Notable Quotes from Diane Langberg, PhD

Diane Langberg, PhD is a Christian psychologist working in the Christian community in cases of sexual abuse, PTSD, and psychological trauma.

From her “About” page:

Somewhere along the way God added pastors and leaders to my work as a Christian psychologist.Christian leaders burnt out, chewed up and tossed aside. I was tending to victims and to shepherds. Sometimes to shepherds who were victims.

And then one day, God allowed those worlds to collide and I entered the murky waters of shepherds who made victims out of sheep. 

Missionaries who raped the nationals they had gone to serve.  And pastors who abused their power to feed egos and sexual appetites by devouring those in their pews.  I encountered churches that closed ranks to protect the abuser rather than the victim.  I saw sin hidden and ignored rather than exposed to the light of God.  Shepherds and churches had often become the predators.  Protected were institutions and organizations rather than the sheep they were meant to serve.

…

In the midst of the trauma and suffering I have also seen the work of the Redeemer. He fills his people with his life and in ordinary ways, little by little, they bring his hope and healing to a ruined world. Traumatized and caregiver alike are transformed. He works both ways as they bend together to bring his redemption to the ravages of evil. I know this to be true for he has done so in me.

I have learned many lessons over the years. I have listened to countless tragedies. Of one thing I am certain: unless we are gripped by the truths of the Cross of Christ in our own hearts and lives, the hope and power of the Cross will not pass from us to others. We cannot give what we do not have.  May love and obedience to the Son of Man so govern our personal lives that he can through us bring his life to this ruined planet.

She also runs a twitter feed and the following are some excerpts from that feed.

• It has taken the media and the courts to make it abundantly clear that sexual abuse is in our Christian pews and has even been perpetrated or covered up by some we have held in high esteem.

• I am grieved that it has been the media and not the voice of God’s people who have dragged it to the light.

• When the people of Israel were going to the temple and following the rituals God had given them but were full of sin – God brought in their enemies to destroy that God-ordained holy place and scattered the people to Babylon.

• Our God does not protect institutions that He has created and designed when they are enterprises full of evil.

• What forgiveness looks like in any situation is not to be governed by what would make the family feel better but rather by what would call each and every member to a restored relationship to God Himself. Anything less will not honor Him.

• “The history of the church shows that the church pure is the church powerful; and the church patronized and tolerant towards evil is the church immature and paralyzed.”  George Campbell Morgan

• We have frequently overemphasized the response of the abused to the exclusion of confronting the behavior of the abuser.

• Why, when confronted with violence or abuse in a home, have we often placed the burden on the victim to justify her actions, to somehow prove that she did not “make” him do it, rather than on the abuser to confess his sins and demonstrate change?

• When did we start thinking that tolerating grievous sin in the home was godly?