"Surviving God" excerpt in Daily Meditations

It is a joy when Fr. Richard Rohr includes an excerpt from your book, Surviving God co-written with Susan Shaw in Daily Meditations.

Week Thirty-Two Practice: Healing and Joy  

Grace Ji-Sun Kim and Susan Shaw recommend discovering joy as a healing practice for those who have survived trauma and physical abuse:  

Joy can come upon us unexpectedly; it can wash over us, enfold us, fill us, overwhelm us with feelings too ancient and deep to name. It becomes the unexpected grace that fills our souls with peace and love.  

And joy is also a discipline. We seek it; we hunger and thirst after it; we practice it until it becomes habit. How? By directing our attention at every moment to even the smallest of objects, sensations, and emotions in our path. We have to teach ourselves to look for it until our looking becomes habituated. For example, look at your hand. Have you ever marveled at it? Look at everything it can do. Now look deeper. In your mind’s eye, look at the atoms that make up your hand. Every single particle in your hand has existed from the time of the Big Bang. These particles have been other things—perhaps a star, a meteor, a wildflower—and, when your body returns to the earth, these particles will continue to exist and become other things forever and ever. Doesn’t that make you want to shout “hallelujah” to the end of your days?…  

Even after the most difficult times, hardships, abuse, and assaults that we may undergo, we can overcome these traumatic events by the Spirit of God which vibrates in us and produces joy.  

Reference:   
Grace Ji-Sun Kim and Susan M. Shaw, Surviving God: A New Vision of God through the Eyes of Sexual Abuse Survivors (Minneapolis, MN: Broadleaf Books, 2024), 204. 

***************

Surviving God theologian to speak on preventing church abuse

I interviewed for the Melbourne Anglican Magazine on my book Surviving God co-written with Dr. Susan Shaw during my time in Australia.

The Reverend Dr Grace Ji-Sun Kim wants to equip Christians to recognise and prevent abuse risks in the church. Picture: Jenan Taylor

by Jenan Taylor

26 July 2024

Melbourne Christians have a chance to learn how to better prevent sexual abuse in the Church at an upcoming presentation by an abuse survivor and leading American theologian.

Surviving God: A new vision of God through the eyes of sexual abuse survivors hopes to equip Christians to read and understand the Scriptures in ways different to the patriarchal approaches taken in many churches.

Earlham School of Religion Professor the Reverend Dr Grace Ji-Sun Kim wants people to recognise how patriarchal approaches might influence interpretations of God and lead to un-Christian behaviour.

She warned sexual misconduct would keep happening in churches and communities without deep consideration of the lens through which people viewed their faith.

Reuters reported recently that New Zealand uncovered abuse of 200,000 people in state and religious care across 70 years, misconduct mirrored globally over the last century.  

Professor Kim said people could learn how to prevent predatory sexual behaviour happening if they knew what to look out for, and how to talk about it.

Read more: Faith, culture on agenda for women’s meeting

Her presentation is titled after her book based on her own, and other survivors’ experiences of abuse in the church.

She said her approach was based on intersectional theology which considered where racism, sexism, unjust economics and other injustices intersected.

Professor Kim said it recognised that women of colour and other marginalised people were more likely to encounter injustices such as sexual abuse.

She said it was never easy for them bring the misconduct to light because often the communities they belonged to felt ashamed if it was revealed.

The event has already past and above are some of the pictures from the event hosted by the Victorian Council of Churches.

Special Events:

1.Join me for an online book discussion of When God Became White. It is free but you must register.

2.I will be one of the speakers at Faith and Democracy happening September 19, 6-730p.m. (EDT). Please register today.