The process and journey of uncovering spiritual abuse is one that is fraught with fear. It’s fraught with fear because of the memories and interactions the journey brings to light. It’s fraught with fear because if we find spiritual abuse in our past, then we must identify as victims. It’s fraught with fear because it …
In the baptist church I grew up in, there were no women deacons. I remember noticing this and asking about why women weren’t allowed to be deacons, but as a child that question took on another form. I asked women in my life, don’t you want to be a deacon? And I received a variety of responses: …
Uncovering Spiritual Abuse: Why Do You Need to Talk? Read More »
This week was the celebration of Pentecost, a time in the church calendar where we remember God sending God’s Spirt to the apostles after the resurrection of Jesus. Many churches celebrate by wearing red, a symbol of the tongue of fire that rested on each of them when the Spirit came down. When the day of …
The Spirit of God: The Power to Hurt, The Power to Heal Read More »
If you have found yourself on the other side of spiritual abuse, then you know how hard it is to extricate from the community or relationship in which you experienced spiritual abuse. You know because you have become so accustomed to who you are when you are in the midst of abuse that you find …
I’ve just recently finished re-reading Walking on Water by Madeline L’Engle. I’ve had the experience of having the book mean something completely different to me during this time of my life. That’s the power of words, isn’t it? They can change and transform you again and again as you meet or re-meet them at different …
Over the past three Sunday nights, ministrieslab has been popping up at Transitions and leading a communion-based worship service. We knew we were responding to a need for a community who had no worship service on Sundays and who had limited mobility to attend church services, but we weren’t sure what would come out of our …
To Sam, the man who first asked me to be his wife and to be Mama 2 to our beautiful girls, To Sam, the man who held and entertained our son for the first two hours of his life while waiting for me in the recovery room, To Sam, the man who cries and laughs with me …
Now that I am a religious leader and a religious authority, I understand how quickly patterns of spiritual abuse can be established, even when you don’t intend to do so. I understand that sermon preparation can change so easily from exegesis to isogesis, from relaying what the biblical text says to what I want the biblical text …
As one who has awakened from spiritual abuse, I feel the great need to share my story in order that others may have the space and the place to voice their experiences and begin to heal. My hope in sharing these signs of spiritual abuse is that we may be able to uncover and recover …
Spiritual abuse is the misuse of power by religious leaders or authorities to manipulate and coerce unquestioned adherence to a particular dogma for that spiritual leader’s own gain. This unquestioned adherence is often obtained through a pattern of conditioning. This conditioning can take the form of repeated dogmatic statements, repeated rituals, but is always used …
