Not that it was not there, for the problem is surely as old as civilization but it had not been identified as such. I can even dismiss it all by saying that dealing with sexual abuse was never part of my seminary training, some fifteen years ago but then I know that the truth is that no one was being instructed in it in those days. I consider myself foremostly a preacher and teacher of the flock, and only secondarily or even less so, a counselor. By nature, I don't find myself drawn to the subject. To be frank, this is the kind of predicament I have found myself in and still do. What approach do you take when people inform you that they have been abused in this way? What do you do when you suspect that the underlying problem beneath other apparent difficulties is one of abuse? And how do you deal with the abusers? And what about the families, immediate and extended, who are affected by the divisions and tensions that abuse brings with it? Among the many complex problems that we are being presented with today as ministers of the Word, there is probably none more difficult and disturbing as that of sexual abuse.
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