I was in Ghana a couple of years ago for a conference on violence against women and children. While there, we visited Cape Coast Castle. Hundreds of thousands of Africans had been forced through its dungeons and through the door of no return onto slave ships. There were five dungeon chambers for males. Descending down into the darkness to one of those dungeons felt claustrophobic. Two hundred men shackled and chained together stayed in that dungeon for about three months before being shipped across the Atlantic.
We stood in one of the male dungeons listening in the darkness to the whole horrific story when our guide said this: "Do you know what is above this dungeon?" Our heads shook. “The chapel. Directly above two hundred shackled men – some of them dead, others screaming, all of them sitting in filth – sat God worshippers. They sang, they read the Scripture, they prayed and I suppose took up an offering for those less fortunate. The slaves could hear the service; the worshippers could sometimes hear the slaves, though there were those making them behave so as not to disturb church."
It took my breath away. The evil, the suffering, the humiliations, the injustice were overwhelming and the visual parable was stunning. The people in the chapel were numb to the horrific trauma and suffering beneath them...
***
Dr. Diane Langberg is a practicing psychologist whose clinical expertise includes 35 years of working with trauma survivors and clergy. She speaks internationally on topics related to women, trauma, ministry and the Christian life. She is the director of Diane Langberg, Ph.D. & Associates , a group practice in suburban Philadelphia, staffed by Christian psychologists, social workers, and counselors.
Taken with permission from a transcript of Dr. Langberg's speech at Cru@CSU '13. Read the rest of the document at Dr. Langberg's website .
* Photo courtesy of Adam Jones, PhD (Flickr Creative Commons).
©1994-2020 Cru. All Rights Reserved.
