SPIRITUAL ABUSE WITHIN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

 Info
Search:    

SPIRITUAL ABUSE WITHIN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH: THE DAMAGE IT DOES AND HOW TO AID IN THE RECOVERY PROCESS

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment For the Requirements for the Course COUN 537 Counseling the Abused

Submitted by Richard Damiani April 29, 2000

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER

1. WHAT IS A CULT?

2. THE MARKS AND METHODS OF AN ABUSIVE, CULTIC CHURCH

3. THE RESULTS AND DAMAGE OF THIS ABUSE

4. RECOVERY

5. ENDNOTES

6. BIBLIOGRAPHY

7. APPENDIX

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1
WHAT IS A CULT?

1. An excessive and almost blind devotion to a person, group or belief structure.
2. The use of thought reform to initiate new members, and to keep existing members under their control.
3. Excessive or total dependency on the leader or leaders of the group.
4. A totalist mentality – one in which the group has all the answers for all questions, and all of life is to be lived by the rules and doctrines of the group.
5. Great fear of leaving the group, lest you fall away from God.
6. Legalism as a way of relating to God and one another. Legalism is not rules alone, but the belief that God’s love is earned by our daily obedience, and that God does not act out of grace, but acts out of justice in giving His favor. This is one of the clearest and the most damaging aspect of a cultic Christian group.
Although the authors of books about cults will vary this definition to some minor degree, this has become the standard understanding of a cult as it relates to a Bible-based group.

Jesus called them together and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles

with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave – just as the Son of Man
did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’

Peter also warned pastors not to “…lord it over those entrusted to you…” but rather to be examples. John spoke against a false leader named Diotrephes, who loved to be first, and set himself up with false authority. While today we understand that there may be both deep psychological needs as well as deep sins in such authoritarian leaders, the problem is not a new phenomenon. God said through Jeremiah “A horrible and shocking thing has happened in this land - the prophets give false prophecies, and the priests rule with an iron hand, and worse yet, my people like it that way!” .
The greater questions are how is such an abusive leader able to maintain his power and destructive ways, and why do his followers blindly take part in their own destruction? Indeed, the followers become co-abusers with the leadership toward both themselves and toward any who would dare to think or act in ways that are prohibited by
the group. This is the second part of the cultic ethos – “…And worse yet, my people like it that way!” How are lovers of Jesus made to be followers of a man and/or group, and break the two greatest commandments?

Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.

The answers to these and other relevant questions are the subject of the next chapter.

CHAPTER 2
THE MARKS AND METHODS OF AN ABUSIVE, CULTIC CHURCH

1. Milieu Control When one enters an abusive church one is exposed only to information that the group deems “truth.” It is the group’s truth alone that is both openly and subtly taught; anything else is a threat. Books, tapes, speakers, music, etc., are all carefully controlled to keep only their belief structure before your mind. This moves from the obvious control of what author the leaders recommend and those they sharply criticize to subtle controls within the group itself. Certain members of your church are deemed to be not “fully committed,” so they are not worthy of being seriously regarded. Those who have left the group are the enemies who have fallen from grace, and they must be shunned at all costs. Even the closest family ties are broken to “guard” the flock. The member of the group no longer has to judge what is real or unreal, what is truth or “untruth;” he need only follow. And how could you not follow a leader who is so anointed by God? If you are searching for a deeper walk with God, to reject such careful shepherding of your soul is unthinkable, especially when it is done by a leader who is “so godly and holy.”
2. Mystical Manipulation This is the claim that the leaders are acting for God in a way that makes them unquestionable. They have the truth, they have the anointing, and questioning them is to be like the Sons of Korah, who rebelled against Moses. To dare to question the leadership is to run the risk of falling from grace. Honesty with oneself about the real questions you have over the many contradictions in the lives and teachings of the leaders is impossible if you are to be faithful to God. Self-expression and reason are subordinated to the leader, and eventually they are fully subverted.
3. Demand for Purity An abusive church will almost always have a very rigid black and white world-view that is arbitrated by the leader. He is set up as the infallible moral judge, using guilt and shame as his tools of control. He says what is right and what is wrong, and obedience and loyalty to him becomes obedience and loyalty to God, Himself. Members are encouraged to spy and report on each other, lest sin be found in the camp. Fear becomes the dominant climate of the church - fear of failing to keep one of the rules, and fear of being held up to public humiliation and rejection. One’s own moral sense is lost as the conscience is reformed and reeducated to the new morality of the group.
4. The Cult of Confession The normal lines between what is private and what is public knowledge is broken, and members confess the most personal, and the most minor of sins. A member surrenders his or her conscience to the leadership. Elders viciously assail members who do not submit fully to the leadership of God’s anointed ones. Even a proposed dating relationship is to be brought to the bar of the elder’s judgment for approval. Members are kept thus kept in an immature spiritual state where they are judged to be unable to stand in grace and the teaching of the Holy Spirit without proper guidance from the elders. At its worst, this type of boundary destruction leads to all kinds of sexual abuse, since nothing is secret or private anymore.
5. The “Sacred Science” The doctrine of the group becomes de facto the “Truth of God.” This truth is not open for discussion or debate; it is Ultimate Truth itself. No dissention on any level is permitted. The leadership is the only interpreter and conduit of truth, so to question the leader in even a minor issue shows that you have a rebellious heart against God. All private discussion about points of concern are ruthlessly reported on and stamped out. All private judgment ceases, and one submits his heart and mind totally to the leadership. Openly questioning something the elders have said or done, even in non-Biblical areas, is condemned as “whispering, back biting, vicious slander, gossip, and nit picking.” How dare you spread your “rebellious disaffection?” You should go directly to that elder with this “problem.” If the leaders are wrong in one area, they might be wrong in other areas, and this can never be. If you have a problem, you must be the problem, not them or their teaching.
6. Loading the Language This is the use of code language that carries meaning within the group, but would not carry such meaning to outsiders. Also, it refers to a restriction of language to the vernacular of the group. In our church terms such as “self-denial,” “mortification of sin,” “cutting off your right hand and plucking out your right eye,” and others carried vast meaning that had been built up by sermon after sermon on these topics. The term “disaffection,” carried a particularly large meaning. It summed up all that is evil and rebellious in a sinful member who dared to question or disagree. One only had to be pronounced “disaffected” to be considered worse than a leper. When a sermon was falling flat the elder only had to raise his voice and use one of our phrases to bring the congregation alive with “amen’s.” These phrases become powerful triggers after one has left; a topic that I will discuss in Chapter 4. One of the many results of this is to restrict the thinking to the thought patterns of the group. One no longer things originally, which further enslaves and deadens the mind.
7. Doctrine Over Person There is no personal reality apart from the group’s reality. Whatever does not fit the doctrine of the group must be altered or molded to fit the paradigm of the group. This is the emergence of the true cultic persona. No longer is there anything real apart from the group and its leader. He is ultimate reality; the group is truth and life – there is nothing else.
8. Dispensing of Existence This is the most evil of all the marks, for here the leader decides who lives and who dies. In some non-Christian cults this is literal, but for most Bible based abusive groups it means the destruction of a person’s spirit, which is a form of murder. Those who dissent are publicly punished, either physically as in some cults, or simply emotionally destroyed. Their reputations are murdered by veiled, or not-so-veiled “revelations” of “sins;” past and present, as confidentiality is broken for the benefit of the leaders. They are shunned by their families and by members. Since the latter is almost always the only social world they have, the social destruction is complete. Almost no language is too strong, and no amount of anger too great for those who dare question or leave. When we resigned peacefully and quietly from our church after almost 20 years, it was publicly said of me by the head elder at a business meeting that I was “out of my mind;” I was “not living in reality.” Ironically, this was true. I no longer embraced the elders’ reality and that of the church, but had begun the long and deeply painful process of awakening from their dark night into true reality.
There are many results that build on these eight marks which are all logical outcomes of a cultic belief system. There is a loss of devotion to Jesus and God and a misplaced loyalty from them onto the leadership. They become God to you, which is idolatry. We were unendingly concerned with what people said or thought about the leadership, especially the head elder. I don’t remember a time when this was not the real question. Loyalty to him became the sole line of demarcation between good and evil; between faithfulness to God and apostasy. Our conversations were on what the elders said, taught and did. We had become idolaters.
Our Christian life became an obsession with our performance of duty and obedience down to the smallest detail of the groups’ interpretation of God’s word. The whole of the Christian life was summed up in one word: “duty.” We were legalists to the core, and feared proving that we were never in the faith by failure to obey to the minutest degree all the “dictates of God’s Word;” another phrase that was loaded language for us. Preaching was harsh and full of condemnation for our failures. We were spiritually and emotionally raped every Sunday for our sins, especially the sin of daring to even think that the elders, especially the head elder, was in some way wrong. We became self-absorbed in our private world of making our calling and election sure, and we were kept wounded and off balance by the constant haranguing and condemnation from the pulpit.
Rather than knowing joy and peace, we were preoccupied with our faults, guilt and blame. “Persevere or be damned” was preached over and over. If you wanted to have more of God’s love preached: “You are really hiding some deep dark sin that you don’t want me (the head elder) to uncover in my preaching,” we were told again and again. In this way we were kept in a constant state of disequilibria spiritually, emotionally and psychologically. It was true manipulation of our minds and souls, and, like the battered wife, our learned powerlessness made resistance an unknown option.
The leadership was consumed with power posturing. Every sermon had references to the many attacks that we members, and the world at large made on the elders. This was only proof that he spoke the truth, for “great persecution comes from great faithfulness to truth.” The blessedness of “this ministry,” another loaded phrase, and the failure of most of us to live up to the light God had given us in this man were constantly reinforced. Any questioning was suppressed, and the clear rule that no one dare to speak a word of even the most minor disagreement was powerfully impressed on us. If one dared to question they would be forced to repent of their sin, or would be driven out and ruined. We all personally knew those who were clear examples of the tragic consequences of thinking one’s own rebellious thoughts. Like the Protestant heretics burned at the stake by the Medieval Roman church, these “disaffected” were warnings of what would happen to us should we become so wickedly rebellious to “God’s anointed.”
Fear and paranoia were the “very air we breathed;” another of the church phrases. We feared falling from grace, and feared thinking for ourselves, and feared breaking the many unspoken rules as well as the clearly spelled out expectations of the eldership. We became paranoid – carefully watching our every word and even gesture, lest someone report our faults. A code of silence reigned, and no one was to divulge the business of the church, or the faults of the leadership. Indeed, hypocrisy was so clearly evident in the leadership, yet we all lived in denial of its existence. The real truth was far too emotionally dangerous to admit to ourselves, let alone discuss openly.
We gave up our soul liberty and liberty of conscience, and thought only the permitted thoughts. We denied the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in practice by submitting our entire spiritual lives to the judgment and scrutiny of the eldership. We gave up the idea of the priesthood and equality of all believers before God, and adopted a mentality like the Medieval Roman Catholics who looked to the priests for direction in everything. We had a wrong theology of Perseverance of the Saints, which is really the assurance of God’s perseverance with us forever, and is a blessed and comforting truth that was turned into a whip to beat us with by twisting the scriptures. In this there was de facto denial of the full effects of the Imputation of Christ’s righteousness to us, and of the satisfaction of the wrath of God by the sacrifice of Jesus. We had to keep ourselves by extreme vigilance and watchfulness, lest we fall and prove we were never saved at all.
We lost our individuality, and rather than grow in the personality that God had given each of us, we became carbon copies of each other. There was a false view of marriage and submission, so our wives did not fully develop in their equality before God. We had no view of the calling and privilege that each believer has to use his or her spiritual gift and to minister. We were not elders, so we had little to do outside of a very narrow parameter of options within the church. There was no view of evangelism, and no mercy or love for the lost. Instead, we looked down on them with condemnation, just like the Pharisees we were.
Worst of all, our view of God became idolatrous. No longer was He the God of grace, hope and mercy. Rather, He was the all-seeing, all-knowing God who saw all the evil and mixed motives of our hearts. We could never please Him properly, and He kept accounts of our sin. He was the Celestial Accuser who was angry, irritable and coldly aloof. And this is the way we treated our wives and especially, our children. We acted toward them as we thought God acted toward us. We made their lives miserable at times with our demands for purity and total, unquestioned obedience to authority. We were, in the most accurate sense of the term, self-righteous Pharisees.
The goal of an abusive church or cult is simple – the complete destruction of the self, and replacing the resulting void with a cultic persona that does not question, does not critically think, and does not feel. It is an alter reality created for the benefit of the leader, many of whom fit the description of a sociopath. The cost is the destruction of the spirit and lives of both the followers and, ironically, the leaders who, by seeking to save their lives, have lost them.

CHAPTER 3
THE RESULTS AND DAMAGE OF THIS ABUSE

What all of this does to a person can be illustrated by using an apple. As healthy Christians we are like a good apple, full of vitality and soundness. An abusive church slowly peals away the flesh of the apple until there is nothing left but a core. The flesh is not only our spiritual selves, but also our individual, emotional and psychological pre-cult selves. Our emotional and cognitive selves are taken away so we no longer feel and judge outside of what we are told to feel and judge. The cult builds on that core all that becomes our cultic persona. We look like an apple again, but in reality we are dried and moldy. When God opens our eyes to see the truth about the group and ourselves, it is in every respect devastating. Our entire cultic world and life view collapses, and there is nothing left. “We” are not there – only the core is left. Healing is the full removal of the cultic persona and the rebuilding of our pre-cult selves, then going on to minister to others. Healing does not terminate upon the self. Most of all it is coming to a true understanding of God as our tender, loving Father, and of living by grace.
The problems that those who have been spiritually abused face are formidable and many. The first reaction that all face is deep, and sometimes suicidal depression. Initially this is due to the entire belief system collapsing into a pile of ruin. There is nothing left upon which to base hope or faith, and for the emotionally abused of a cult this is extremely distressful, especially as true emotions begin to reemerge. As time goes on and one sees the years of life, the possibilities of youth, and even marriage and parenting irretrievably lost, there is added grief, sorrow and guilt. The bright hope and idealism of life has been stolen, and all seems like an endless black road of mere existence.
The most natural emotion to follow is livid rage at the leadership. Hate is not too strong a word for the emotions one feels. It is as though you cannot think of enough bad things to say about, or do to the cult leaders. For many there is no language strong enough to express their anger, and cursing of the bitterest sort fills the conversations about the former leaders. These two emotions, depression and anger, last for many months. Due to the utter, black depth and length of the depression, and the imbalance it produces in brain chemistry, many people need anti-depressants to get them through this period of their recovery.
When the darkness does finally subside there begins a period of resurges of both emotions; many times for no apparent reason. Weeks of what is something like happiness and joy will be followed by weeks of deep depression and rage, subsiding only to reappear again and again. This pattern gradually disappears as healing progresses, but may last for a year or longer. It is not a sign of failure, but a sign of the depth of the damage done to the soul and of the healing that is taking place deep within as the real person begins to feel reality again.

Fears of going crazy, and the sense that no one understands, (which, except for other former cultists, is true), further isolates the broken and battered former member. There is embarrassment at having been “so stupid” to have ever gotten involved, and shame at all that you did while in the cult, especially if you recruited other members, and joined in condemning those who left before you finally were set free. Many had left career tracks and ended up in jobs ill suited to them that, in many cases, has left them with little future financially, and deep frustration. Others married members of the cult who, had they not been trapped is this closed system, they would have never married.

CHAPTER 4
RECOVERY

Recovery from a cultic, abusive church is a long and difficult process. It involves the rebuilding of an entire world and life view, and learning again the character and grace of God. While in the group the abused member has been “growing,” but this growth has been marred with cancer and infection. When looking in the group’s mirror of reality, the cultist sees a spiritually muscular and mature person. When he or she begins the process of recovery, and they look in the mirror of God’s truth, they see a misshapen, atrophied person who is covered with horrible, running sores. There has been some growth, since there has been some real truth in the cult; had there not been, the Christian would have left long ago. But the truth has been so mixed with error that any growth that did happen is contaminated with disease and infection.
The former cultist entered the abusive group because he was sincere in his devotion to God, and only wanted to go deeper with Him. Now, this same sincerity has caused him to leave, and the sight of his real self is overwhelming. One despairs of ever knowing what it is to know or feel real, normal Christianity again. A mountain many times higher than Mt. Everest looms over him, and the steps he begins taking seem so small. The feeblest actions that a normal Christian would do without thinking are immense measures of healing to him. Simply going into a Christian bookstore where the banned books are sold is a traumatic event, and may take many attempts before he can even open the door and walk in without fear of losing his soul. Listening to banned music will bring terror and even trembling.
Unknown to the former cultist, such efforts have been preceded by deep internal healing that is imperceptible to him. Little influences such as a minor gesture by a true
pastor, a kind word during a sermon, a phrase in a Christian song that rejoices in God’s
mercy and forgiveness, etc., all do their deep soul-work. One day, long after leaving the group, the former member begins to notice that he is not so consumed with his pain. He or she begins to see that thoughts of God’s goodness have begun to replace their sorrow. Like the first new flowers of Spring, this is the beginning of hope.

First, I cannot stress enough that help is needed for healing to be complete rather than only partial. The damage done to the soul and emotions is so deep, and understanding about God, life, marriage, love, children, and all other areas of life are so deeply infected with the lies and the extremes of the false teaching of the abusive leadership, that trying to go it alone will not work. Finding a Christian counselor who understands spiritual abuse and the dynamics of cultic abuse is the best thing one can do, but simply having a Christian friend who will listen to you, weep with you, and pray with you without judgment is a great blessing from God.
The healing process really began before leaving the abusive church. Judgment, independent thinking and a conviction that you could actually spiritually discern for yourself all had to begin to reemerge from the chains the cultic leadership imposed for you to even consider leaving, and that in itself is a huge step toward wholeness. As I’ve said in the last chapter, the next sign of healing will be deep and profound emotions ranging from hopeless despair to livid rage. For the first time in years they are allowing themselves to feel, and the stored emotions come out in a seemingly unstructured mass. Such survivors must be allowed to freely feel in a climate of safety where they are not preached to or judged. There will be time later to deal with the anger, For now, these emotions are the real person beginning to reemerge and reform.
The former cultist will need to tell his or her story again and again. This may seem tedious, or even wrong to one who has not been through it. But each time the story is retold in the months that follow his or her leaving the group, more healing takes place. It is as though each time you tell it you are able to let go of a few more phases of the horror you now see. More and more of the poison seems to leech out of the soul with each retelling. To counsel a former cultist to forget what is behind and move on - a misapplication of that verse to begin with - is only further abuse.
Remember, spiritually abused Christians have been under the “can’t talk” rule for years, and a deep lake of emotion and pain has been stored up behind the dam of silence. It is only now that they can release it, bit-by-bit over time; maybe over a long time. They can only feel a bit more of the pain of what they are telling each time the story is retold, for feeling it all at once would be emotional suicide.
Next, it is essential for recovery to get an understanding of how abusive churches and cults use the tools of mind control and of what exactly has happened to them. Without this understanding you will not know what happened, and cannot recognize the continued effects of abuse in your life. No one that I have helped in the healing process has been able to progress without this insight. Again, a counselor is the best way, but there are many excellent books on spiritual abuse listed in the appendix that would be greatly helpful. The best of these that I have read is The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse by Johnson and VonVonderen. There are also web sites listed, and many more that can be found in a search of the web that can be of great help. Conferences on abuse can be found on the web, and there is even a retreat and treatment center in Ohio called Wellspring for the most deeply damaged souls. All are listed in the appendix.
Because former abused church members have lost their personality, reason, judgment and self in the group, they will not know who they really are. They lost their identity in the group; the abusive leader and the group poured their identity into them. As O’Brien, the torturer for Big Brother said to Winston, his victim in the novel 1984:

“We shall crush you down to the point from which there is no coming
back. Things will happen to you from which you could not recover, even
if you lived a thousand years. Never again will you be capable of love,
or friendship, or joy of living, or laughter, or curiosity, or courage, or
integrity. You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty, and then we
shall fill you with ourselves.”

He was wrong about recovery, for God is greater than any O’Brien, no matter what his name happens to be. But they will need great amounts of encouragement, love and acceptance as the true person comes back to life. Although much progress can be made in the first year or two, the entire process can take as long as four or five years to be truly and totally healed.

One of the biggest problems former members of abused churches face is that of triggers. A trigger is something that brings the memory, emotions or experiences of cult life back with vividness. So intense and real are these experiences that some revert to their cultic persona for a short time. This is called “floating.” Life in the cult was deeply stressful, even to the point of a type of altered state of consciousness. Hymns, loaded language, colors, smells, even verses from the Bible can be triggers. Floods of emotion and terror can return in an instant, and the person is re-abused by his memory. There can be a loss of sense of reality, of personal identity or motor behavior from a trigger. It is like the rape victim who smells the cologne of her rapist and is immediately back in the crime scene emotionally.
Recognizing what triggers you, as well as understanding how they work is of great benefit. Also, realizing when you are being triggered and having preplanned coping mechanisms helps. Support groups who can pool their knowledge and experience, and then minister to one another are helpful and comforting as well. Here I must say that one of the worst things that a former member of an abusive church can do is to go to a church that is similar in worship and style to his old church. The problem was not just the leader; it was also the theology and practice of the group that allowed that leader to operate as he did. As hard as it may be, find a church that you can leave each service with joy, peace and a deeper feeling of God’s passionate love for you. It will feel wrong and even sinful to be in such a church at first, but hold on, you will begin to see God as he really is after a while, and it will be worth all the awkwardness you feel at first.
Former cultists suffer from psychological disorders ranging from mild to severe forms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder , dissociation, and even reactive schizophrenia. There is hope that if treatment can begin quickly, PTSD can be avoided. The symptoms of sexual abuse are parallel to those that are experienced by the battered cultist. Similar treatment models, therefore, are helpful. A counselor who specializes in recovery from sexual or emotional abuse would be one who could help since the effects and treatments are so similar. When treating one who has been sexually abused, the memories and pain that are stored up will need to be released in a safe environment. Then the real losses they have experience must be faced and grieved over, then assimilated into life. Finally, well down the road, the process of forgiveness of the abuser will begin. We must never become a Pharisee against the cultic Pharisees.
In all of this the cultist has to learn to be patient. The depth of the damage is very deep, and the power of the cultic persona is great. Time, much time, is needed for healing to be effective. It will seem like you are not moving at all, but by using the healing methods I’ve mentioned, plus others that can be found in books and articles on spiritual abuse, you will be healing in the deeper places of your soul. My wife and I have helped many in their healing process, and we know there is hope, even as hopeless as a person may feel when all they can see is total, unending blackness. I have been there, I know the ground, and there is a way out. In Isaiah 43:1-2 God says that he not only makes the river of trial, but he goes right in with us as we pass through it. God is with you in your blackest moments, he will never leave you or forsake you.
What is the hope for the former cultist? First, he or she is not condemned to walk in the shadows for the rest of his or her life. There are many issues to deal with that I have not touched on due to space, but all are healable. Patience is the hardest thing, for recovery takes time, and there will be cycles of seeming regression as more and more of the poison leeches out of the soul. But healing will come, and real hope will return. For the Christian counselor, we want to help our clients to fulfill 2 Cor. 1, and be available to give to other sufferers the comfort that God has given to them. God does not waste time. The ministry a survivor of spiritual abuse will grow directly out of his losses and healing, and out of the depth of spirit and growth that has come from this dark trial. They will have empathy, and a revulsion of anything that is phony and Pharisaical.
Best of all the former abused church member will understand God’s love and grace in a way that is impossible for those who have never been so close to the mouth of legalistic hell as they have. The sense of their Father’s love, and of Jesus’ tender kindness and friendship will, in time, be so overwhelming as to make the years seem as a dream that is past. All that they have suffered, however deep and dark and long, will be worth it if that is what had to happen to gain this understanding. And the Christian, once so battered and broken, will be in the vanguard of the move toward grace that many of us hope is beginning to be resurrected.

1Spiritual Abuse, ed. Michael D. Langone (New York, W.W. Norton, 1993) 2-5.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Chrnalogar, Mary Alice, Twisted Scriptures; The Path to Freedom From Abusive

Enroth, Ronald, Recovering From Churches That Abuse, Grand Rapids, Zondervan,

Johnson, David and VanVonderen, The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse; Recognizing

Hilderbrant, Sharon, Recovery From Spiritual Abuse; How You Can Help, Available

Giambalvo, Carol in Recovery From Cults: Help for Victims of Psychological and

Goldberg, Laura, Guidelines for Therapists, in Recovery From Cults: Help For Victims
Of Psychological And Spiritual Abuse, ed. Michael D. Langone, New York, W.W. Norton, 1993.

Langone, Michael D., ed. Recovery From Cults: Help for Victims of Psychological and

Lifton, Robert Jay, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism; A study of

Martin, Paul R., Post-Cult Recovery: Assessment and Rehabilitation, in Recovery From
Cults: Help For Victims Of Psychological And Spiritual Abuse, ed. Michael D. Langone, New York, W.W. Norton, 1993.

Orwell, George, 1984, New York, Signet, 1981

Peck, M. Scott, The People Of The Lie, New York, Touchstone, 1983

Pile, Lawrence, Choosing a God Church After a Painful Experience, [WWW]http://wellspringretreat.org/

Recovery From Mind Control; How Do People Get Out of Religious Cults? Available from [WWW]http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/2x2info_namelesshousesect/recovery.htm.

Swindoll, Charles R., The Grace Awakening, Dallas, Word, 1990

Tobias, Madeleine Landau, Guidelines For Ex-Members, , in Recovery From Cults: Help
For Victims Of Psychological And Spiritual Abuse, ed. Michael D. Langone, New York, W.W. Norton, 1993.

Tobias, Madeleine Landau and Lalich, Janja, Captive Hearts, Captive Minds; Freedom

Trauma/PTSD [WWW]http://www.palace.net/~llama/psych/trauma.html

Trinity Pages, PTSD [WWW]http://bonni.net/trinity/ptsd.html

Appendix: Further Books and Web Sites on Spiritual Abuse

Churches That Abuse: Help for Those Hurt by Legalism, Authoritarian Leadership and Spiritual Intimidation, Ronald Enroth, Zondervan, 1992

Combating Cult Mind Control, Steven Hassan, Park Street Press, 1988

Cult Proofing Your Kids, Paul R. Martin, Zondervan, 1993

Damaged Disciples: Casualties of Authoritarian Churches and the Shepherding Movement, Ron and Vicki Burks, Zondervan, 1992

Healing Spiritual Abuse, Ron Blue, Intervarsity Press, 1993

Tired of Trying to Measure Up: Getting Free From the Demands, Expectations, and Intimidations of Well-Meaning People, Jeff VanVonderen, Bethany House, 1989

When God’s People Let You Down, Jeff VanVonderen, Bethany House, 1995

Web Sites:

[WWW]http://www.caic.org.au/biblebase/transit1.htm The Transition From Law to Grace

[WWW]http://www.csj.org/ Information about Psychological Manipulation, cult groups, sects, and new religious movements. This is an excellent site from a professional organization.

[WWW]http://members.aol.com/Chrnalogar/chap-2.htm Freedom From the Control of Abusive Discipleship

[WWW]http://ex-cult.org/General/identifying-a-cult Identifying a Cult

[WWW]http://ex-cult.org/General/lifton-criteria Robert J. Lifton’s Criteria for Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism

[WWW]http://www.caic.org.au/zabusive.htm Misc. Bible Based Cults and “isms” – Spiritual Abuse in the Church

[WWW]http://members.aol.com/djrtx/c-abuse.htm Resource: Cults and Spiritually Abusive Churches

[WWW]http://www.refocus.org/ Recovering Former Cultists’ Support Network

[WWW]http://www.usaor.net/dtl/shield/abuse.htm Recovery From Spiritual Abuse: From Darkness to Light – How You Can Help

[WWW]http://montrosebaptist.org/pages/abuse.shtml Spiritual Abuse: Online Resources

[WWW]http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/3658/books.html Spiritual Abuse: Recommended Reading

[WWW]http://wellspring.albany.oh.us/ Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center: Recovery From Cults, Psychological Trauma, Domestic Violence and Sexual Abuse

[WWW]http://members.aol.com/vickipolin/Page22.html The Awareness Center, Cults

This is what I want to say to you, my brothers and sisters in Jesus. Leave off following a man and a church and follow Jesus alone; you haven’t seen anything yet!

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord,
Plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
Plans to give you a hope and a future.

Your Brother in Jesus,
Richard Damiani

If you want to contact me you can do it by e-mail at newhopecounsel@hotmail.com. All contacts will be kept in the strictest confidence.

To know more of God’s loving heart for you, read this article, [WWW]The Father Heart of God.

This is a Wiki Spot wiki. Wiki Spot is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that helps communities collaborate via wikis.