young person, even a very young person. I’m a 58 year-old retired journalist in California, married 27 years with my son just now successfully getting through college and into jobs. But as the world changes around us, to hurt and harm, to ‘summon the devil’ in secret, to lead any born-again or church-hopeful person, into bizarre, twisted beliefs, confusion and fear, and to do so in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, ‘love’, and to hide it away, it’s a ruin. I still can’t really think straight, I suffer from professionally diagnosed PTSD and DID (yes, Didi, there is no Santa Claus, get over it). Church attendance for me is fearful, and ‘triggers’ in the world around me (music on the radio, T-shirts, relationships, and let’s not forget work, careers and education), are a perpetual bother. So, hang in there, when it comes to some of the more evil things going on ‘in Jesus name’, it’s right and proper to bring it forward, to listen to the complaints of those criminally abused at churches, to call a cop or a lawyer. So thanks, and Happy Thanksgiving Day, 2016. *please support survivors of spiritual and religious abuse.