“What Dr. Bauman is doing here is actually making it so that wicked people will get away with their wickedness. Think how much easier it is, today, for the real racists to get away with their vile and ugly racism, since we’re all “racist” now. The same goes for abuse. When every little slight, every malfeasance, every single sin is labeled as “abuse,” then abusers get away with it, and the injured are never rescued and their wounds never bathed and healed.”
As you've pointed out, Anne, Dr. Bauman is in the long line of academics emptying the word abuse of all its meaning. This is no accident and no mere rhetorical device; this is intentional deception.
I believe deceptions of this kind require us as a church to revive all the biblical warnings and prohibitions on false witness and deceit. Because deceit really is a deadly weapon that will harm innocent bystanders like a carelessly tossed grenade.
"A man that beareth false witness against his neighbour is a maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow." Prov. 25:18
“My brilliant six-year-old daughter, Selah, beseeched my wife at bedtime, ‘Iwant to hear stories about girls who were heroes for God.’ Most of the Bible stories were about boys. Even my theologian wife hesitated at her request.” So, there are significant accounts of women heroes in Scripture - Deborah and Jael in Judges 4, Ruth and Esther (two books named after their women heroes), numerous prophetesses named in the Old and New Testaments (though 2 of them were not exemplary), Abigail, the women who accompanied and supported Jesus’ ministry, and many others. So I’m wondering what his “theologian wife” considered a female hero to be in the bible. And in reality, the purpose of everyone mentioned in Scripture, male or female, are part of the redemption story culminating in the coming of Jesus Christ. Safe Church sounds like just another iteration of Marxist class struggle, with broad categories of abuse, abusers, and the abused, i.e., oppression, oppressors, and oppressed. It’s no wonder the gospel is missing from the book.
"Words don’t deserve that kind of malarkey. They’re innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they’re no good anymore."
Thank you. I have been particularly troubled in recent years at the broadening of the definition of abuse. Chalking up every small thing to abuse is additional abuse to actual victims.
Looking at the website of Dr Bauman’s counseling center, they mention they do psychotherapy from a Christian worldview. Then looking at their list of Ally organizations they include The Allender Center based at Seattle School of Theology & Psychology which describes itself in its mission statement as “The Seattle School is an evangelical and progressive institution.” Kind of like communists for capitalism. While Dan Allender, who the school is named after, went to Westminster Seminary; he supports the school’s “Certificate in Living Theology.“ The program’s headline is “Reconstruct a Theology You Can Live With.” All these connections point to decontructing Christianity to shape one’s personal preferences. It may be done in the name of mental health, women’s rights, or some other cause while using Christian terminology, but the end result is either adding or taking away from Scripture and the proponents of these reconstructions are essentially asking “Did God really say?” and answering “sort of but let me tweak it.”
Dr. Andrew Bauman is another false teacher to mark and avoid. I'm glad that you had the intestinal fortitude to slog through that open sewer of a book.
I wish I had listened to my body's alarm bells going off when I was in a position to have a bit of influence over whether or not the priest at our ACNA church stayed as long as he did. My body knew first that there was a problem, long before I admitted to myself that HE was the problem. Being around him I felt STRESS and ANXIETY. I felt (and experienced) JUDGMENT on matters that were not his business. I also heard his unhelpful JUDGMENT of others. I saw manipulation and spiritual abuse WITH MY OWN EYES not just of the parishioners but of his family. I persisted too long in respect because he was the priest. He ruined church for many. I regret my inaction. It will never happen again.
“What Dr. Bauman is doing here is actually making it so that wicked people will get away with their wickedness. Think how much easier it is, today, for the real racists to get away with their vile and ugly racism, since we’re all “racist” now. The same goes for abuse. When every little slight, every malfeasance, every single sin is labeled as “abuse,” then abusers get away with it, and the injured are never rescued and their wounds never bathed and healed.”
🔥🔥🔥🔥
As you've pointed out, Anne, Dr. Bauman is in the long line of academics emptying the word abuse of all its meaning. This is no accident and no mere rhetorical device; this is intentional deception.
I believe deceptions of this kind require us as a church to revive all the biblical warnings and prohibitions on false witness and deceit. Because deceit really is a deadly weapon that will harm innocent bystanders like a carelessly tossed grenade.
"A man that beareth false witness against his neighbour is a maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow." Prov. 25:18
This is one of your most important essays, I think, Anne. Bauman just SAYS things, most or all of which are nonsense. Thanks for calling him out!
And you are spot on about "shared power." Everything done by committee is the worst.
Dr. Bauman's "conclusions" are hopeless, as in the hope of the Gospel is absent.
He and his ilk mansplain to God how the church ought to be ordered. He is the pot lecturing the potter. It's embarrassing.
Are women so dim that we cannot learn from the sins and triumphs of men? Or, perhaps, we cannot hear voices in a lower register?
“My brilliant six-year-old daughter, Selah, beseeched my wife at bedtime, ‘Iwant to hear stories about girls who were heroes for God.’ Most of the Bible stories were about boys. Even my theologian wife hesitated at her request.” So, there are significant accounts of women heroes in Scripture - Deborah and Jael in Judges 4, Ruth and Esther (two books named after their women heroes), numerous prophetesses named in the Old and New Testaments (though 2 of them were not exemplary), Abigail, the women who accompanied and supported Jesus’ ministry, and many others. So I’m wondering what his “theologian wife” considered a female hero to be in the bible. And in reality, the purpose of everyone mentioned in Scripture, male or female, are part of the redemption story culminating in the coming of Jesus Christ. Safe Church sounds like just another iteration of Marxist class struggle, with broad categories of abuse, abusers, and the abused, i.e., oppression, oppressors, and oppressed. It’s no wonder the gospel is missing from the book.
I was thinking something similar, Bill. There are many women in the Bible, upheld as examples of faith.
"Words don’t deserve that kind of malarkey. They’re innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they’re no good anymore."
Tom Stoppard
Thank you. I have been particularly troubled in recent years at the broadening of the definition of abuse. Chalking up every small thing to abuse is additional abuse to actual victims.
Looking at the website of Dr Bauman’s counseling center, they mention they do psychotherapy from a Christian worldview. Then looking at their list of Ally organizations they include The Allender Center based at Seattle School of Theology & Psychology which describes itself in its mission statement as “The Seattle School is an evangelical and progressive institution.” Kind of like communists for capitalism. While Dan Allender, who the school is named after, went to Westminster Seminary; he supports the school’s “Certificate in Living Theology.“ The program’s headline is “Reconstruct a Theology You Can Live With.” All these connections point to decontructing Christianity to shape one’s personal preferences. It may be done in the name of mental health, women’s rights, or some other cause while using Christian terminology, but the end result is either adding or taking away from Scripture and the proponents of these reconstructions are essentially asking “Did God really say?” and answering “sort of but let me tweak it.”
Keep up the great work! Brilliant assessment.
Dr. Andrew Bauman is another false teacher to mark and avoid. I'm glad that you had the intestinal fortitude to slog through that open sewer of a book.
I wish I had listened to my body's alarm bells going off when I was in a position to have a bit of influence over whether or not the priest at our ACNA church stayed as long as he did. My body knew first that there was a problem, long before I admitted to myself that HE was the problem. Being around him I felt STRESS and ANXIETY. I felt (and experienced) JUDGMENT on matters that were not his business. I also heard his unhelpful JUDGMENT of others. I saw manipulation and spiritual abuse WITH MY OWN EYES not just of the parishioners but of his family. I persisted too long in respect because he was the priest. He ruined church for many. I regret my inaction. It will never happen again.
Brilliant.
Thrum, thrum, thrum...