by Dale and Juanita Ryan

The Christian faith is a faith designed to set us free. It was for this amazing purpose that Christ came. For many of us, however, something has gone terribly wrong. Like the people to whom Paul wrote in the Galatian church, we have come to experience the Christian life as a burden, as a ‘yoke of slavery’. The faith which was intended to lead us into a life of freedom has somehow rooted us more deeply in shame.

The Bible warns us that people who have experienced the freedom which Christ intended can still be drawn back into bondage. Faith, even faith intended for freedom, can be perverted into forms of slavery. The good news can all too easily be twisted into bad news. The gospel of grace can be transformed into the ball-and-chain of having-to-try-harder.

Many of us have experienced the deep wounds of spiritual abuse. The word ‘abuse’ suggests that damage or injury has been done to a person. Spiritual abuse is a kind of abuse which damages the central core of who we are. It leaves us spiritually discouraged and emotionally cut off from the healing love of God.

Like any abuse, spiritual abuse can be either obvious or subtle. It comes in many forms. Parents may have appealed to God as a reinforcement of their attempts to control their children by suggesting things such as “God will be angry with you if you don’t do what I say” or “God will not love you if you don’t behave.” Preachers may have implied that we must do more or give more in order to be recipients of God’s love or blessings. Fellow Christians may have condemned and rejected us for our failures and appealed to the Bible to justify their attitudes. Rigid, dogmatic rules and authoritarian leaders may have been the norm in dysfunctional Christian institutions. These are only a few of the many forms that spiritual abuse can take.

Unfortunately, spiritual abuse is easily internalized. Even if the external sources of abuse are eliminated, we are capable of continuing to abuse ourselves. And, when we participate in self abuse, imposing rigid and impossible expectations on ourselves, we may also find ourselves inflicting these forms of bondage on others. In this way the vicious cycle of spiritual abuse is perpetuated.

The point of these studies is not to figure out who is abusive and who is not. We do not want to encourage the pointing of accusing fingers at people and institutions that may have been abusive. None of us will ever recover by investing more energy in blame. Our hope is, rather, that the Scripture will be helpful to us as we begin to break the cycle of spiritual abuse. By going back to the basic truths presented to us in the Bible we may be able to connect again with the freedom that is our rightful inheritance in Christ.

As we will see in the texts for these studies, people and institutions become abusive when they encourage pretense and self-righteousness, when they offer a “quick fix” for life’s struggles or encourage performance-based life styles; and when they bind our spirits with the cords of judgmentalism and legalism. All of these perversions of the Christian faith lead to bondage rather than freedom. It is, however, for freedom that Christ has set us free.

Our prayer is that these studies will be a step for you in the healing of the damaging effects of spiritual abuse. May the grace of God set you free. And may your roots sink deeply into the soil of God’s love.

Recovery from Spiritual Abuse - 6 studies for groups or individuals by Dale and Juanita Ryan Copyright 1992

OUTLINE

1.Resisting Pretense Matthew 23:25-28,James 5:16

2.Resisting Self-righteousness Luke 18:10-14

3. Resisting the Quick Fix Psalm 77:1-12

4. Resisting Performance Micah 6:6-8, Ephesians 2:4-5, 8-9

5. Resisting Judgementalism Matthew 7:1-5, Galatians 6:1-2

6.Resisting Legalism Luke 6:6-11