One of the abuses that I faced was religious abuse.  Twisting scriptures to their own design abusers use God as their motivation to terrorize and brutalize their victims.  I didn’t read the Bible for a long time because of how it was used to twist meanings.

I am sharing from my other blog this response to Facebook people contending the Bible is the cause of abuse.  Not true.  Abusers twisting anything to their own purposes.  http://weareone-ruth.blogspot.com/2016/06/depth-of-sea.html

They refer to the scripture of honoring your mother and father but of course the last part is left off, that your days may be long.  In that time in the Bible, parents could legally stone their own children.  Brutal but that was the times.  Still true in some parts of the middle East.  Honoring parents was indeed a matter of life and death.  I prefer these verses:

Colossians 3:21 Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.
Proverbs 12:18  There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health.
Proverbs 15:4 A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit.
Luke 6:31 And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. 
John 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

Then my favorites:

Mark 9:42 And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.

Matthew 18:1-6 1. At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
² And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,
³ And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
⁴ Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
⁵ And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.
⁶ But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

Luke 17:2 It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.


I think Jesus is clear on His opinion on harming children and a child’s role in His Kingdom.  The Bible can and is twisted by abusers.  However, when I read it myself, I felt reassured that Jesus did not appreciate the way I was treated.  Also challenged me to consider how I treat my children. 
  
Huge challenge to follow Jesus Christ.