Slavic Christian community deadly secrets

Dear Slavic Christian community, until the pain and sin increase in families and churches, change will not come. There’s no need for revival as we have grown used to living in emotional avoidance and spiritual complacency. 

I’ve worked with girls who cut their bodies because of the sexual trauma they experienced from church leaders, which was ignored and invalidated.

I’ve known girls who drank themselves to death because their pain was brushed under the rug.

I’ve served men who were raped by their babysitters or leaders from the church.

I’ve known young men who overdosed and died because their parents thought seeking therapy would bring their family more shame than their deaths.

I’ve known girls who ran away from home and would sleep with any man just to feel their absent father‘s love.

I’ve known men who left their families for mistresses because the covenant of marriage was not enough to keep them home.

I’ve seen children draw pictures of how they wanted to commit suicide because of their parents’ nonstop fighting.

The examples are endless, and these scrape the surface of the iceberg of secret pain occurring in my Slavic Christian community. 

How can we call ourselves believers if this is the exact opposite of what God created us for: loving Him and our neighbor?

The hypocrisy is sick.

Let the reality sink in even deeper: how many of these will get help?

Over the last five years of working with my Slavic Christian community, I’ve recognized one thing: we are more willing to stay in our pain than do something to change it.

We are comfortable, knowing how much it’ll hurt, rather than risking how it’ll feel if we seek change and the dysfunction is replaced with healthy individuals, families, and churches.

As long as this remains the case, pain will persist for generations. It has no reason to stop. 

The rape and molestation cases in our churches will continue to increase as we turn a blind eye. What else will take its place, if we were honest with ourselves? 

The porn, alcohol, and drug addictions will continue to increase in marriages because there is no need to stop seeking those dopamine highs.

The lie believed in these souls is, “God is not enough to redeem me, and there is no justice for my abuse, so why bother to get out of it?”

Fathers are weak and complacent. They are not a threat to the enemy that lurks to steal their children because they will never do anything to stand against him.

Mothers are intentionally ignorant of their spouses and children’s behavior, which only keeps it going. They pretend they can’t see the pain in their children because they’ve avoided their own, as they have tolerated abuse from their own fathers and spouses.

Leaders silence their sheep, telling them that there are no problems in their churches, and the people who have lived in fear of speaking up continue to do and say nothing.

I don’t know how much worse things have to get…