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Wounded Faith: Understanding and Healing from Spiritual Abuse
Kenneth Garrett, DMin, Pastor, Grace Church, Portland, Oregon, completed a dissertation for Western Seminary in Portland in April 2017. The dissertation is entitled, Spiritual Abuse in the Church: A Guide to Recognition and Recovery. SAR has linked to this interesting dissertation on SAR’s research page: http://www.spiritualabuseresources.com/research Pasted below are the abstract and table of contents to give you an idea of the scope of this work.
February 7 2018
February 7 2018
Abstract
The theme of this project is spiritual abuse. For this project, spiritual abuse is defined as the use of deception, manipulation, and undue influence by a pastor or leader over a member of a church or Christian organization in order to appropriate the member’s material, physical, or emotional resources. The purpose of this study is to introduce the reader to the existence, characteristics, and leaders of spiritually abusive churches. Select biblical examples of spiritual abuse, Christian and secular academic sources, and a description of the basic personality types of spiritually abusive pastors, their churches, and their victims are presented. A description of both healthy churches and healthy pastors is provided, along with suggestions for how churches and pastors can prepare themselves to effectively care for survivors of spiritual abuse. The appendix includes an exegetical sermon on spiritual abuse from the book of Jude. An extended bibliographical list is provided for further reading on the subject of spiritual abuse, thought reform, and the development of a healthy pastoral theology relating to the care of spiritual abuse survivors.
Table of Contents
List of Abbreviations .............................................................................................ix
Abstract ............................................................................................................... x
Prologue: A House of Mirrors ............................................................................... 1
Introduction .......................................................................................................... 6
Research Methodology ........................................................................................ 7
Overview of the Project ................................................................................8
Definitions ..................................................................................................11
Assumptions ...............................................................................................13
Limitations ..................................................................................................14
Importance of the Project ...........................................................................15
Summary ....................................................................................................15
Chapter 1 - Cults and Churches . . . ................................................................... 17
Cults in America ........................................................................................ 17
What Shall We Call a Church That Hurts People? .....................................24
Chapter 2 - Spiritual Abuse in the Bible .............................................................. 30
Examples of Spiritual Abuse from the Old Testament ................................30
Examples of Spiritual Abuse from the New Testament ...............................36
Chapter 3 - The Psyche and Speech of the Abusive LEADER ........................... 50
The Psyche of the Abusive Pastor ............................................................. 52
The Speech of the Abusive Pastor ............................................................ 57
Chapter 4 - The Members of the Spiritually Abusive Church .............................. 63
Who would ever join an abusive church?! .................................................. 63
Me, the Totalist ........................................................................................... 65
Chapter 5 - Eight Indicators of Churches that Abuse .......................................... 77
Deception: What is received is not what was promised .............................. 78
Loss: The abusive church demands more, of everything ............................ 85
Isolation: The abusive church separates members from family and friends .91
Elitism: The prevailing notion of superiority ................................................. 96
Group-speak: The unique language of each abusive church .................... 100
Fear: Dread of failing to please the abusive leaders ..................................105
Disclosure: Confession as a church requirement ...................................... 108
Trauma: Leaving is painful and costly ....................................................... 115
Chapter 6 - Why do people leave Abusive Churches? ....................................... 125
Time Away from the Church .......................................................................126
Unsanctioned Friendships ......................................................................... 129
Discovery of Ideological Shortcomings ...................................................... 131
Disillusionment with Leaders ..................................................................... 133
What Happened?! ...................................................................................... 136
Chapter 7 - When the Walking Wounded Walk into our Churches ..................... 139
Re-entry Wounds ....................................................................................... 142
Psychological Wounds ............................................................................... 145
Spiritual Wounds ........................................................................................ 154
Marriage Wounds ....................................................................................... 155
Parenting Wounds ...................................................................................... 157
Economic Wounds ...................................................................................... 161
Educational and Professional Wounds ....................................................... 161
Chapter 8 - Safe Pastors, Safe Churches ............................................................164
The Pastor as a Safe Shepherd ................................................................. 164
Safe Churches are Honest ......................................................................... 178
Chapter 9 - Putting It All Together .......................................................................189
For Friends and Family .............................................................................. 190
For Church Members ................................................................................. 194
For Pastors and Church Leaders ............................................................... 197
Epilogue: Healing...not yet healed ...............................................................200
Appendix ..............................................................................................................203
Sample Exegetical sermon: Jude .........................................................................203
Exegetical Study of Jude—Facing Off with Spiritual Abusers ..................... 203
The Fingerprints of Spiritual Abusers, 1-4 ................................................... 204
The Ancestors of Abusive Religious Leaders, 5-7 ....................................... 208
The False Teacher’s Rejection of Spiritual Authority, 8-9 ........................... 213
The Self-Destructiveness of the False Teacher, 10 .................................... 215
Woe to Three Types of Wolves, 11 ............................................................. 217
Five Snapshots of the Abusive Leader, 12-13 ............................................. 220
The Certain Judgment of the False Teacher, 14-15 .................................... 223
The Speech of the False Teacher, 16 ......................................................... 225
Healing From Spiritual Abuse, 17-25 .......................................................... 227
Bibliography ..........................................................................................................235
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