The Scars of Trauma
On her “Ask a Survivor” blog, Faith Hakesley tackles the question: Does time really heal all wounds?
I have been asked this question on several occasions, and my answer is no. While some wounds can and do get better with time, they often leave scars that serve as reminders of the past. We may not be constantly aware of these scars, but, from time to time, some sort of trigger (a smell, a sound, a place, etc.) causes us to become more fully aware of that scar. It becomes painful again for a time.
Trauma is not just some event that happened in the past. It is also an experience that is left in the mind, spirit, and sometimes on the body. Trauma affects the whole person in mind, body, and spirit. While physical injuries tend to be measurable, emotional and spiritual injuries are not. I am not suggesting that physical wounds aren’t as serious or long-lasting as emotional and spiritual ones. However, the wounds we can’t see sometimes have the most devastating long-term effects. Even when much healing has taken place, some scars of trauma are left behind.
Tradition, Reform and Conservative Revival
Our comrades-in-arms from different faith traditions have a lot to offer the U.S. in the battle to promote the common good. Jennifer Morse writes:
“In my years of public pro-family activism, I have often found myself working side by side with people from other faith traditions who share my views on the importance of man-woman marriage. We comrades-in-arms have noticed that we have more in common with each other than with the liberal members of our own respective traditions.”
Please Support The Stream: Equipping Christians to Think Clearly About the Political, Economic, and Moral Issues of Our Day.
“I have more in common with evangelical Protestant megachurch pastor Jim Garlow than with Jesuit Father James Martin. I have often wondered whether God might be using our present battles to end the divisions among Christians. And now, I have even more reason for this speculation: hearing respected Jewish scholar Yoram Hazony tell the National Conservatism Conference that what America needs is, wait for it: Christian Nationalism (around minute 27 in the linked video).”
“In his two books, Conservatism: a Rediscovery and The Virtue of Nationalism, Hazony makes the case that modern liberalism cannot save us. In fact, liberalism is the problem. (He uses the word ‘liberalism’ not the way we in America generally use it. Rather, he uses ‘liberalism’ in the sense that Europeans and political philosophers use it, meaning, a political philosophy that holds individual freedom to be the central issue of politics.)”
“Hazony argues that we must have an authentic revival of conservativism, which includes heavy doses of both traditionalism and nationalism. He believes that only Christianity has the intellectual and moral resources to save America now. He calls on Catholics and evangelicals alike to become even more dedicated to the study and promotion of their religion. I find it refreshing to hear a serious intellectual who seriously believes in God.”
Ruth Institute President Speaks at Demography Conference in Hungary
On November 25, Ruth Institute President Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D., spoke via Zoom at a conference in Budapest on “Demography and the Culture of Relationships.”
The conference organizer, Family Science Alliance, noted:
Demographic decline is one of the symptoms of the crisis of the family; therefore, in order to stop population decline, it is essential to strengthen the traditional family model, to formulate, protect and widely disseminate its basic values on a scientific and cultural basis.
Morse spoke on “Defending Christian Sexual Ethics Without Fear or Apology,” observing: “The Sexual Revolutionaries wage non-stop psychological warfare on Christian values and the people who hold to them. My remarks equipped participants with a sure-fire defense against the continual barrage of propaganda for the latest ‘progressive’ assault on civilization.”
Ruth Institute Senior Research Associate Fr. Paul Sullins also participated, speaking on “Counting the Casualties of the Sexual Revolution” and “Sexual Orientation Change Efforts Are Beneficial: Correcting a False Cultural Narrative.”
Hungarian speakers included Minister of Justice Dr. Judit Varga, Erika Palfi from the Ministry of the Interior, and Archbishop Fulop Kocsis of the Greek Catholic Church in Hungary.
“Speaking with our pro-family allies in Hungary was a delight and privilege,” Morse said. “We’re sharing Ruth Institute materials with them to translate into Hungarian. I’m confident we’ll have many years of productive collaboration with the Family Science Alliance.”
On December 12, Morse will speak in person at the “International Conference on Family in Times of Transition” in Krakow, Poland.
The Ruth Institute is a global non-profit organization, leading an international interfaith coalition to defend the family and build a civilization of love. The Ruth Institute’s Founder and President, Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, is the author of The Sexual State: How Elite Ideologies Are Destroying Lives and Love and Economics: It Takes a Family to Raise a Village. Subscribe to our newsletter and YouTube channel to get all our latest news.
