Spiritual Abuse

I'm opposed to abuse in general, but I want to focus on spiritual abuse. There isn't a single religious or spiritual institution that hasn't been guilty of this in the course of history.

 
My own church, the Catholic Church, has been guilty of this. A few years ago, a young woman named Alana Chen took her own life after years of spiritual abuse by priests and religious sisters. Alana Chen had homosexual desires, but she wanted to be a nun. Some priests and religious sisters made her undergo conversion therapy.

 
This is unacceptable. In Alana's case, homosexual desires were nothing more than a temptation. They never became actual sin.

 
And I know Alana was not the only person who has been spiritually abused by Catholic Church leaders. Whether gay or heterosexual, many have suffered spiritual abuse at the hands of a religious institution that revolves around a benevolent, merciful, and loving God who literally died on a cross to save humanity from its crimes and betrayal. Not only did He die to save us from the punishment our crimes and betrayal warranted, He died to make the deification process possible. You see, we are meant to be gods and goddesses. And no, I don't mean that in a narcissistic New Age kind of way. I mean fulfilled, whole, perfect, healed, confident, and immortal, in the classic sense of the word. But right now, we are broken gods and goddesses. 

And I would like to offer an apology on behalf of my Church to anyone who has been spiritually abused at the hands of its clergy and consecrated religious. I would like to apologize for all the criticism of our gay brethren for entering same-sex marriages when 50% of our heterosexual marriages fail. And to those people who look at the Catholic Church and say we should be making sure priests don't ever rape minors again instead of criticizing those who sleep outside of marriage or with someone of the same gender, I hear you. 

We have much to repent of and to atone for. We need to take the splinter out of our own eye before we criticize anyone else. And the only ones who know  we're working on that is ourselves.