Spiritual abuse. It can happen in big churches and small. It can happen in churches that seem sound, biblical and healthy. It can happen among a group of elders -- or with individual pastors.
Parachurch organizations, counseling services and mission groups and other organizations can also be infected.
Spiritual abuse flourishes when there are no checks to a pastor or leader's authority, or only weak ones.
Sometimes, you see it when a pastor uses subtle cruelties, mind control techniques or manipulative preaching -- or when church leaders try to control personal activities of members through strong influence or direct pressure.
Some methods are subtle; others are anything but.
Sometimes, you don't see it until you are shunned, alienated and kicked out of church -- left on the spiritual sidewalk in bewilderment.
Provender provides links to sites that explain what happened. Many good sites across the Internet look into the subject. Provender seeks to collect the best sites from among them in one place.
When you become familiar with abuse in a variety of situations, you can get a feel for common techniques, and you can better evaluate your own situation.
Spiritual abuse creates confusion, devastation and spiritual emptiness. Dazed victims sometimes abandon church altogether or struggle for years, living in fear or with a sense of futility.
Manipulation, mind control tactics, and abuse of authority in churches are not labeled "spiritual abuse" in the Bible, but they are certainly warned against (see The Bible and Spiritual Abuse ).
A clearinghouse of sources on spiritual abuse and cult-like practices in groups and churches
What is Spiritual Abuse?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
