What is religious abuse?

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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 favour and spiritual growth.

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 behaviour 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 behaviour, 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.

The 6 main forms of abuse can be seen here