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| ~.^.Saba Gracile.^.~... |
 Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 4:54 pm |
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...'
Religious abuse is the crushing inner psychological, spiritual and emotional
damage suffered by members of authoritarian communities of faith whenever
its spiritual authority is twisted by spiritual leaders to achieve a desired
goal through unethical, cruel and damaging means. Sometimes these may be
physical or sexual in nature, but much more often it is more clearly seen in
the many various forms of mental and spiritual trauma that are inflicted
upon church members, often through the practice of abusive leaders using
personal influence upon a community of faith to turn people on one another
to exercise and magnify their power and position in the name of "church
order." This sort of "discipline" often deeply crushes the mind and spirit
of the church member who was unfortunate enough to become subject to it.
Individual initiative, critical thinking and personal choices of action are
strongly discouraged and condemned by aberrant church leaders as sinful
pride. It is made quite clear to the group by the pastor or leaders that
the only really important goals in life are those that they dictate to the
group. These practices - harsh and bizarre as they often become - are viewed
by the group leaders as genuine acts of devotion that all true believers
will gladly submit to so as to obtain divine favor and spiritual growth.
And such an aberrant church can be and is any church group - either Catholic
or Protestant - that inflicts upon its members various forms of abuse
through deliberate acts of church-sanctioned deception, manipulation and
intimidation - at both public and private levels. It does not stop there,
however: while the aberrant church presents itself as the only true church
to have exclusive possession of the way of salvation, which no other church
can possibly have, it is essential to bear in mind that cultic groups like
the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Unification movement and the LDS Church also
hold to such positions. The only notable difference between aberrant
Christian churches and these cultic counterparts is in their relative
doctrinal and practical orthodoxy: their statements of faith and stated
practical commitments may see quite mainstream, even Evangelical in nature.
This is an important point to remember. Aberrant religious groups always
seem, at first glance, quite normal. They are usually led by a pastor or
small core of leaders who seem to be dynamic defenders of energetic
Christianity, men and women of faith and power who tirelessly watch their
flocks. They often appear to be humble, dedicated figures whose positions of
leadership often bring with it leading roles in the larger community outside
the four walls of the church. Jim Jones, pastor of the abusive People's
Temple church group in the 1970's enjoyed such a role to the subsequent
chagrin of those politicians and community leaders who freely utilized his
influence for their own temporal gain, at the expense of the lives of over
900 men, women and children. However, the watchful rule of such leaders are
profoundly control-oriented, and they achieve and maintain a shocking degree
of power over their members who willingly submit to it under the impression
that they are pleasing God. This control is achieved through various
manipulative forms of actual mind control, and aberrant churches that
inflict religious abuse, without exception, utilize some form of it. The
examples we started this article with are sobering testimonies of actual
abuses of power by aberrant churches.'
Aside from political duplicity, the greatest tragedy arises out of the clear
evidence that thousands of sincere people seeking a closer walk with God
accept the warped claims made by abusive spiritual leaders and eagerly
commit themselves to following them. The submission by fervent ollowers to
questionable leaders continues to this day: we know of churches where public
condemnation and criticism of people in morning worship is the expected
norm, and where members actually appear to expect and approve of it as vital
to "staying in church.". What is even more tragic, however, is that many
spiritually abusive leaders of aberrant churches sincerely believe that the
degree of unbiblical submission they are demanding of their followers is
necessary for their good. Not actually seeking to be abusive, the effect
upon their flocks remains the same. For example, there is no qualitative
difference, therefore, between a twisted therapist who unethically imposes
his own warped worldview upon patients under his care through months of
arduous "therapy", an aggressive cult recruiter indoctrinating prospective
recruits with questionable dogma through months of "Bible study", and the
errant pastor who abusively conditions his flock to adopt his unorthodox
convictions through months of weekly "ministry."
How Religious Abuse Works
There are several common ingredients in religiously abusive environments.
There are dynamic leaders who demand total commitment to their visionary
authority, unquestioning followers who submit to their demand with a passive
obedience, and a closed environment where no outside influence or
alternative perspectives can intrude and no accountability of authority is
possible. The degree of manipulation then possible is virtually the same at
all levels, be among radical Christian Identity militia, followers of Sun
Myung Moon, or the membership of an extreme fundamentalist church. This
uncomfortable proximity between a "funny" First Church and the "wackos" of
the local Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses is most unsettling to many,
but these common traits of religious abuse through manipulation are shared
because they are designed to exploit and play upon the weaknesses of
people, who are pretty much the same no matter their creed. Abusive leaders
are master observers of human behavior and use their observations to
dominate and manipulate the faithful, who have been taught to fully accept
their "leadership" as divinely mandated and to never question it, all done
in the context of a community culture that effectively spurns and even shuts
out all external influences that may contradict the group vision (as, of
course, defined by the leaders).
How do they achieve this? Religiously abusive leaders achieve this
manipulation through the usage of mind control. This is, by definition, an
effective control of both thought and behavior of another through
involuntary means that are deliberately set up for the unsuspecting to be
lured into. The devices used to construct individual snares for prospective
converts and church members are many and diabolically sophisticated. They
usually revolve around the leaders' usage of every means at their disposal
to influence group member behavior, which include - but are not limited to -
family ties, Scripture twisted out of context, emotional and social bonds
with the group, personal weaknesses, heavy handed authority figures claiming
to be the voice of God, and individual heartfelt desires simply to "do the
right thing." These techniques of control are used in conjunction with one
another - either simultaneously or together - to achieve the desired degree
of control, reinforcing each other in the abusive culture, which can and
usually is found anywhere people gather to live.
Such social dynamics are not limited to some bizarre, extremist group hidden
in some wilderness stronghold sacrificing chickens - they are common to the
manipulative spirit of insecure and controlling people who find themselves
in mentoring and leading roles in their social group. These control
mechanisms quite effectively use fear, guilt, and intimidation to
involuntarily compel group members to follow the leaders without hesitation
or question. Critical and independent thinking which contradicts the "way
things are" are seen as sinful manifestations of demonic and carnal natures
that must be shunned at all costs. Once the faculties of free thought cease,
mind control is inevitable, and the congregants are at mercies of their
leaders, whose own philosophical, theological and authoritarian agendas
define what the world really is like, who really is right, who really is
wrong and above all, who really speaks for God, and who is worthy to live -
or die.
We concede that this widespread, yet well-hidden, spiritual scourge seems
too unbelievable to be true. However, Ron Enroth, a Christian sociologist
who has interviewed many former members of abusive churches in his book
Churches That Abuse (Zondervan), say about the seeming "peculiarity" of it
all: "You may even feel that the abusive practices described .. appear to be
far removed from the world of conventional churchgoers, and, it is hoped,
they are. Yet, I am convinced that tendencies toward abusive styles of
leadership are far more prevalent than most Christians realize. If we are
honest with ourselves, we might admit that at least the potential for
authoritarianism may exist in some of our own backyards" (p. 222).
~~
Downloadable pdf ebooks about abusive churches and how to recover from it:
http://www.reveal.org/development/Churches_that_Abuse.pdf
http://www.reveal.org/development/Recovering_from_Churches_that_Abuse.pdf |
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