Defining Spiritual Abuse (Index)

Thank you, David Hayward!

updated 16Feb10; 1Mar19



Click on an item of interest to link to the topic that best meets your needs.  (Don't be alarmed if some links take you to the archive site for easier reading of longer collections of posts.)

For additional lists of topics, see the Tab and Page entitled "Navigating UnderMuchGrace and the Archives."

Introduction

• A Synopsis of Terminology Pertaining to Cults and Spiritual Abuse   (A comparison of the many definitions of spiritual abuse and cults, including aberrant behavior within Biblical Christian Churches.)

• Is Spiritual Abuse Biblical? (Addressing the question with a list of many examples of spiritual abuse and surreptitious manipulation found within Scripture.) 

• Distinguishing Doctrine From Behavior:  What Makes a Cult a Cult?     (More discussion of the comparison of spiritual abuse and thought reform, particularly within Christian Churches.)
• Understanding the Duggar Family in terms of Cultic Systems

• Biblical Analysis of Scriptures Pertaining to Spiritual Abusers    (A review of Scriptures that concern false prophets/teachers/Pharisees and how this relates to Dr. Walter Martin’s statement that Christians must produce good fruit concerning not only doctrine but the fruit of the life lived.)

• Why Doctrinal Statements Tell You Nothing of the Unwritten Rules of a Manipulative Group     (Discussion of how manipulative religious groups maintain two sets of beliefs and rules, including those that are not written and are reinforced subjectively.)

• Coming to a Deeper Understanding of the Unwritten Rules of a Group: Oral Tradition, Oral Law, the “Hidden Curriculum”  (More about the unwritten rules versus the written ones that govern manipulative groups)

• The Elements of Spiritual Abuse   (A series of posts that examine each element of spiritual abuse as defined by Henke and the “Weapons of Influence” defined by Cialdini)

• Thought Reform and Lifton 101    (An overview of the techniques of manipulation identified by Robert Lifton:  the “gold standard” for the evaluation of manipulative groups.)

• The Experience of Realizing Spiritual Abuse    (What it feels like and what others have experienced when they first began to realize that they were being spiritually abused.)

• Post Cult Trauma Syndrome  (Symptoms and dilemmas experienced by those who emerge from spiritual abuse)

• The Heresy of Mind Control  (A must-read downloadable book)

• Why It's So Hard to Leave An Abusive Situation

• Antiquated Ideas About Cults   

• Differentiating Between Cult, Cultic and Spiritual Abuse

• Cult Leaders and Con Artists (An Index of Posts on the Topic)  

• Facing Your Spiritual Abuser: Index of Posts About the Star Chamber and the Hot Seat

• How I Confronted my High Demand Church After I Left

Finding Help and Healing

• Audio and Video Resources

• Difficulties with Bible Study After Spiritual Abuse

• Finding an Exit Counselor and Resources for Healing

• Choosing a Counselor

• Journaling for Personal and Spiritual Growth

• Where to Begin Reading?

• Journey Out of Shame  (List of Resources)

Examples of Manipulative Techniques

• The Term “Biblical” Becomes a Thought-Stopping Cliché?     (How loaded language and thought reform takes place in Biblical Christian Churches)

• Closing the Ideological Sale:  Thought Reform Goes to Church     (One example of how thought reform techniques can operate in churches)

• Pharisees and the Double Bind   (How the Pharisees used the technique of the double bind)

• Bounded Choice    (Describes the term as a forced moral imperative or perception of choice from within a closed system which functionally allows for no viable choices.  Real choices are unthinkable and punished.)

• Cognitive Dissonance    (Describing how manipulators, social pressures or other types of subtle manipulation can pressure you to change your mind, often without your notice)

• Loading the Language    (Posts discussing the manipulation of language within spiritual abuse)

• Describing Methods of Manipulation    (Dissembling and controlling the disclosure of information in order to draw in the unsuspecting – the subtle version of the “bait and switch,”   Examples pulled from the True Woman Conference ’08 and from information from a survivor of a Bible-based religious group.)

• Beware the Love Bomb

• What’s in a Uniform?

• What is Damage Control?  

• Conference Survival Skills

• Resisting Undue Influence

Conformity Studies (Video Documentaries)

• Bad Apples or Bad Barrels:  Video Overviews of Zimbardo’s Lucifer Effect   (Philip Zimbardo lectures on how systems of control and social pressure promote evil behavior and encourages individuals to become “everyday heroes” in the face of social and environmental pressures.)

• The Wave    (A video that depicts the disturbingly true story of a classroom experiment in a history class in a California high school.  The teacher sought to demonstrate to the students how German citizens so readily accepted the Third Reich to his class by exposing them to some of the behavioral techniques used.)

• Stanford Prison Experiment  (The Hierarchy Effect?)   (How an investigative study produced disturbing behaviors among a group of students at Stanford University)

• The Milgram Study    (Study evaluating willingness of subjects to follow instructions given by a perceived authority figure)

• Asch Conformity Study    (Study evaluating how subjects respond to social influence and popular opinion as a force that powerfully affects perception)

• The Power of the Situation     (A documentary reviewing conformity studies and the powerful effect that social pressures, authority figures and circumstances pose upon individuals)

• Be Heroic!   (About Zimbardo’s Hero Project campaign to teach people to be everyday heroes and resist situational influences.)

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