Comments on: Rev. Eva Sullivan-Knoff: Reflections of God’s Love and Grace https://comingoutcovenant.com/rev-eva-sullivan-knoff-reflections-of-gods-love-and-grace/ Members and friends of the Evangelical Covenant Church in favor of a more inclusive church! Wed, 25 Mar 2026 19:19:02 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Lorian Franklin Dunlop https://comingoutcovenant.com/rev-eva-sullivan-knoff-reflections-of-gods-love-and-grace/#comment-437 Sat, 20 Aug 2011 01:39:00 +0000 http://comingoutcovenant.com/?p=467#comment-437 Eva, thanks for this, and for directing folks to useful resources.  So many GLBT people are suffering, feeling separated from God and abandoned by their churches.  It’s one of the most common stories I hear from GLBT people who were raised in religious environments.  They feel betrayed by God because they were betrayed by their churches.  Finally, as a few denominations, like the UCC, begin to freely open their doors to us, there is healing for many. 

]]> By: Carol https://comingoutcovenant.com/rev-eva-sullivan-knoff-reflections-of-gods-love-and-grace/#comment-432 Tue, 09 Aug 2011 17:28:00 +0000 http://comingoutcovenant.com/?p=467#comment-432 beautiful, eva. thanks for sharing. 

]]> By: Casey Pick https://comingoutcovenant.com/rev-eva-sullivan-knoff-reflections-of-gods-love-and-grace/#comment-430 Tue, 09 Aug 2011 16:31:00 +0000 http://comingoutcovenant.com/?p=467#comment-430 Rev. Sullivan-Knoff, thank you. The distinction you draw, between religious abuse and spiritual judgement, is critical and so easily blurred. My friend Amy mentioned a few posts prior that I sometimes find myself defending God to my lgbt friends who have been wounded by the church. To do so, I find myself saying, yes, the church and Christians have hurt you – but what do you have against Jesus? When has he hurt you, rejected you, harmed you? What changed in your relationship to him that you can’t call yourself Christian anymore? Of course, the answer, if they are honest, is nothing. Jesus is always faithful. They are just tired of fighting the church… and too often unspoken is that they have come to believe, despite their own experience and relationship with our lord, that the church which speaks in God’s name knows something they don’t. After all, Christians know Christ, and if so many of them don’t want us, He must not either. To the weary mind, it makes a sort of sense.

That’s the danger of religious abuse – it masquerades so well as spiritual conviction. People say, it’s not me that condemns you, it’s scripture condemning your sin. He wrote it, I believe it, that ends it – and when people walk away, we cast them as the rich, young ruler rather than the children Christ so vehemently demanded we allow passage to him. As a church, all of us have to be so careful when we wield the word of God. The sword is sharp, and we wound without even knowing it. Again, thank you for this, and all that you do.

]]> By: Casey Pick https://comingoutcovenant.com/rev-eva-sullivan-knoff-reflections-of-gods-love-and-grace/#comment-431 Tue, 09 Aug 2011 16:31:00 +0000 http://comingoutcovenant.com/?p=467#comment-431 Rev. Sullivan-Knoff, thank you. The distinction you draw, between religious abuse and spiritual judgement, is critical and so easily blurred. My friend Amy mentioned a few posts prior that I sometimes find myself defending God to my lgbt friends who have been wounded by the church. To do so, I find myself saying, yes, the church and Christians have hurt you – but what do you have against Jesus? When has he hurt you, rejected you, harmed you? What changed in your relationship to him that you can’t call yourself Christian anymore? Of course, the answer, if they are honest, is nothing. Jesus is always faithful. They are just tired of fighting the church… and too often unspoken is that they have come to believe, despite their own experience and relationship with our lord, that the church which speaks in God’s name knows something they don’t. After all, Christians know Christ, and if so many of them don’t want us, He must not either. To the weary mind, it makes a sort of sense.

That’s the danger of religious abuse – it masquerades so well as spiritual conviction. People say, it’s not me that condemns you, it’s scripture condemning your sin. He wrote it, I believe it, that ends it – and when people walk away, we cast them as the rich, young ruler rather than the children Christ so vehemently demanded we allow passage to him. As a church, all of us have to be so careful when we wield the word of God. The sword is sharp, and we wound without even knowing it. Again, thank you for this, and all that you do.

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