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Against All Reason: Why I Failed to Leave My Cult
The pale greens of spring in Maine ran like wet paint outside the window, blurring as my eyes welled with tears. Meanwhile, my pastor neatly summarized my choices: “Either I am God’s servant and everything I have taught you is true, or I am a fraud and everything you have committed to is false,” he […]
Personality Disorders in the Church: Narcissistic Personality Disorder (Part 2 of 5)
Author’s Note: Please read “Part 1: Introduction” for the context of this post. Part 1: Introduction Part 2: Narcissistic Personality Disorder Part 3: Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder Part 4: Paranoid Personality Disorder Part 5: How to Handle Personality Disorders in the Church — “I know just what it is,” the pediatrician said kindly, smiling at the small […]
A Sensitive Topic: Personality Disorders in the Church (Part 1 of 5)
Author’s Disclaimer: This is a topic easy to abuse. “Let’s label people with a disorder so we can kick them out of church leadership!” No, that’s not the purpose of this series. But I have found the information I’m sharing here so personally liberating—and so helpful a framework in explaining various cult leaders I have […]
Lies that Bind
Behind my parents’ house in Southern Maine sprawls a large stand of blackberry bushes. You can go there in August and fill a pail with blackberries the size of your thumb. If you go, you’ll see last year’s brown, thorn-studded canes jutting like broken arms among today’s giraffes of greener growth. I used to spend […]
“Crock-Pot” Trauma: Spiritual Abuse and Recovery
Snow melted from my boots and formed a spreading stain on the carpet. Outside, a foot of fresh powder lay untroubled by tracks. The University had cancelled classes for the day but I had several time-sensitive matters to attend to. So I drove in on slush-greased roads to my basement office in southern Maine. A […]
Identifying Religious Brainwashing: Doctrine Over Person (Part 7 of 8)
This is the seventh in an eight-part series on how to identify brainwashing in a destructive group or cult. It is based off of Dr. Robert Jay Lifton’s “Eight-Point Model of Thought Reform” and borrows from several other authorities on the topic of religious mind-control.* 1.) Part One: Milieu Control 2.) Part Two: Mystical Manipulation 3.) […]
Redeeming the Years of the Locust
“I will make up to you for the years that the locust has eaten.” – Joel 2:25 Joplin, Missouri. I stand transfixed in the hot July parking lot watching a brown grasshopper chew grass. Trucks roar by on I-44 and puffy clouds stack overhead. But the real drama happens in front of me, on the brittle […]
Sheep Gone Wild: How to Identify Christians Who Bite, Abandon, or Cling
I’ve been there—have you? My cell phone rings and my heart sinks. It’s Jasmine*–poor Jasmine. In need of yet another short-term loan as she lives in perpetual crisis. Or it’s Trevor, asking for help at the last minute. Again. His poor planning has become a standard joke in our young adult group. Or maybe it’s […]
Identifying Religious Brainwashing: Loading the Language (Part 6 of 8)
This is the sixth in an eight-part series on how to identify brainwashing in a destructive group or cult. It is based off of Dr. Robert Jay Lifton’s “Eight-Point Model of Thought Reform” and borrows from several other authorities on the topic of religious mind-control.* 1.) Part One: Milieu Control 2.) Part Two: Mystical Manipulation 3.) […]
Hebrews 13:17: Spiritual Authority’s Most Abused Verse
Grab your shovel. We’re about to excavate a much-misunderstood Bible verse. There is one biblical text above all others which authoritarian leaders cite to compel obedience among their followers: Hebrews 13:17. Poor Hebrews 13:17. My former pastor often used this verse. He cited it to support his concept of spiritual authority as a relationship between an authority figure who has positional […]
Liberty for Captives 