Spiritual Abuse Defined

In working through my course for Mending the Soul, there is a definition for spiritual abuse from David Johnson and Jeff VanVonderen that I find quite useful and wanted to share:

POWERPOSTURING
The leaders are preoccupied with their authority and continually remind people of it. This runs contrary to scriptural teaching that leaders are not to excessively leverage their authority but are to lead by example, not decree.

PERFORMANCE PREOCCUPATION
Spirituality becomes a matter of external performance, not internal character.

UNSPOKEN RULES
Spiritually abusive congregations have unspoken rules that are not discussed openly but are enforced rigidly.

LACK OF BALANCE
Spiritually abusive churches have little or no spiritual balance and the leaders exhibit either extreme objectivity (you must have a graduate degree or equivalent to have any spiritual knowledge) or extreme subjectivity (the Lord gave me this message and you must accept it)


In my journaling about my experience with these characteristics, I'm seeing how the judgment that accompanies Performance Preoccupation particularly completely shuts off compassion and paralyzes people in being able to truly help those that need it... Life becomes this zero-sum game of Punishment and Reward and there's not a lot of room left over for humanity and its foibles...