Women of the Reformation: Katharina Von Zimmern P/1

 

In this post I will focus on a woman named Katharina Von Zimmern. She lived from 1478 A.D. - 1547 A.D. in Zurich, Switzerland.

Katharina had a difficult childhood and was eventually placed in a convent. She and her sisters were molested by priests and returned home. After a time, Katharina was returned to the convent for good, eventually becoming the imperial Abbess of Zurich. In this position, she controlled huge amounts of land, cash and people. But Katharina was exposed to the Reformed faith and and at some point converted. She invited Protestant ministers to teach the nuns Latin and to provide spiritual care. 

At the end of 1524, Katharina signed over the Abbey and all of its assets to the city of Zurich. This was personal conviction - peaceful but strong - that Rome was wrong and must be resisted. The transfer of property gave the city an advantage that was more than economic: it made Zurich an openly free and safe place for Protestants without the civit war that so many other places endured. Yet, it placed Katharina in a very vulnerable position as Rome's open enemy. However, God protected her, also providing her with a husband and a daughter. And Katharina's public leadership did not end there. Later, she served on the city council.

Read Part Two HERE

Early Christian Women Martyrs: Perpetua P/2

Read Part One HERE

In this post I will focus on a woman named Perpetua who lived from appr 181 A.D. - 203 A.D.in Carthage, Africa, which was then under the dominion of Rome and its emperor Severus.

Perpetua's mother was a Christian, but her father was a pagan who worshipped the Roman gods.

In this era, Christians were being persecuted in Roman Carthage and Africa. 

Perpetua was literate and well-educated. She married as a young woman and had a son.

In 203 she was moved to begin the process of converting to Christianity, despite its risks. Some time later she was baptised into the faith.  She was afterwards arrested together with two slaves Felicitas, who was pregnant at that time, and Revocatus. They, together with other imprisoned believers, were brought before the Roman governor of the region, Hilarianus, when they confessed their faith.

Conditions in the prison were dark, crowded and hot and the soldiers in charge often physically mistreated or negleted the prisoners. Perpetua was separated from her child upon her arrest and left him to the care of her mother and brother, who had so far escaped notice. After a pair of deacons bribed the prison guards, the Christians were moved to a better part of the prison and permitted visitors, including Perpetua's family.

When it came time for the Christians to go before the judge, Perpetua's father followed them, begging Perpetua to recant and begging the judge for mercy. Upon seeing this, the judge also tried to convince Perpetua to change her stance, but she refused and, like the others, was sentenced to death.

During their time in prison the slave girl Felicitas was heavily pregnant and concerned that she would be left behind when her friends were martyred as pregnant women could not be executed. She did, however, give birth a few days prior to the scheduled executions, and her daughter was taken in and adopted by a Christian woman in Carthage.

Perpetua and her fellow Christians began to impress the guards at the prison. Perpetua was recognised as the spiritual and emotional leader of the group. Eventually, the warden became a Christian himself due to Perpetua's influence.

On the day of the execution, Perpetua and the others were in good cheer and secure in their belief that they would soon receive a heavenly reward. Both Perpetua and Felicitas were attacked by a female cow, but they eventually died by the sword of a gladiator.

Early Christian Women Martyrs: Blandina P/1

 

Dear Everyone,

I will begin to post blog posts again. However, my focus will be different in that I plan to write on women who are known because of their function within the Church. The first woman we are going to look at is  a woman named Blandina.

From 112 A.D. - 313 A.D., Christianity was outlawed by the Roman Empire. This reality led to the fairly common experience of local persecution and martyrdoms of Christians who refused to renounce their faith.

Blandina was a Christian slave girl, who lived in Lyons, France, and served as a minister or deacon in the church. In 177 A.D. she was part of a small group of Christians, who were accused and consequently martyred. Her public tortures included scourging, a roasting chair and being gored by a bull as ordered by the Roman governor Pliny the Younger, who mentioned her position in the church in his letter to the Emperor Trajan.

 However, Blandina never gave up on her faith. Instead, her steadfast faith impressed the crowd who claimed never to have seen a woman bear such cruelties. Her boldness was for Christ and for the sake of others. She sought to encourage other believers, many of whom faced hideous torture and death. In her final words, she told her fellow prisoners: "Stand fast in the faith, and love one another, all of you, and be not offended by my sufferings." 

Read Part Two HERE

 

 

 

     Dear Everyone,

 

I am taking a break in July and Augut but will start posting again in September.

 Wishing everyone a good summer!! 

Loes

Abuser and victim are equally sinful: Sovereign Grace P/8

Read Part One HERE

In this blog post I will continue to focus on C.J.Mahaney, pastor of Sovereign Grace Church, Louisville, Kentucky, USA. He was formerly president of Sovereign Grace Ministries, now known as Sovereign Grace Churches. Their culture incorporates a strong emphasis on homeschooling, patriarchy and corporal punishment. A civil suit was filed in 2012, accusing Mahaney and other Sovereign Grace pastor of covering up sexual abuse of children.

Testimony of a survivor:

"My husband and I spent many years at our Sovereign Grace church. We homeschooled, got involved in a home group and created a nice little bubble for ourselves.We looked the part and believed what we were told to believe and even though we never fit the mold, we kept trying."

"The thing was, though, my husband had a porn addiction that was kept hidden (because a Godly wife doesn't reveal her husband's sins to the world, even to close friends). He would get caught, he would "repent" and humble himself, and I was to forgive him. A vicious pattern that would repeat itself over and over, and would set the stage for what was to come."

"It all came to a head when I discovered that my husband had been sexually abusing our ten-year old daughter. (One night I went into my daughter's room to kiss her goodnight after her father had gone downstairs to get on the computer, and I said to her, "You know honey, No one, not even me or daddy has the right to touch you in your private areas." She started crying and said that daddy had been doing just that every day for a long time, and making him touch her as well.) I confronted him. He begged me not to tell anyone. I said I had to protect our daughter, so I called our associate pastor  My husband ran out of the house, got into the car and drove off. The pastor came to the house and talked to our daughter. I was praised for not calling the police but contacting them first, for being a Godly example of a Christian wife. I did tell two of my close women friends, though, feeling the need for support."

"When I shared with the pastor that I told my friends about the situation, he was quite upset for me telling anyone, and reprimanded me for gossipping and I then had to meet with them and our care group to do damage control, to make sure no one would know what was really happening or had happened. My husband was told to move in with his mother."

"My daughter and I were brought in for counselling with the pastors, where she once again had to tell what had happened, and where she was told she needed to forgive her father, that she was a sinner too, and didn't she feel that she had sinnd by not telling me sooner, and we were made to feel that she had somehow sinned by allowing it to continue, even insinuating that may be she even wanted that attention a bit. She was ten years old!!"

"I was also told that I should not get ouside counselling for my daughter at all. According to the pastor it would expose her to ungodly counsel and do more harm than good, that God was the only counsel she needed. My husband got counselling for about four months from the pastors; it is the "trickle down" theory of taking care of the "head" and it will trickle down to the wife and kids."

"The pastors knew that so many people knew about what had happened that they were required by law to report it, so they told my husband that he needed to turn himself in instead of them doing it."

"After about two months, I was told that in order to be a truly Godly wife, I had to forgive my husband because my sins as a less than Godly wife had also contributed to my daughter's abuse. I was told that had I better met my husband's needs physically, he wouldn't have been tempted elsewhere. A meeting was held at the pastor's home, where my husband coud apologise for hurting her and ask her to forgive him. Again she was reminded by the pastors that she was a sinner too, and that Jesus had forgiven her, so she must forgive her father to be a good Christian."

"So I was told to allow my husband to move back home, and to make sure I had physical relations with him regularly. I was told as well to put a lock on my daughter's door, on the inside, and every night after I had kissed her goodnoght, she had to lock her door to keep her father out."

"He moved back and we resumed looking like a "normal" Sovereign Grace Ministries family, my husband was greatly praised for repenting and we were praised for reconciling."

"A year later we were told to be part of a church plant. However, I caught my husband looking at our daughter when she went to use the bathroom.I told the pastor. He said that sin was insidious and that I should expect my husband to have moments of weakness. I was wrong to warn my daughter because I was further damaging her relationship with her father and preventing it from being reconciled.At that moment I knew that not only was I and my child without protection from the church, but that I was truly alone and would just have to make the best of it. I could not rely on any more help from the pastors and it was up to me to protect my child as best as I could."

"For five years I struggled to be that protection for my daughter. She continued to lock her bedroom every night and I continued to always be alert to my husband's prowling at night. In the meantime, we maintained our facade as a healed and reconciled family The toll on my self-esteem, my self-respect and my family was huge. My marriage relationship was dead, but I was trapped inside it trying to be that "Godly wife."

"Finally, I just burned out. I just couldn't do it any longer. I couldn't pretend to love a man who had sexually assaulted my child every day for months."

"It was only with the strength and support of one friend that I was able to finally get the courage to divorce my husband and leave the church. It was a long two-year process, in which I was shunned and ostracised by the church body under instructions by the pastors for "abandoning my family" and beraking my marriage vows. I was told I couldn't leave the church because as long as my husband was a member, I was a member also. But I finally got my divorce and broke free, and maintained custody of my daughter."

"I have found a wonderful church that has helped me realise that the world and God are so much bigger than Sovereign Grace Ministries ever taught."

P.S. This is my last post on Sovereign Grace Ministries.

Abuse is part of God's Plan: Sovereign Grace P/7

Read Part One HERE

In this blog post I will continue to focus on C.J. Mahaney, pastor of Sovereign Grace Church, Louisville, Kentucky, USA. He was formerly president of Sovereign Grace Ministries, now known as Sovereign Grace Churches. Their culture incorporates a strong emphasis on homeschooling, patriarchy and corporal punishment. A civil suit was filed in 2012 accusing Mahaney and other Sovereign Grace pastors of covering up sexual abuse of children. 

Testimony of a survivor:

"I came to PDI (later SGM) when they were just getting into the subject of Christian counselling. Basically we were told there was no credence in rehashing the past because God was the God of the present. We would go to Celebrations, their annual mecca-life conference, and there would be time for all kinds of things. But there was never a time for anyone who had suffered abuse."

"In the twelve years I was in the ministry, I never asked for help in dealing with my abusive past. I was so afraid I would be judged as being self-pitying or not fully embracing the sovereignty of God. But then one day I made the tragic mistake of reaching out to a pastor of our previous SGM church and he told me something that chilled me to the bone. He said, "It is such a comfort to know that whatever happened to you was sovereignly ordained by God and was still better than you deserved."

"I was shocked, horrified, outraged, you name it. For the first time in my life, I challengd this sick doctrine vehemently, although I didn't attack him personally."

"After leaving SGM, I finally opened up to a very wise and godly woman who was able to show me the depth of distortion to the Father's heart of God presented to me by this pastor and by SGM in general."

Read Part Eight HERE

Pastors are above the law: Sovereign Grace P/6

 Read Part One HERE

 In this blog post I will continue to focus on C.J. Mahaney, pastor of Sovereign Grace Church, Louiseville, Kentucky, USA. He was formerly president of Sovereign Grace Ministries, now known as Sovereign Grace Churches. Their culture incorporates a strong emphasis on homeschooling, patriarchy and corporal punishment. A civil suit was filed in 2012 accusing Mahaney and other Sovereign Grace pastors of covering up sexual abuse of children. 

 Testimony of a survivor:

"I was part of PDI-turned SGM for a long time, and there were too many abuses to recount in a post. In a nutshell, leadership puts up an appearance of humility, while being absolutely unwilling to look at very serious cult-like tendencies. Basically, everyone was expected to be cookie-cutter families: Everyone is to home school, only let their children court, support the same hyper-Calvinist doctrines etc. When my spouse and I decided not to home school, you would have thought we had decided to sell our children into prostitution. We came under so much scrutiny and "evaluation" as to our motives, we ended up doing it out of a sense of shame."

"I also took issue with the fact that the leadership in our church refused to report very serious cases of child abuse to local officials - even one case of molestation and another of incest. I have a very good friend whose husband confessed to a pastor he had sexually abused their daughter and other heinous acts. One of the pastors met with the couple one time and then told my friend later - when she asked when they would meet again - that he thought the situation was pretty much dealt with."

Not only is not reporting these abuses against the law, I think it was indicative of their arrogant presumption that they can effectively take on situations that were way over their head..... Their methodologies are so fraught with inconsistencies  and dangerous error, they have hamstrung themselves in their effectiveness. And as much as they uphold the efficacies of biblical accountability, if anyone outside their tight little leadership circles dare to challenge anything in the movement, they are anathema and shunned altogether.Although there were many good things about PDI -SGM and I have many fond memories, unfortunately the harm I suffered far outweighs the good. I was so sipwrecked after leaving, I still have a difficult time walking into a church or trusting anyone who calls himself a Christian."

Read Part Seven HERE