The long, painful history of the church is the history of people ever and again tempted to choose power over love, control over the cross, being a leader over being led…. One thing is clear to me: the temptation to power is greatest when intimacy is a threat. Much Christian leadership is exercised by people who do not know how to develop healthy, intimate relationships and have opted for power and control instead. Many Christian empire-builders have been people who have been unable to give and receive love. –Henry Nouwen quoted in When Narcissism Comes to Church by Chuck DeGroat .
Nov. 8, 2023