Helping Vets & Helping You Have A Healthy Spirituality Part One.

Over the years I have learned that America is jam packed loaded with people who are dysfunctional out the wazoo.  This is largely due to the abuse and pain that has been passed on from one generation to the next; for example all kinds of dysfunction results from the following stuff:

1. Verbal abuse: This is where a child is cursed at, sworn at and called a less than gentle version of what use to be called an illegitimate child.  This also includes the child being told "you will never amount to anything!"  Or "Why can't you be like your brother/sister?"  In other words derogatory words were pounded on the child and into the child as the parent's (or parent type) pain was unleashed on an innocent.  (BTW.. a parent type is a coach, teacher, scout leader, church leader.... any adult in authority over the child who influenced various areas of the child's life.)
2. Physical abuse:  What the words did not do, the fist,  and other utilized objects did.  
3. Emotional abuse:  A good way to describe this can be found in the phrase, "If you cry, I will give you a reason to cry." So feelings are suppressed or repressed.  They are NOT allowed... no way no how!  OR ELSE! Guess what happens emotively over the years?
4. Sexual abuse:  Acts of sex are visited on the child (male or female) by a significant person in the child's life or some other predator. (Usually, however this is a person the child "should" be able to trust.  Yes this includes those "hot chick teachers!"  There are many men who have difficulty having a healthy relationship because of their encounter with         "Mrs. Robertson" when they were young......or some other touching incident that happened.
5. This blog cannot mention them all, but there is ONE abuse that can be worse than all of them... Spiritual Abuse.  This can involve verbal abuse as a parent/parent type tells the child he/she wants the ALMIGHTY to "d--- you" and other such things.  Or the Holy Scriptures are used to justify horrific beatings so that there would be no danger of "sparing the rod or spoiling the child!"  Emotional abuse would include using spirituality to demonstrate to the child how "evil" the child is.  I do not think I will go into the distorted sick thinking that uses spirituality to involve getting the child to do all kinds of sexual things to "honor" the parent or type.  Think about what happened in the Catholic Church and you  will get my drift.   But let's not put it all on the Catholics.  Other faith groups have their own predators walking around in clerical garb or who are neat looking wearing a 3 piece suit... even a nice dress or pant suit.

Add to this the horrors of war being visited on a young person who only wants to serve the nation,  and some very problematic things happen that can ruin a persons spirituality...

Indeed all this results in such a distorted spirituality that leaves the growing/adult person angry at God, unable to trust God and want ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with God!  Can you blame them?  "Father" certainly would not be a comforting term to someone who has had the horrors of abuse visited on them by dear old Dad.... would it?

Some of our VietNam veterans came back from war giving up on God because they felt God had abandoned them and that He could have prevented them from being put in positions to do things they could have never imagined doing.  (Not ALL V. Vets, but some.)  I imagine there are some others who feel the same way.

The questions is, "How do you help these vets or these other abused persons come out from the terrible things of their lives to be victors over their darkness instead of victims?  I will deal with that in the next blog.  Sorry.  Don't want you to go to sleep because this thing gets too long:o)

So until next time:

Be Blessed 2day Especially 2day

Al