Jesus Creed
I’ll tell you when I think the system is corrupt: when Christian people sign severance packages that require silence. Those in power are buying protection; those signing are compromising integrity. The following post grabs the main points in a longer post by Jennifer LeClaire, and her points are worthy of some conversation:
What are the signs of spiritually abusive church systems?
Jennifer LeClaire is news editor of Charisma. She is also director of Every Nation Prayer Room in Fort Lauderdale and author of several books, including The Making of a Prophet and The Spiritual Warrior’s Guide to Defeating Jezebel. You can email Jennifer at jennifer.leclaire@
Entire books have been written on spiritual abuse. Those books will help you see spiritual abuse for what it is, how you got sucked into the cycle, how to break free from spiritual abuse and how to recover from spiritual abuse once you’ve escaped its clutches.
Power-posturing is a telltale sign of spiritual abuse.
Performance preoccupation is a sign of spiritual abuse.
Unspoken rules are common in instances of spiritual abuse.
The “Can’t Talk” rule is seen where spiritual abuse is present.
Lack of balance and extremism is often present where spiritual abuse lives.
It’s not possible to fully expose the inner workings of spiritual abuse, Christian cults and controlling churches in a single article. My goal is to raise awareness of a troubling issue and get you thinking—not to send you on a witch hunt for spiritual abusers.
If you think you are part of a spiritually abusive cult-like or controlling church, ask the Lord to break any deception off your mind and show you the truth. The truth could be that you are in a healthy church and you just need to die to self. But it could be that you are in an abusive system and you need to break free. If your heart is purely seeking the truth, the Holy Spirit will surely guide you there (John 16:13).
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