Tear Down This Wall Of Silence

Why do so many of our churches feel like a safe place for sexual offenders, but an unsafe place for survivors of abuse? The wall of silence regarding sexual abuse in our churches must be torn down. Christians must hear. Tear Down This Wall of Silence answers questions such as: Who are the Enablers who help keep a system of abuse in place? Wrong thinking has kept this sin covered in our churches for decades. What are the truths that need to be proclaimed instead? Churches, families, and friends must not turn away. How do we properly grieve such a tragedy? How can we offer hope? The offender must show fruits of repentance. How can he begin to make restitution? How can the abuse survivor find true safety in Jesus Christ? Through personal memoir, voices of authoritative professionals, and the words of abuse survivors themselves, Tear Down This Wall of Silence provides a foundational explanation of the problem of sexual abuse in our churches and its aftermath, and offers hope.

a call to churches to be prepared to understand the sin of sexual abuse, to believe and speak the truth, and to take action to help those who have been affected by abuse.

This collection considers contemporary performance of Shakespeare's plays in non-English-speaking theatres.

Gentlemen Callers provides a fascinating look at America's greatest Twentieth-century playwright and perhaps the most-performed, even today. Michael Paller looks at Tennessee Williams's plays from the 1940s through the 1960s against the backdrop of the playwright's life story, providing fresh details. Through this lens Paller examines the evolution of Mid-Twentieth-century America's acknowledgment and acceptance of homosexuality. From the early Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and one-act Auto-da-Fé , through The Two-Character Play and Something Cloudy, Something Clear , Paller's book investigates how Williams's earliest critics marginalized or ignored his gay characters and why, beginning in the 1970s, many gay liberationists reviled them. Lively, blunt, and provocative, this book will appeal to anyone who loves Williams, Broadway, and the theater.

This book begins with a phone call. You answer it and learn that you got the job. Several months from now you're going to stage a Shakespeare play. Now ... what do you do? I mean, what do you do after that initial burst of adrenalin has passed through your body and you realize you haven't a clue as to what the play is really about, or what you might want to do with it? How exactly do you prepare for such an equally wonderful and daunting task? This is the central question of this book. It grows out of decades of preparing for Shakespeare productions and watching others do the same. It will save you some of the panic, wasted time, and fruitless paths experienced. It guides you through the crucial period of preparation and helps focus on such issues as: · What Shakespeare's life, work, and world can tell us · What patterns to look for in the text · What techniques might help unpack Shakespeare's verse · What approaches might unlock certain hidden meanings · What literary lenses might bring things into sharper focus · What secondary sources might lead to a broader contextual understanding · What thought experiments might aid in visualizing the play Ultimately, this book draws back the curtain and shows how the antique machinery of Shakespeare's theatre works. The imaginative time span begins from the moment you learn that on such and such date you will begin rehearsing such and such Shakespeare play. Our narrative clock starts ticking the moment you put down the phone and stops when you arrive at the rehearsal hall and begin your first table read. So much of what will be the success or failure of a director's project rests on this work that is done before rehearsals even begin.

Abusive power by the pastors and church leadership is real and comes to our church members in many ways. It can be about church leader's violating boundaries, betraying trust, breaching confidentiality, and lying about what a church leader said or did. This book challenges the appeal process (council, classis, synod) of the Christian Reformed Church. Although the appeal process was not designed for abuse allegations, it is what is used when victims come forward with abuse of power allegations. Read about weaknesses of the appeal process and how change in the appeal process could create a safer church for all.

The Congressional ethics process has been transformed into a lethal, partisan political tool, feared by lawmakers from both sides of the aisle. . Newt Gingrich, the Ghengis Khan of recent American politics, wrenched the humdrum Congressional ethics process out of its lethargy and turned it into an offensive tool for partisan gain. Now, instead of yawning, lawmakers quake at the thought of an ethics inquiry that can easily, often unfairly, tip elections and ruin careers. While members of the House and Senate confront the public's changing attitudes toward money, sex, and power, they are also forced to raise ever-escalating sums to finance their campaigns. Practices tolerated a decade ago now may cost lawmakers their seats or land them in jail. Lawmakers often don't know if they live in Salem or Gomorrah. Using new information culled from dozens of Capitol Hill interviews, Sue and Marty Tolchin show how ethics in Washington have changed over two centuries while offering new interpretations of past ethics cases. The first book to analyse the politicization of the ethics process, Glass Houses reveals in wicked and telling detail the forces that drive the modern lawmaker into a maelstrom of fierce corruption battles.

This remarkably eye opening book for anyone interested in comparative religion, history and human psychology may find many surprises that challenge what many once believed to be absolute truths. This work reflects a meticulous and painstaking effort to present the findings clearly, concisely and thoroughly as a result of the study of comparative religious ideas, history and the psychological effects which impact adverse results in our present day thinking and correcting errors that crept into history. This effort is not intended to deride people and certainly not to mock anyone's beliefs. The intent is obviously to point out false charges, misconceptions and outright lies are in themselves deriding and mocking and a most odious thing. This book should prove to be a very valuable asset to mankind. People should be aware of what in fact has been taught to mankind as a result of studying this book which efforts to dispel darkness upon us all. May Gods Peace and Blessings Be With You All.