Spiritual manipulation

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[Differentstrokes]

This is a really good article about spiritual manipulation, how many of you suffered with these things? http://www.tosavealife.com/4-ways-to-tell-if-you-are-being-spiritually-manipulated/

[Huldah]

Thanks for the link. It's a good article. However, I could not have followed the author's advice: "If you’re accused of (these things)... check with some trusted counselors outside the situation..." By the time I was fully following GC, there were no other trusted counselors. I had already isolated myself from my family and friends. GC had convinced me that that every other church was inferior and that counsel from an unbeliever was unthinkable. There was (in my mind) nowhere else to turn.

[Janet Easson Martin]

This article seems quite helpful, Differentstrokes.  Thank you!  The lingo may be slightly different, but the spirit of oppression is the same. GCx uses "not under authority" or "not teachable" rather than the particular word "disrespect" used in this article but, the meaning is the same. I can identify with this section (and indeed did suffer under something much like this from GCx):

"This accusation in particular rocked my world.  I now realize that it was not made in good faith.  It was not made to help me get closer to Jesus; the accusation was made to control me—to control my behavior. And control me it did. For years, I questioned everything I did, everything I said. “Am I being prideful? Does this look arrogant?”  It was a life without freedom, a life without grace".


I agree, Huldah, that we were intentionally isolated or 'walled off' from outside (sound) counsel.  As if a barb-wire fence were surrounding us to SUPPOSEDLY protect us, while actually wounding and even terrorizing us. We were MUCH more CAPTIVE than we realized.