Spiritual abuse can be defined as excessive control,
misleading, misguiding, mis-teaching, or "fire and
brimstone" style, fear instilling and/or brow-beating. Not
accountable - "Touch not God's anointed." (Psalm 105:1)
We read in the Bible that we all have an anointing from God.(1
John 2:20-27)
One
definition is: "Galanter (1989) defined a cult as a group
that "consists of a
dozen or
more members ... characterized by several psychological elements:
members (1) have
a shared belief system, (2) sustain a high level of
social
cohesiveness, (3) are strongly influenced by the group's
behavioral
norms and (4)
impute charismatic (divine) power to the group or its
leader."
(Quoted from an article on Mind Control Crossroads Online
ISSUE #4 [SUMMER
1997])
Other resources:
Twisted Scriptures Excerpt from book by Mary Chrnaloger
Healing Spiritual Abuse, by Ken Blue
Combating Cult Mind Control, by Steven Hassan's (1988). Park Street Press.
12 'Christian' Beliefs That Can Drive You Crazy : Relief from False
Assumptions:
by Henry Cloud, John Townsend
The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse, Dave Johnson and Jeff VanVonderen
Another take on spiritual abuse is here: Recovery From Spiritual Abuse
Spiritual abuse can occur non-stop
Rick Ross' site dealing with spiritual abuse
A message board (forum) dealing with spiritual abuse .
Another forum on spiritual abuse
Steps to recovery
Rev. 03/11/05
Broken link fixed 10/0304
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