At the 2015 Community of Practice put on by the American Bible Society’s Trauma Healing Institute, Dr. Diane Langberg spoke about systemic abuse and the need for dissidents within the Christian community to stand apart for victims of abuse.

Most trauma recovery interventions assume that the traumatic experience of a client is now over. But what of the person who continues to remain in a traumatic environment (e.g., soldiers at war, civilians caught between warring parties)?

Jerry Sandusky: football hero. Jerry Sandusky: non-profit charity for troubled boys. Jerry Sandusky: pedophile.

The radical nature of Christianity is becoming more apparent to me as time goes by. It is my hope and prayer that this recognition is the work of God pressing my mind into the shape of the mind of Christ.

We know from both the literature and from experience that trauma and abuse violate every aspect of the child—their world, their self, their future and their faith. A child is, by definition, in process. Children are vulnerable, dependent and easily influenced.

Every so often in my life, God has taken part of His Word and pushed me deeper into its meaning than ever before. He did that for me last week with a Scripture that I have loved, treasured, and lived by for many years.

I wonder how many of us who are involved in counseling think of ourselves as engaging in a dangerous profession? After all, I am sitting in a nice chair, inside a nice office, talking to people. How could that be dangerous?

People often comment about the resiliency of children when they are facing devastating circumstances such as divorce, death of a parent or abuse. Somehow the comment makes everyone feel better. Unfortunately, it is not true. To be resilient means that when something happens, you return back to your original emotional and cognitive shape. That would mean a child becomes who they were before the traumatic event took place. An abused child does not become as if he or she were never abused.