Tag Archive | Spiritual abuse
Top 12 Blog Posts
Two years ago I started this blog in order to confront spiritual abuse with grace and truth. I wasn’t sure there was anyone outside of my immediate family and a small circle of friends who would read the posts. I wasn’t sure how wide the problem was. Two years later, I understand better that spiritual […]
Mind Games of Abusers: When Words Have No Meaning
If you dialogue with a spiritually abusive leader or cult member, prepare to enter a mind warp. The rules of sense, reason, and accepted definitions go out the window and are replaced with jargon, double-speak, and circular logic. You step out of reality and stare into a funhouse mirror. Cult leaders make pronouncements which they […]
My Pastor Can Beat Up Your Pastor: Alpha Dogs and the Cult of Christian Personality
Let me introduce you to four men who want to lead you to God. Leandro Leandro stood big and rangy in the hallway, a couple inches over six feet with sweet tats, huge biceps, and slicked-back hair. Because of this, I and the guys around me nodded when he said, “Hey, let’s make our own […]
Checklist: 55 Attributes of a Spiritually Abusive Leader
To recognize a spiritually abusive leader, first we have to define spiritual abuse. Jeff VanVonderen, co-author of the classic book The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse, defines spiritual abuse like this: “Spiritual abuse occurs when someone in a position of spiritual authority–the purpose of which is to ‘come underneath’ and serve, build, equip and make God’s […]
Frankenstein Faith: Misuse of the Old Testament (Part 5 of 10)
In the late 1990s I attended a running camp for two summers in the mountains of New Hampshire. The camp had a lake, cabins, and was surrounded by thick piney woods. Built into a natural plateau was a field. We used it for ice breakers, cabin competitions, and Ultimate Frisbee. Trees ringed the field. The […]
Review of “Girl at the End of the World”
Girl at the End of the World by Elisabeth Esther. Convergent Books, 2014. 224 pp. Elisabeth has written a poignant memoir, one that will likely ring true with many other survivors of fundamentalist cults. Elisabeth’s grandfather started a group called “The Assembly,” and her parents served as leaders.The book title comes from The Assembly’s focus […]
Review of “A Journey to Waco: Autobiography of a Branch Davidian”
A Journey to Waco: Autobiography of a Branch Davidian by Clive Doyle with Catherine Wessinger and Matthew Wittmer. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2012. 298 pp. On February 28, 1993, ATF agents raided the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas. The Davidians had separated from the Seventh Day Adventist Church in 1955. This particular group lived communally […]
Does the Church of Wells Teach a False Gospel?
Over the past several months, the Church of Wells in Wells, Texas has received national media attention, most recently by the ABC show Nightline Prime with Dan Harris, which aired on 4/5/14. Background Concern about the group first rose to prominence when the church allowed a baby to die in the summer of 2012 rather […]
Rethinking Matthew 18 – Gossip Control and the “Can’t Talk” Rule
Editor’s note: This is a re-post from Dr. Stephen Crosby’s blog, “Sword of the Kingdom.” This article about the “Can’t Talk” rule explains how authoritarian church leaders misuse the church discipline process in Matthew 18 to stifle dissent. It is an excellent article, used by permission. For my related post on “Church Leaders and the […]
What Mark Driscoll Can Teach Us About Church Leadership
In his recent article, “Mark Driscoll’s Problems, and Ours,” Carl R. Trueman pens a thoughtful synopsis of the crisis in church leadership in the Reformed movement as seen through the lens of Mark Driscoll’s latest faux pas — a lesson applicable, of course, to other Christian movements and churches. Carl R. Trueman is Paul Woolley […]
Liberty for Captives 