“But I see myself on the cross too. Beneath all of my posturing and image-tending, I’m a body, finite and frail, suffering life’s wounds and indignities. How many times in a single day do I feel abandoned, insufficient, or ridiculous in the eyes of others? This is a condition the spirit of God shares…”— Doug Frank, theotherjournal.comTagged: Religion, jesus, Shame
“There’s so much pressure to be good and holy that we get scared of all the parts of us that aren’t.”— Doug Frank, theotherjournal.comTagged: Religion, Evangelicalism
“Very often God seems to come in moments of failure or shame. For example, Father Zossima tells how in his youth, for no good reason, he savagely beat his orderly. The next morning he sees with utter clarity that he has beaten a helpless, innocent man. He’s overwhelmed with sorrow and shame, and he b…”— Doug Frank, theotherjournal.comTagged: The Brothers Karamosov, Why people are such dicks
“When I talked with students who were trying to get as far as they could from their childhood religion, they often confessed to feeling guilty or ashamed about their rebellion. I would say thank God—thank some better God—for your rebelliousness. It’s a cry of truth from inside you. It’s a kind of pro…”— Doug Frank, theotherjournal.comTagged: Religion, Evangelicalism, Doubt, Faith
“For me, and for a lot of the Christian college students I’ve gotten to know over the years, the constant pressure to love God and to be a certain way for God leads you to judge yourself a spiritual failure. It’s never God’s fault that you don’t feel close. Preachers will say ‘God is always reaching…”— Doug Frank, theotherjournal.comTagged: Religion, Spirituality, God, Spiritual abuse, Evangelicalism