I have posted before about my discomfort in the domestic violence group I co-facilitate. Today was one long sermon and once again the words "defect of character" from the 12 step book were used to describe a client. I came away more frustrated than ever, but then got a call from my classmate who co-facilitates the group just after mine. The leader of that group opened the session with a quote from the bible, only to have one of the group members say that she felt it was inappropriate for a facilitator to be reading from the bible in a court mandated group. YES!!!
I have struggled long and hard with whether this is my personal issue, or if perhaps there are group members who might feel the same but are not willing to come out and say so. These groups are anything but safe places since everyone is there due to anger and violence. I'm so glad this person spoke out, and because the facilitator in that group is a very flexible, reasonable person, I suspect it was the perfect place for it to happen. I hope this will have a ripple effect through the whole program and will help support my own comments to my fellow facilitator.
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3 comments:
It would be great if things changed with those groups, but as long as the idiots are in charge, don't expect much.
Donna
Woah...I think there's less tolerance for that kind of thing in Canada. Bringing religion into things is a big no-no...
In class, the other day, I said, "Speak now or forever hold your peace" and I thought - oh oh...I shouldn't have said that.
Well it seems that in the US, and in my state in particular (California) we like to use the bible to dictate what should be in our constitution... like laws against gay marriage,for example. So why not ram one's personal religion down the throats of others who are forced by law to subject themselves to you??
Blah... maybe I'm just a little bitter right now. One huge step forward and three equally large steps back (AZ, CA, FL).
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