Spiritual Abuse

This month is Spiritual Abuse awareness month.

Spiritual abuse is someone who uses faith, religion, or sacred writings in a manipulative way to instill fear in the victim in order to exert power and control over them. The spiritual bully may use shame, emotions, criticism, humiliation, or judgment to manipulate or coerce the victim's behavior. The victim may feel inferior, ashamed, threatened, degraded, cornered, etc.

Some examples of spiritual abuse are…
1. You didn't pray hard enough or long enough.
2. You're holding onto a cherished sin so God can't hear your prayers.
3. You're not holy enough; you need to do X in order for God to hear you.
4. A godly person would not dress that way or would not wear X.
5. You must fix all these things before you can be accepted into our church.
6. A good Christian must repent/forgive them now.
7. A good Christian must accept their forgiveness now.
8. You must pray with me right now.
9. If you really loved/respected God, then you would do X for Him.
10. Inviting a romantic interest to Bible study under false pretenses.
11. God told me you're supposed to be my spouse.
12. The Bible says the wife must submit to her husband.

What are some other examples of spiritual abuse that you can think of? Comment below.

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