We are born innocent. But then many of us are told we’re born guilty – accountable to some choice we didn’t make, but should definitely suffer for anyway. That framework of belief weighs heavily on Christians. Those of us raised in religious environments grew up exposed to this idea of a universal condemnation, where the only way out seemed to be when the proper formulas were adhered to: the right boxes checked and the right beliefs claimed. Arbitrary technicalities of escape to match the arbitrary judgment... All of it lacking humanity and compassion.

When you grow up believing you deserve eternal torment in some far off place, it becomes easier to stomach abuse at a more near and intimate level. Or at least, it's harder to believe you deserve anything better. Certainly harder to demand anything better. A steady diet of guilt and shame sets us up to endure great abuse while attempting to rationalize to ourselves how or why we’re being hurt.

Christian institutions in the church and the home are rife with abuse because so much of what they promote serves to enable abusers and silence the abused. So there’s something especially beautiful about human strength and dignity in the face of all that. Defying that world and its destructive assumptions, and reclaiming one's original innocence.

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