As you’re aware if you’ve been following my posts for a while, I have a personal interest in the subject of child abuse and recovery. I got Shelley’s Hundley’s A Cry For Justice because it was free for Kindle. I won’t say it wasn’t worth the price. It might even have left some ideas behind in my head that someday could be of use to me. But all in all I was disappointed with it.
Shelley Hundley grew up as a missionary kid in Colombia. If it wasn’t bad enough to be exposed to the daily violence of Medellin, where her family lived, she was also the victim of sexual abuse at the hands of a minister, a trusted family friend.
She repressed all memory of the abuse for some years, she tells us, until she was about to go away to college in the U.S. Then everything flooded back, and she angrily rejected God and became a vocal atheist on a Methodist college campus. She suffered from depression and suicidal thoughts, and it was only by what seems like a miracle that she was prevented from throwing herself from the roof of her dormitory one night. After that followed a period of institutionalization, culminating in a dramatic encounter with Jesus which began her process of spiritual and psychological healing.
There are some good insights here. I was particularly impressed when she pointed out that Peter, James, and John, the “inner circle” of Jesus’ disciples, are distinguished by being the ones about whom we know the most embarrassing stories. Apparently Jesus appreciated followers who weren’t afraid to jump in with both feet and make fools of themselves. That’s a tremendous truth, but much as I appreciate it, it doesn’t help someone like me much.
Hundley’s message of healing centers on seeing Christ as both Bridgroom and Judge, as Lover and Avenger. This, I think, is entirely sound and useful.
The bulk of the book, though, is not actually about dealing with the scars of abuse, but with what Hundley (who works with the International House of Prayer in Kansas City) considers her prophetic calling to turn America back to Christ. She lost a great deal of my interest in that part of the story, as I’m very leery of people who claim to have prophetic words for the church. I can believe that God may give someone a word for an individual or a congregation, from time to time, but claiming to have a prophetic message on a par with Scripture is something my church body does not believe in, and I (based on some experiences in my youth) agree wholeheartedly.
So while A Cry For Justice has some value, I can’t really recommend it.
I wonder, sometimes, if there aren’t two definitions of prophecy at work.
On the one hand, Scriptures presents prophets as those who speak for God. They carry God’s voice, and with it God’s full authority.
On the other hand, prophets often serve to remind people of God’s evident truth and commandments. It didn’t take special divine revelation to point out that Israel had stopped caring about God and pursued idols–but that is much of what the prophets do.
I haven’t read this book, but I think sometimes people use “prophetic” in the second sense–speaking the truth to power, being a voice in the wilderness, &c. In that sense, prophets don’t necessarily have to have a prophetic message on par with Scripture–they could believe that they are serving a function parallel to prophets by bringin the message *of* Scriptures.
I don’t think she means it that way. She talks about visions and predictions of things to come, among other things.
Thank you for reviewing A Cry for Justice by Shelley Hundley. We very much appreciate your honest review.
God Bless!
Kim Jones, Publicity Coordinator, Charisma House
I also appreciate your honest review, but would like to address your point that the bulk of book is about her prophetic calling. I read the book, and while it did take a turn in a slightly different direction when Hundley started discussing her prophetic experience, I believe that the second half of the book is incredibly linked to the first half – not, as you say, that the first half is about healing and the second half is about her prophetic calling. Her entire prophecy for the church of America is based on the Truth of Christ as both Judge and Bridegroom which she discovered through her own personal healing.
I also do not believe that she ever put her prophecy on the same par as the Bible or Biblical prophecies; she references Scriptural verses in an almost over-done manner throughout the entire book so as to make sure that each point has Biblical validity and is not simply her beliefs based on her experiences and feelings. The second half of the book focuses on the Biblical Truths of both the fear of God and the love of God – two Truths that are directly linked to the characteristics of Jesus as both righteous Judge and ardent Lover. Her prophetic experience was merely the backdrop in which God revealed to her the importance of these Truths and that they are Truths that He is calling America back to right now. As this is her message and her prophetic calling, she of course highlighted these Truths, but did not say that her calling is ranked equally with Scripture, or that these are the only Truths that God is calling Americans to in this time.
While I also believe that it is extremely foundational to our faith to never put anyone’s beliefs or prophecies above Scripture (also based on experiences that I had in college in which I learned this the hard way), I believe that it is a tragedy to throw out Hundley’s experience simply because it was written in terms of a prophecy for America, especially as it is completely Biblically based. Besides, even if you wanted to discredit her experience as a call to America at this time, would it really be harmful to add to your prayer time a prayer that the American church humbles themselves and hungers for the balance between the fear of the Lord and the love of the Lord? Is this not something we should be passionately crying out to our Father for anyway?
In short, Hundley never claimed that her prophecy had equal validity with the Bible and sought fervently to make sure that Scripture was continuously referenced, and I truly believe that you were off in discrediting this book based on your belief that she placed her prophetic calling on par with Scripture as well as your own personal leeriness. Instead, I praise Hundley for having the courage to even write about Jesus as the Judge and the fear of the Lord in a time when these have become almost dirty words in America – even in the American church. I do pray passionately that instead of making this book another source of intellectual discussion, we as Americans would fall on our faces before our God, crying out for His justice, love and mercy to rain down on us once again.