Abusive Churches and Cults

An excerpt from There Is Something Rotten on Azusa Street, currently in the works.

In their book The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse, David Johnson, David and Jeff VanVonderen identify the seven characteristics of a spiritually abusive system. How many of these can you spot in any given Charismatic megachurch?

1. Power-Posturing -- the leaders seized authority, it did not come from God, so they put too much emphasis on their authority, their titles and their position.

2. Performance Preoccupation – your behavior is more important than your relationship with God. It is more important to appear to be a perfect Christian than to have the substance of a Christlike life.

3. Unspoken Rules – not all the rules are in the Bible. The most important unspoken rule is the Rule of Silence. You will not talk about what goes on inside the church. You won't know these rules exist until you break them, and when you do, you will be punished through shunning, public humiliation or excommunication.

4. Lack of Balance – too much emphasis on programs and routines and pressure to be in church every time the doors are open. Will put all of its emphasis on law and scripture, or all of its emphasis on revelation from the leaders.

5. Paranoia – the pastor is scared that someone will find out something. He may even give his armor bearers real armor and guns. They instill an Us Vs. Them mentality in the congregation because they honestly think that every other church is out to get them.

6. Misplaced Loyalty -- you are loyal to the pastor and the church first, and if you have any loyalty left over, you can give it to God and your family.

7. Secretive – You never know what goes on with the leaders. They never talk. They are never seen. People do not hide what is ethical and moral; only what is unethical or immoral.

Now, let's compare those to the outstanding characteristics of a cult, and see how closely they resemble each other.

1. A dynamic, charismatic leader -- virtually no cult is lead by a dweeb. Most, if not all, are led by a dynamic leader who has almost hypnotic abilities.The leader may claim to be a prophet or apostle, or both, representing God. But he's never just another man.

2. New Truth – the cult will teach that is has a new truth, a new revelation. Sometimes they use the Bible and say they have a new interpretation of it. Sometimes they have a new holy writing, given to them by a demon or alien or by an angel or God Himself.

3. Preoccupied with making money – more than normal. It's as if all your activities for the group are involved with making money for the group, or evangelizing.

4. Obsessed with evangelizing >– a church wants to reach the lost, but it is also dedicated to nurturing its members. A cult could care less about the members and wants to get more people at any cost.

5. Questioning, doubt and dissent are discouraged or punished – you are allowed to do as you're told and to believe as you're told. You may be severely punished for asking "why?" Questioning the leader or leadership will result in the member being told that he or she does not hear from God, or cannot hear from God correctly, assigned more work, shunned, perhaps even physically abused in some way.

6. Strict discipline – leadership dictates in great detail how members should act and behave and think. Members have to get permission to date, change jobs, get married. Leadership tells members what to wear, what to eat, who to date, what to drive, where to work, how to discipline children.

7. Hypocrisy – the cult leader or leadership will require the members to do things that the leaders will not do. For instance, the members may be required to be celibate, while the leader has a harem, or members are required to live in poverty while the leader lives in lavish luxury.

8. Separatist – members are kept separated from family and friends by activities, subservience to the leader or they are kept hidden and moving around the country. If you aren't allowed to contact your family or friends, then you're in danger.

9. Elitist – the group is the only one going to Heaven, or Andromeda. It doesn't matter where, but they are the only ones going. Everyone else is going to Hell! Because the group is the only ones going to Heaven, or Andromeda, everyone else is beneath them and worthy of ridicule or shunning.

10. Mind-numbing techniques – lots of these. Usually sleep and food deprivation are the most common. Members are kept working and allowed only to nap between work. They live in poverty. Drugs may be used, but that's rare. Members are manipulated through guilt. They are allowed to socialize only with other members, and live in a group home, commune, or in proximity to other members. Members devote extraordinary amounts of time to the group (seems like slave labor). Leadership constantly demeans the members until the members have no sense of self-worth.

I should not be able to compare the characteristics of any church (much less a Charismatic one) with a cult! Charismatics are supposed to walk in the fruit and gifts of the Holy Spirit and be able to discern falsehoods and cultlike activities when they first pop up. Why have we been so blind and allowed such abuse to happen? Why have we allowed cultlike activities in our churches? Because, like the pastors, the congregations have been seduced by the Whore of Babylon. We have been beguiled into believing that it is more important to appear to be Christian, than to be Christlike.

The Pastor's Job

In the books I'm reading about spiritual abuse, so many pastors are afraid of what will happen if the DON'T abuse their people. They are afraid the people will run wild, stop tithing and start sinning if they don't beat their sheep with the Bible and at least some form of Shepherding or Holiness teaching.

The problem with that, is these pastors see their job as being composed of the following:
-- getting people to obey
-- controlling people's behavior.
-- getting people to give
-- getting people to come to church

Funny thing is, those are not the pastor's responsibilities. They are the responsibilities of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who convicts people of sin. It is not the pastor's job to condemn people of sin, and condemnation is what happens when people try to do it. Besides, who is any man to try to control the behavior of another, especially another adult? It is the Goodness of God that leads to repentence, not the preaching of the pastor. And why is the pastor looking to the people to be his provider of funds? Shouldn't he look to God to provide for him and the church as a corporate entity, just like he teaches the people to look to God? Finally, the Holy Spirit will tell people to go to church, especially to a church that teaches what He wants taught.

So, what is the pastor's job?

Acts 20:28 says ... "And now beware! Be sure that you feed and shepherd God's flock — his church, purchased with his blood — over whom the Holy Spirit has appointed you as elders." It is the pastor's job to feed God's flock, and that can mean spiritually (with the Bible), soulish (with counselling) or physical (with actual food).

Ezekiel 34:2-5 says what shepherds shouldn't do ... "Shouldn't shepherds feed their sheep? You drink the milk, wear the wool, and butcher the best animals, but you let your flocks starve.You have not taken care of the weak. You have not tended the sick or bound up the broken bones. You have not gone looking for those who have wandered away and are lost. Instead, you have ruled them with force and cruelty. So my sheep have been scattered." So, a good shepherd -- a pastor -- will feed the sheep, take care of the weak (we could say defend the defenseless), tend the sick (go to the hospital, you bum, don't just send your associate), heal injuries (spiritual as well as physical), go looking for those who have wandered away (and that is not limited to just hunting down and condemning those who decide to go on a ten day bender, either). A shepherd will treat his people with kindness and gentleness, not force and cruelty (so much for Shepherding or Covering).


Epheisans 4:11-13 says this ..."He is the one who gave these gifts to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ, until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ." A good pastor is like the tool crib manager ... he hands out hammers, screwdrivers, drills, whatever ... to equip the people to do their job. That is also more than mere words on Sunday morning. The best way to equip someone to do a job is to show them how to use their tools, not just give them the tools and tell them what to do.

And to do all these things, the shepherd -- the pastor -- must get out and be with, among and like the sheep -- the people. Just like a good rancher cannot take care of his cattle unless he gets out of the truck and walks among them and checks their hooves, mouths, horns, checks the feed and quality of the hay, knocks a few over, plays with a few calves ... a pastor cannot really know his people or take care of them if he doesn't get out among them.

Ultimately, a pastor is a short order cook and a medic, not a CEO or a drill instructor.