Reading the Denhollander interview
- Can God's call to forgive be misapplied or weaponized against abuse survivors?
- How should the church respond when sexual abuse happens inside its own community rather than outside it?
A host reads through the Christianity Today Q&A with Rachel Denhollander. She describes wrestling with God's perspective on abuse, her conviction that Christians gloss over the devastation of sexual assault with misapplied platitudes like Romans 8:28 and God's sovereignty, and how her advocacy against abuse enabled within the evangelical community, specifically the Sovereign Grace Ministries scandal under C. J. Mahaney, cost her her church when her own status as a victim was wielded against her. The hosts discuss why churches cover up abuse: elevating the institution above following Jesus, and the temptation to protect God's name instead of dealing with sin the way scripture prescribes.
More on Forgiveness
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Dear LFTP: the $4,200 loan that never came back
- How do I get past the sadness over the $4,200 loan my friend never repaid — do I just let it go?
The final Dear LFTP letter: a year ago a supposed friend asked to borrow money — her husband had left the country to renew his visa, her car was repossessed, she had no way to get to work.
From No. 603 · Found Out
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Dear LFTP: the stolen college fund and telling the 90-year-olds
- Should I tell my 90-year-old parents that their grandson stole my granddaughter's college fund?
Ben hands to Mike, who reads a grandmother's letter: her son helped himself to the college money the great-grandparents set aside for her granddaughter; she fears telling her parents, in their nineties, could shock them into a stroke.
From No. 586 · Nothing Personal
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Dear LFTP: forty years of a cheating wife and a temptation
- Would it be wrong to rekindle an old friendship for intimacy when my wife has cheated for forty years?
A man approaching his fortieth anniversary writes that his wife has always been a serial cheater, a secret he kept to protect the children's view of her; with retirement and a sexless marriage he asks whether rekindling things with old female friends would be wrong.
From No. 581 · Silly Rabbit | Christianity, Culture, and Navigating Social Expectations
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Dear LFTP: the stalker ex-girlfriend
- How do I get my stalker ex-girlfriend to leave me alone?
Mike reads a letter from a man whose ex-girlfriend keeps trying to get him back, even stalking him, after he blocked her number.