Good stuff from the Curmudgeon.
What I am describing is different from the reality that some of the most acute and chronic relational hurts Christians experience is within the believing community. Here the family metaphor and analogy can help. We get an explanation and understanding from relational dynamics within marriages and families. Family members often find that both the greatest joys and the greatest pains are experienced within the family. Husbands and wives know that these joys and pains come from the same person. Within the same family we can experience loyalty and betrayal, understanding and indifference, support and abandonment. To put it succinctly both love and hatred can be experienced within a marriage and a family. Some marriages and some families are more dysfunctional than others, but the potential for hurt is universal.
R. Scott Clark
R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He has taught church history and historical theology since 1997 at Westminster Seminary California. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007.
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Boy, this does describe our church as a family well.