2 of 8

And what about the last century? Churches were certainly more legalistic and moralistic in the 1940s than they are today, but I simply can't imagine a best-selling book from that era titled Disappointment with God. Can you see that featured at a 1950 Billy Graham rally? I don't mean that nobody felt disappointed with God, only that they processed their disappointment quite differently.

By disposition I am a get-over-it kind of guy. I mention this because I know I'm not the only one. A good portion of the church would counsel the hurting to get over it—or they would if they weren't afraid to seem insensitive.

You feel haunted by the legalistic church of your childhood? Get over it! You last attended that church 15 years ago.

A pastor failed you? Move on! There's a hurting world that needs your help.

When I went to Google and typed in "wounded by the church," the following links appeared:

"Eight Seriously Wounded in Church Blast"

"Ten Wounded Trapped Inside Nativity Church"

"Persecuted Church News—Indonesia—Churches Bombed, 60 Wounded"

"The Wounded Church in Croatia."

Even the most sensitive person would admit that such wounds make our psychological injuries seem small. We can afford the luxury of being wounded by the church because we are not in Pakistan, where we might get our heads blown off.

I confess, though, that when I want to urge people to "get over it," I don't have persecuted Christians in mind. I'm thinking, rather, of my own peace of mind. As a leader in my church, I want to get things done. I'm busy. I don't want to pause for the painstaking and repeated interaction that psychological wounds require.

Psychologist Diane Langberg might have me in mind when she says, "God uses people who are weaker to expose our hearts to us. I can tell myself that I am really patient as long as I am with people who are running at the same pace as I am. But when I begin to attend to people who are deeply wounded, I may find that I am not so patient after all."

Notre dame's George Marsden is the premier historian of fundamentalism, a movement that has a reputation for churning out wounded people. When I asked Marsden whether he thought there were more wounded people than ever, he answered that he thought not.

"Maybe I draw that from growing up in the church in the 1950s and knowing a lot of people who felt they were hurt by it. If I ever wrote a novel, that is what I would write it about."

The subject seemed important to Marsden. "In evangelical groups, it's always clear that a lot of people are converted, but there are a lot of people going out the back door." He added that faith is hard to pass on to the next generation—children react against their parents' religion.

Even so, Marsden mused that "maybe it's more okay to be out in the open about the church as a problem." The number of wounded people may be unchanged, but perhaps their wounds come to the surface more frequently.

Wheaton College historian Mark Noll answered similarly: "My guess is historically quite regularly people were wounded by the church." He mentioned women systematically denied opportunities to use their gifts, and people of color who have suffered discrimination and deprivation, often at the hands of other Christians. "Yet in diaries, you do not get the sense of personal disorder, disorientation, and wounding that is common today."

next page... |  2 of 8

share this page

March 2003, Vol. 47, No. 3