Recovering from Spiritual Abuse

Authoritarian abuse (aka, “spiritual abuse”) is one of the most widespread and troubling problems facing the Church today. Indeed, the truth is that ecclesiastical enslavement and exploitation is pandemic in many sectors of 21st Century Christendom, though those churches and ministries employing it go to great lengths to disguise and conceal it. What makes the ubiquitous problem even more insidious is that many of the perpetrators and propagators of these spiritually repressive teachings and techniques are respected, and in some cases revered, spiritual leaders. Moreover these autocratic systems of religious hegemony are being imposed in church-groups espousing orthodox Christian beliefs, whose membership is comprised of a cross section of average Americans—individuals and families—of every race, education level, station, status, and vocation, rather than radical, fringe religious sects and cults as many uninformed people would suppose.