What Do You Risk When You Go to a Star Chamber/Hot Seat Meeting? (and more on the never ending Mars Hil/Driscoll Drama)

I was quite surprised that, while I'd already begun posting on this topic, a former elder/pastor of Mark Driscoll's Mars Hill organization came forward online to reveal the details of their own experiences within a spiritually abusive system. The husband and wife team have written some details about different star chamber meetings that they'd attended as a part of their experiences there.

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Frankenstein Teaches You About Brainwashing

Update: December 12, 2009

Original posted November 30, 2007

Here's yet another list of techniques used to suspend critical thought, surreptitiously getting others to change their thoughts, feelings and behaviors.

The information "Frankenstein" presents derives from Albert Biderman's "Chart of Coercion." Biderman was a contemporary colleague of Robert J. Lifton who also worked with the US Military and the Korean POWs.

Biderman has authored the "The Manipulation of Human Behavior" and this list can be found in his "Report on Torture" to Amnesty International in 1975. I've found two easy-to-read summaries of the Chart on the reFocus website and on this website with resources for people dealing with manipulation in the workplace. Biderman's Chart is also often cited in the literature concerning domestic abuse.



When updating my helpful info in the sidebar, I decided to create something to make this list more readable and memorable. Please browse through the material in the sidebar which makes some of it much easier to read.

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Understanding Cognitive Dissonance ~ Thoughts to Remember

Simply stated, cognitive dissonance occurs any time something "Does Not Compute." We feel pressure and discomfort because things do not add up. Our emotions become engaged so that these emotions conflict with our thoughts and our behavior. Or someone says something that does not make sense in context (e.g., when my former pastor who seemed to be doctrinally orthodox told me that people had horrible things happen to them when they left the church against the blessing and better judgment of the elders -- not because they made a necessarily unwise choice but primarily because they did not let the elders make their decisions for them). Biblically orthodox Protestant pastors do not make such statements unless they believe just as strongly in extra-Biblical doctrines as well. The context or the circumstances do not match whatever new thought, emotion or behavior has been introduced.

Behaviors can also throw us into cognitive dissonance. If we are asked to perform a task that does not match the context of the situation, this can temporarily suspend our critical thinking and our understanding of the environment which is disconcerting if not actually painful. Biderman points out that small and seemingly insignificant requests for behavioral compliance set up a pattern of compliance between the target and the manipulator. Over time, the requests can be made more relavent, but this also serves to sear the conscience. One becomes desensitized to the disturbance of the congnitive dissonance created by requests that don't seem to have any purpose or logical end. Hassan also adds information into mix, as information that does not correspond to a person's continuity of self; the internal agreement and consistency of thought, emotion and behavior; does induce a state of cognitive dissonance.

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Surviving a Conference Part IV: Social Factors

True Woman '08. as a Prototype

Conferences like True Woman ‘08 influence attendees powerfully through social mentoring and context as well as through behavioral compliance. One means of gauging proper behavior comes through observing the behavior of others and context clues, a very human trait. Compliance and participation also increases when authority figures also comply and participate, as those who are held in high esteem are also viewed as a superior gauge for wise behavior. 

This social influence becomes a more powerful determinant of behavior when decisions are ambiguous, and human beings tend to place more significance on the social cues that they take from those who are similar to them in some way. We are social creatures, and our human need to belong influences our decisions in a powerful way. It is our created nature. (For more, review the Asch Experiments.)

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True Women and Making a Manifesto Manifest

I like Don Veinot’s description of the complexity of going about addressing problems within the Church – our brethren in the faith who have drifted off center. We tend to have a “white hat” and “black hat” mentality when it comes to classifying religion. If we can call a group a cult based on obvious doctrine, they clearly wear a black hat and we wear the white. You don’t need discernment when you identify people based on their hat. You just avoid the bad guys and hang out with the good guys who are on “your team.”

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