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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 13h

We have thought our race, our community, our nation, and our way of thinking are superior, rather than seeking desperately to develop the mind of Christ about all things.

Anything that deflects the mind from the centrality of Jesus Christ and His cross is of the flesh.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 18h

In such systems, dignity, vibrancy, impact, creativity, building, and producing are silenced and crushed. This distortion results in the parts of the system standing together to serve the system rather than the people.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 18h

Systemic abuse applies when a system that is designed to serve people is instead destroying them, reducing, harming, wasting, and dehumanizing those created in the image of God.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 1d

When we do not understand an abuser's capacity for deceit, we make it easy for the offender to continue in deception and sadly, often call it “grace.” If it lacks truth, then it is not grace.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 2d

Jesus Christ did not die for our systems. He died for human beings.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 4d

“Grant that my part in this world’s life today might not be to obscure the splendor of Your presence but rather to make it more plainly visible in the eyes of men.”

~John Baillie,
A Diary of Private Prayer

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 5d

When we turn from those who are vulnerable or who have been abused, in our midst or elsewhere, we have chosen to value something else more than love and obedience to our God.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 6d

It is never helpful to remind one grieving of what they have not lost or of the fact that it could have been worse. We do not grieve what we have but what we do not have. We compare our loss to the good we had, not to the bad that never happened. The empty space is that . . . empty.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 7d

No system that carries oppression, silencing, dehumanizing, violence, abuse, and corruption within is healthy. Tolerance of such things, out of fear, disbelief, or self-deception, will not protect the system from the disease that will kill it if left untreated.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 8d

Clergy sexual abuse is not an affair; pedophilia is not about struggling with difficult circumstances; molesting adolescents is not about a struggling marriage. Such things must be called by their right names—the abuser needs to be held responsible for their abusive behavior.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 9d

Never demean the occurrences of ordinary human life or see them as interferences in some “big work.” It is in just those ordinary places, far more than the public, lifted-up places, that the life of Christ is to be made manifest.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 11d

The more we practice deceit, the more incapable we are of speaking or even recognizing truth. Deceit functions like a narcotic, and it is ingested in order to silence guilt or empathy for others so that a deadened soul can continue its destruction.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 12d

Jesus calls us to be light in the darkness, exposing those things that are not like God no matter where we find them, even in those organizations we greatly love. We are called to sit apart when those who stand together are disobedient to Him.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 13d

We damage the dignity of others when we refuse to wait for them—whether they need to tie their own shoes or they are struggling to find words for the indescribable. We bestow honor on another when we consider them worth waiting for.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 14d

A truth-teller disturbs, alerts, awakens, and warns against indifference to injustice and complacency about the needs of human beings. To be silent about injustices in this world is to be a partner with those who carry out violence, evil, and corruption.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 15d

A survivor who has never known safety or dignity talks with you—you treat them carefully, respectfully, kindly, and with gentleness. Have you changed them? No. But in that moment, in your Christlikeness, you have, by His Spirit, brought a small shaft of light into their darkness.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 16d

When we use God’s sacred Word in a way that harms another, commanding them to do wrong, manipulating them, deceiving them, or humiliating them, we have spiritually abused them.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 18d

Many trauma survivors have lived in terrible isolation, thinking their secrets were too horrible to be told. To attend to the struggle of another by listening is to bestow honor on that person.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 19d

When the church shows grace to an abuser in response to a few approved words and some tears, we have done added damage to the victim, risked the safety of others, and left the abuser with a disease that will rot their soul.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 20d

Using our position of authority to get our own way, serve our own ends, crush others, and silence and frighten them is an ungodly use of power.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 21d

It dishonors victims of abuse when we are silent about their experience or pretend it did not occur or was not important.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 22d

I know with certainty that there is hope for the darkest of stories because the Light of the World has come. His name is Jesus, and He brings life to dead places, forgives sins, and heals the broken and wounded.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 23d

When you sit with a griever, your work is to be with them where they are, not drag them out where you are more comfortable.

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 24d

God’s Plea to His Body:

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Diane Langberg, PhD @dianelangberg.bsky.social · 25d

Christlikeness is visible in character, not merely words.

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