{"id":831,"date":"2010-02-11T17:33:52","date_gmt":"2010-02-11T22:33:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sourceministries.net\/go\/?p=831"},"modified":"2014-05-06T10:39:31","modified_gmt":"2014-05-06T15:39:31","slug":"sexual-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sourceministries.net\/go\/2010\/02\/sexual-abuse\/","title":{"rendered":"Sexual Abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Q<\/em> & A<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

SEXUAL ABUSE <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Lewis Gregory<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/span><\/span>Q.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/span> As a teenager, I was the victim of sexual abuse by a minister. The church and denominational leaders did not deal with it correctly, so it was never resolved. It is still very painful to me.\u00a0 My faith in God has been greatly inhibited and my self-image has been damaged. I believe something must be done to rectify this atrocity in our churches. Anything you can do to address this situation would be greatly appreciated. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span>A.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/span> I am so sorry that you were abused by a trusted leader in the church.\u00a0 It saddens me very deeply to hear how this hellish experience has marred your Faith.\u00a0 But what you have described that was presented to you, by so-called \u201cministers\u201d is not true faith, but religious manipulation, distortion and guilt motivation.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I am very sympathetic and understanding of what you are telling me.\u00a0 Satan is the deceiver who takes the TRUTH and corrupts and perverts it.\u00a0 Then he uses it against us.\u00a0 Of course he uses other people to get to us. \u00a0Satan does appear as an angel of light to deceive, as he tried to do with our Lord when he used Scripture to tempt Him.\u00a0 And yet these same scriptural words of God, in their proper context, when spoken in LOVE can and will bring healing.\u00a0 I know, because God used them in my life!\u00a0 I have shared these truths with many who have been abused over the years and our loving Lord has used them to bring healing and restoration.\u00a0 This is the grace of God at work.\u00a0 What a precious opportunity we have been granted as ministers of reconciliation!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Take comfort in the fact that you are on the road to recovery.\u00a0 From what you said I sense that you genuinely desire to be made whole.\u00a0 Good for you!\u00a0 Please don\u2019t let anything deter you.\u00a0 Give me a call sometime.\u00a0 I mentioned your plight to another victim of child abuse with whom I have ministered named Gary Brown. \u00a0Gary requested I pass this on to you. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy name is Gary Brown. Like you, I was abused sexually. \u00a0It was not by a minister, but a neighbor\u2026I was nine years old. \u00a0For 20 years I walked in a fog of confusion and darkness. \u00a0Personal relationships were very difficult for me. \u00a0Like you, I found no help in my beliefs about God. \u00a0As a matter of fact, all I got was hurt and rejection from the ‘People of God.’<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Now get this\u2026I have been a pastor for over 29 years. \u00a0Can you believe it? \u00a0I am a pastor and yet when I tried to get help from the church all I got was ridicule and rejection. I was on my last \u201cbelief in God\u201d leg, when in desperation I went to a pastor\u2019s conference to \u201cpray\u201d about leaving not only the ministry, but also faith in God completely. \u00a0How could people who claim to know God treat someone (me) so rudely? I had always heard that Christians shoot their wounded, now I was experiencing that \u201cshooting\u201d myself. It was there that I heard of Dr. Lewis Gregory\u2019s ministry. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

When I got home, I looked him up. \u00a0At first we just visited and shared over lunch. \u00a0I wasn\u2019t an easy nut to crack! \u00a0My bitterness had grown so much that I was literally numb to the touch both physically and emotionally. \u00a0I finally became a client of Dr. Gregory. \u00a0As a result of the healing power of God in me, I no longer walk in darkness and I no longer have my hatred of the church.\u00a0 Since then Lewis has become a close personal friend. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It took me four years of counseling with Dr. Gregory before I could trust anybody, much less God and Christians, but learn<\/em> to trust is what I have learned<\/em> to do. \u00a0I would say trust \u201cagain,\u201d but to be honest, up until that time I had never truly trusted God before.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I think I understand your intentions in warning people about the bad apples. \u00a0Personally as a result of what I have gone through, I am now committed to helping protect people from sexual predators of all kinds. \u00a0My primary way of doing this is my abstinence work with youth. \u00a0I have become known across America as the nation\u2019s abstinence pastor. God has truly blessed me. \u00a0Now, He uses the deep hurt caused by my past abuse as an example of His healing power.\u00a0 As a result, 1,000\u2019s of people have been set free.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Gary Brown, Pastor <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The sexual abuse of Children\/Teens is a growing problem worldwide. We see reports of it almost daily in the news. \u00a0It is a blight on society. \u00a0In Matthew 18:2-7 Jesus spoke very strongly about God\u2019s view regarding the mistreatment of children. Please make this gross atrocity a matter of prayer!<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Q & A SEXUAL ABUSE Dr. Lewis Gregory Q. As a teenager, I was the victim of sexual abuse by a minister. The church and denominational leaders did not deal with it correctly, so it was never resolved. It is still very painful to me.\u00a0 My faith in God has been greatly inhibited and my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,31,51],"tags":[13,12,17],"class_list":["post-831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adversity-teaching","category-q-a","category-written-articles","tag-adversity","tag-suffering","tag-tragedy"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sourceministries.net\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sourceministries.net\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sourceministries.net\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sourceministries.net\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sourceministries.net\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=831"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.sourceministries.net\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":837,"href":"https:\/\/www.sourceministries.net\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831\/revisions\/837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sourceministries.net\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sourceministries.net\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sourceministries.net\/go\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}