Submission not Coercion

A friend posed a question about what I'd be interested in a pastor knowing about abuse and what I'd want to hear in a sermon. These are the immediate thoughts I had:

IMO authority figures need to be particularly careful when they are using their authority. That's why police and medical personnel and religious leaders and teachers are held to higher standards when they are interacting with others "under" them within their working environment. No one has the right to coerce another into doing what they want them to do. If they are coercing someone then that person is not really submitting to them, they are doing what they are doing to protect themselves from some type of harm. If someone who is in authority realizes that is what is happening they need to immediately stop, apologize to the person they were coercing, and *change their behavior*. Even if it means the church elders or pastor needs to apologize to the church for coercing them into faith promises or other financial giving by preying on their emotions!

I've learned to submit to someone's NEED rather than their want. If I'd understood the concept works for husbands as well as children (not saying husbands are children though) I'd probably have stayed with my husband until his death. Abusers need someone to stand up to them and say "NO! You cannot do that to me." It is only when they are faced with someone who can call them on their abusive behavior that they will back down. Just because someone has authority over another person does NOT give them the right to get whatever they want, whenever they want.

Unless submission is voluntary, it is not submission. Jesus does not coerce any of us into doing the Lord's will. If we are to be accurate reflections of Jesus, true Christians, we should not be coercing anyone into doing what we want. We need to reflect a God who loves and protects. God is not like the abusive parent, spouse, teacher, boss, Sunday School teacher, evangelist, or politician. God loves and gives willingly to us. God can be trusted because the LORD does not abuse us...ever.