Healing Spiritual Wounds: A Talk With Author Rev. Carol Howard Merritt

Thursday, March 2nd 2017, 7:00pm

Headlines about the church are dominated by the crises within it, from sexism to homophobia to intolerance. These stories reveal what some people already knew: the church isn’t always holy. Author, speaker, and Presbyterian minister Carol Howard Merritt has seen it firsthand. Raised as a conservative Christian, Merritt found that the kind of religious institutions she grew up in had the potential to create healing but also isolation and deep suffering. “People have suffered religious abuse,” she writes, “which can be different from physical injury or psychological trauma.” She observes that in response, people no longer see the church as a safe space and often leave.

In her transformative book HEALING SPIRITUAL WOUNDS (HarperOne; Hardcover; February 7, 2017), Merritt responds to the conflicting image of the church as a safe space and dangerous place, and provides a way to remain a part of the church and renew personal faith even when the institution falls short on its mission. Lecture is free and open to the public, but seating is limited. Lecture will take place at Scott Hall 101, San Francisco Theological Seminary, 105 Seminary Road, San Anselmo, CA 94960. To register, http://sfts.edu/healing-spiritual-wounds/.