Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will hurt me until the day I die. I dedicate this work to the clients of my forty-six years of therapy and pastoral work who have shared their pain and sorrow inflicted by words. No wound is more difficult to overcome than the wound caused by words. Love is destroyed by words. Families are separated by words. Young lives are placed on roads that lead to dead-ends and destructions by words. Careers are ended, reputations are lost and wars are begun all because of words. To the many who have suffered so greatly I pray this book will help others understand your pain. "Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances." (Proverbs 23:11 New American Standard Bible)

As a pastor I have a dual role: that of a prophet and a priest. The prophet confronts the people, and the priest comforts the people. I am to comfort the troubled and trouble the comfortable. In relationship to the Bible, the dual struggle is clear. As the priest, I take the Bible seriously because it changes lives (first sermon). I have never heard anyone give testimony that reading Plato's The Republic, Virgil's Aeneid, Homer's Odyssey, Cicero's Moral Ethics, or John Stewart Mill's Liberty changed their lives. But thousands of people have given testimony of how reading the Bible has changed their lives forever. As the prophet, I propose to you that no book has been more abused than the Bible or more misunderstood. The Bible has been a playground for lunatics, profit for the charlatans, a profession for the clergy, a problem for theologians, a puzzle for the general public, and placid for the masses. I believe if a person will read the Bible interpretatively and intelligently it will be read seriously, respectfully and reverently thereby becoming the living word of God. Gene Rollins, Author

As a pastor I have a dual role: that of a prophet and a priest. The prophet confronts the people, and the priest comforts the people. I am to comfort the troubled and trouble the comfortable. In relationship to the Bible, the dual struggle is clear. As the priest, I take the Bible seriously because it changes lives (first sermon). I have never heard anyone give testimony that reading Plato's The Republic, Virgil's Aeneid, Homer's Odyssey, Cicero's Moral Ethics, or John Stewart Mill's Liberty changed their lives. But thousands of people have given testimony of how reading the Bible has changed their lives forever. As the prophet, I propose to you that no book has been more abused than the Bible or more misunderstood. The Bible has been a playground for lunatics, profit for the charlatans, a profession for the clergy, a problem for theologians, a puzzle for the general public, and placid for the masses. I believe if a person will read the Bible interpretatively and intelligently it will be read seriously, respectfully and reverently thereby becoming the living word of God. Gene Rollins, Author

Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will hurt me until the day I die. I dedicate this work to the clients of my forty-six years of therapy and pastoral work who have shared their pain and sorrow inflicted by words. No wound is more difficult to overcome than the wound caused by words. Love is destroyed by words. Families are separated by words. Young lives are placed on roads that lead to dead-ends and destructions by words. Careers are ended, reputations are lost and wars are begun all because of words. To the many who have suffered so greatly I pray this book will help others understand your pain. "Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances." (Proverbs 23:11 New American Standard Bible)

As a social role the concept of the persona is useful in allowing an individual to move in and out of relationships without being too vulnerable. A persona can be the oil to ease potential social friction. A persona provides for some predictability of relationship, but wearing a mask may become a sub-personality preventing us from embracing our true spiritual identity.