How to Identify a Spiritually Abusive Church Culture: A Must-See Discussion!!!

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[Janet Easson Martin]

In the podcast below the author, Steve Pierson, of the newly published book, “Spiritually Abused,” articulates very well (and perhaps even profoundly) how Spiritually Abusive Churches practice a Pattern of Manipulation that eventually becomes part of a systematic culture that is meant to strip away peoples own personal discernment from the Holy Spirit and scripture. He explains this abuse is not a one-time thing, but a systemic pattern.

He clarifies the difficulty in identifying the very unhealthy culture is that everyone in it is marching to it. If everybody is DOING IT, it’s harder to call it out because nobody is saying anything. But, they may be thinking the same thing as you. BINGO! He points out the reason we stay longer is because it’s not just the initial leader being abusive now, but the whole culture has become permeated; not questioning and towing the line.

He lays out in his book and shares here that there are four common traits in this kind of abusive culture: SEDUCTION, FEAR, LIES and CONDEMNATION. BINGO - Again! He says these are the very prevalent abuses used to control the masses.

He also gives very familiar examples of the seduction of twisting the Word of God to control others. So many gems of wisdom and understanding from Pastor Pierson here!! That was only the first fifteen minutes.


How to Identify and Escape Spiritually Abusive Church Culture - Standing Together
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lxVL7YDyAxE


“Spiritually Abused” by Steve Pierson - Amazon Kindle
https://www.amazon.com/Spiritually-Abused-Steve-Pierson-ebook/dp/B0C1QRND4K

[Janet Easson Martin]

Continuing on with this great unpacking of Spiritual Abuse by Steve Pierson, he emphasizes the need to identify it in order to break free from it. One of the things he recommends is talking to the people who have left. He shares that though you have been twistedly told it is gossip to ask others why they left, it is definitely not. That is a lie. The abusers want to keep you separated from those who have identified the abuse. You are given responsibility in the Bible to see if your leaders are actually accurately teaching the Bible. If people point out to you in God’s Word where and how the leaders are twisting scripture to manipulate and control the “followers” —THAT IS NOT GOSSIP! That is Biblical wisdom and DISCERNMENT! That is the main reason that “GCx” Leaders tell their people it is SIN to read this website and hear from many who have left.

Pierson also highlights the authority of a spiritual leader is only that which the word gives him. He details that before the Scripture talks about obeying your leaders in the church, it talks about observing their conduct first. If they themselves are not obedient to the authority of The Word, they have NO SPIRITUAL AUTHORITY!


Side note from me: I remember pretty well the fearful and twisted threats from Jim McCotter and his disciples that held us captive in their church. Now that I know God’s Word much better I realize how many teachings and traditions were not only not biblical, but harmful to my faith. Consequently, McCotter and the leaders under him passing on these perverted “teachings” had NO SPIRITUAL AUTHORITY from God to be elders or leaders over us.

I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their message;
I did not speak to them, yet they have prophesied.
But if they had stood in my council, they would have proclaimed my words
to my people and would have turned them from their evil ways and from their evil deeds.

Jeremiah 23:22

By the way, whenever the true Gospel was respectfully shared with others by any in GCx, that was in accordance with God’s Word, but the administration and shepherding of the church body WAS ABUSIVELY AGAINST GOD’s WORD and quite SINFUL. SADLY, evangelism in GCx was also at times NOT RESPECTFUL and therefore outside of God’s will.

[Janet Easson Martin]

You make sacrifices that inside you don’t feel right with, they don’t come from your heart, but you do them anyway because you don’t want to risk looking immature, and everyone else is doing them, or it’s what the people over you have determined is best for your life.  There is a ladder you are told you must climb, a level of spirituality you must obtain, and you are trying so hard to be like the people you look up to.  And not only that, but there is a race to the top of the ladder.  It’s you against your fellow brothers and sisters to see who can reach spiritual maturity first.  But you begin to notice that the spiritual maturity ruler isn’t really about “maturity” as you thought you knew it.  It’s about your “teachability”, how willing you are listen and agree with and “run with” what the people over you are telling you.  

-knit_in_no_more,   2008

I promised you to one husband, to Christ,
so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.
But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning,
your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

2 Corinthians 11:2-3

There is so much sad truth in this former GCx member’s pretty accurate summarization of “life in GCx.” Their first revelation of not feeling right with the required sacrifices to be “godly” in GCx is QUITE KEY! It may be that it’s a different spirit persuading you to go against the Holy Spirit; because these sacrifices or offerings are actually distancing you from reliance on Jesus to instead rely upon mere men and the idol they have built. Paul talks about false teachers coming between you and Christ. Thus, the loss of joy and spontaneity. The “Christian” life starts to become FLAT and predictable and depressing.

Dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to live as I do in freedom from these things…
… Where is that joyful and grateful spirit you felt then?

Galatians 4:12,15

As new or young believers in “GCx” are navigating this new life in the Spirit, they become hijacked by false teachers among the body who have their own ambitious agenda to selfishly make themselves great among Christians, which is never part of God’s agenda. The victims are pushed off the course God intended for them. They got confused because most of the other believers in their group were also “obediently” following strange teachings. This is what Steve Pierson (above) talks about in the “masses following” spiritually abusive leaders.

When I would read the Bible, God would often make this passage stand out with flood lights, but I didn’t get for years while inside that darkened environment that GCx WAS the “Who cut in on you”!!!

You were running a good race.
Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?
That kind of persuasion does not come from
the one who calls you.

Galatians 5:7

[Janet Easson Martin]

If you are someone who is questioning the [GCx] church you are in, ask others who left why they left. My experience is that people in problematic GCAC churches want you only to talk with elders and pastors or others in leadership. Ask other leaders who have moved on why they left and don't be afraid to tell them some of your concerns. Finding out that I wasn't crazy and alone in feeling what I was feeling was what helped me to leave. Also, trust your initial intuition that tells you something is not right. I say, "initial intuition" because after time, you still see things, but you become calloused to so much of it ... Again, talking with others who left is not necessarily gossip or slander and being able to hear both sides of the issue is a sign of maturity. ...

 “The first to plead his case seems just, until another comes and examines him.”

-MarthaH