{"id":11948,"date":"2017-02-22T22:14:17","date_gmt":"2017-02-23T06:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dminlgp.com\/?p=11948"},"modified":"2017-02-22T22:14:17","modified_gmt":"2017-02-23T06:14:17","slug":"tortured-souls-and-the-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/tortured-souls-and-the-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Tortured Souls and the Church"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"HELP.\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If the Eucharist is an act of defiance and a way to re-member the body of Christ back together, then torture is the antithesis of this, as it is breaks down the person and dismembers the community. When people start to “disappear” from the shameful experiences and choices made, the church threatens to “disappear” if it remains unresponsive. What if the church walked with those in pain and gave them opportunities to recover from the torture and trauma many have suffered at the hands of others, or from the choices they’ve made?<\/p>\n

I am reminded of a young woman I worked with who was held hostage for days and was tortured and raped by an evil man, then released. In therapy, she struggled to recount or even talk about the terrifying ordeal. Shame that was not hers’ to bear kept her silent and she cried and rocked, muttering broken pieces of her story. Her words were fragmented, but she was able to draw her feelings, or rather scribble her feelings as artful pictures failed her. She scribbled so hard she broke all the crayons and pencils. Next, she ripped up paper, talking about how horrible the torturer was with whatever words came to mind. Her rage kept growing, so we went outside behind the office and threw rocks, pounded wood with a bat, and yelled. If I observed or stopped she would stop, embarrassed and self-conscious, so I was just as active ripping, tearing, beating wood, yelling and throwing rocks as she was, in an attempt to help her recover her voice and power. As her body moved in more aggressive motions, her voice went from whimpers to yells as we scribbled, pounded, and threw things. We were both out of breath and exhausted and laughed as we wondered what people would say if they saw us. But miraculously, she had recovered her voice and her power. The details she will probably never be able to recount, nor do I think they really matter. Recovering her voice, re-distributing the shame, and expressing her power was what counted most, and to know she was not alone moved the traumatic experience to a painful experience she was able to heal from.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Torture can come in overt ways, like physical and emotional abuse, and are easy to identify, diagnosis and provide treatment for. But torture can come in more covert and sinister ways, like never getting your desires fulfilled, no matter how many things you buy or consume. Because they don’t adequately quench the real desires, it makes the consumer just want to buy more, while never getting their true desires fulfilled. This is a tortuous way for a soul to live. It’s like someone being thirsty and hungry and never able to drink water or eat a nutritious meal. Capitalistic countries often promote this covert torture, as individuals are encouraged to buy and pursue things that are easy to obtain but provides malnutrition for the soul. It is a divine design for the church to point people to their true desires and offer nutritious ways to fulfill their desires, thus providing health for the individual and the body.\u00a0 Similarly, it is a compassionate and healing act to provide comfort and hope for a person hurting from pains delivered to the body and soul by helping them recover their voice, power, and self-respect. In so doing, this makes the church irreplaceable and a coveted companion in the lives of all people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If the Eucharist is an act of defiance and a way to re-member the body of Christ back together, then torture is the antithesis of this, as it is breaks down the person and dismembers the community. When people start to “disappear” from the shameful experiences and choices made, the church threatens to “disappear” if […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[64],"class_list":["post-11948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cavanaugh","cohort-lgp7"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11948\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}