The Christian Peacemaker Who Left a Trail of Trauma

A strange situation. From the beginning, it is very odd to see a truly Biblical ministry that would place a woman in authority over men (I Timothy 2:11-15) and, in addition, have her train men in Biblical reconciliation? If you were involved in a truly Biblical ministry, why would you turn to a ministry that ignores the gender restrictions of Scripture for help?

This also proves that it is not just male leaders who minimize sexual abuse. Both men and women are capable of dismissing the pleas of those who have been violated in some way.

I know of a small ministry that works with church conflict (Bible Related Ministries, founded by Chuck Svoboda) that was truly grounded to the Word. Is there a desperate shortage of solid ministries that address reconciliation? I must admit to being puzzled.

The problem is not just an individual’s personality flaws, at least in this case.

There are many things here that I can’t accurately suss out—probably couldn’t unless I had been in the room, and maybe not even if I had been—but one thing that strikes me in the article is that when we’re talking about conciliation and Matthew 18, we’re talking about really rebuke for sin, and the article doesn’t seem to indicate that this was a major emphasis of her ministry.

What I also notice—besides what Ed notes—is that the article more or less alleges that she and her ministries were making about the same errors that BJU did with sexual assault as described in the GRACE report, that ABWE did with regards to the PII report, and the like. We all make the same mistakes, and one big one is that we sometimes will zoom in on the “little transgressions” as if they’re the same thing as major sins.