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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 17h

No system that carries oppression, silencing, dehumanizing, violence, abuse, and corruption within is healthy. Tolerance of such things, out of fear, disbelief, or self-deception, will not protect the system from the disease that will kill it if left untreated.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 1d

Clergy sexual abuse is not an affair; pedophilia is not about struggling with difficult circumstances; molesting adolescents is not about a struggling marriage. Such things must be called by their right names—the abuser needs to be held responsible for their abusive behavior.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 2d

Never demean the occurrences of ordinary human life or see them as interferences in some “big work.” It is in just those ordinary places, far more than the public, lifted-up places, that the life of Christ is to be made manifest.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 4d

The more we practice deceit, the more incapable we are of speaking or even recognizing truth. Deceit functions like a narcotic, and it is ingested in order to silence guilt or empathy for others so that a deadened soul can continue its destruction.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 5d

Jesus calls us to be light in the darkness, exposing those things that are not like God no matter where we find them, even in those organizations we greatly love. We are called to sit apart when those who stand together are disobedient to Him.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 6d

We damage the dignity of others when we refuse to wait for them—whether they need to tie their own shoes or they are struggling to find words for the indescribable. We bestow honor on another when we consider them worth waiting for.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 7d

A truth-teller disturbs, alerts, awakens, and warns against indifference to injustice and complacency about the needs of human beings. To be silent about injustices in this world is to be a partner with those who carry out violence, evil, and corruption.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 8d

A survivor who has never known safety or dignity talks with you—you treat them carefully, respectfully, kindly, and with gentleness. Have you changed them? No. But in that moment, in your Christlikeness, you have, by His Spirit, brought a small shaft of light into their darkness.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 9d

When we use God’s sacred Word in a way that harms another, commanding them to do wrong, manipulating them, deceiving them, or humiliating them, we have spiritually abused them.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 11d

Many trauma survivors have lived in terrible isolation, thinking their secrets were too horrible to be told. To attend to the struggle of another by listening is to bestow honor on that person.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 12d

When the church shows grace to an abuser in response to a few approved words and some tears, we have done added damage to the victim, risked the safety of others, and left the abuser with a disease that will rot their soul.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 13d

Using our position of authority to get our own way, serve our own ends, crush others, and silence and frighten them is an ungodly use of power.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 14d

It dishonors victims of abuse when we are silent about their experience or pretend it did not occur or was not important.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 15d

I know with certainty that there is hope for the darkest of stories because the Light of the World has come. His name is Jesus, and He brings life to dead places, forgives sins, and heals the broken and wounded.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 16d

When you sit with a griever, your work is to be with them where they are, not drag them out where you are more comfortable.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 17d

God’s Plea to His Body:

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 18d

Christlikeness is visible in character, not merely words.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 19d

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” Proverbs 31:8, 9

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 20d

We must not assume that our family, church, community, country, or organization is always right just because the people in it use the right words. We must never agree to “protect” the name of God by covering ungodliness.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 21d

A good portion of Christendom today seems to serve their political beliefs. It seems the political system has become so important to us that we act and speak in ungodly ways to protect what we have labeled godly. Our politics are not our Christ.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 22d

Jesus pursued the vulnerable, protected the little ones, and poured out compassion on the ‘least of these.’ Any dismissal of abuse, any baptizing of evil, any cover-up, or denial of truth is nothing like Him.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 23d

When you feel overwhelmed in exposing truth, remember this: people are sacred, created in the image of God. Systems are not. They are only worth the people in them and the people they serve. And people are to be treated, whether one or many, the way Jesus Christ treated people.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 25d

When you sit with someone who is suffering, grieving, or sorrowing, you are sitting face-to-face with a grief that your Lord has carried. There is no tragedy that you will encounter in another’s life or in your own that He has not borne.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 26d

Suffering people often need others to have faith and hope for them. Admonitions to hope or trust often result in despair; if the sufferers were able, they would do so. It is often helpful to say, “I know you struggle to hope right now. I will hope for you.”

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 28d

Never imply that the adult survivor is to blame for their childhood abuse. Nothing a child has ever done, no matter how provocative, is justification for abuse. The abuser ALWAYS carries responsibility for the abuse. It is a criminal act.

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