The Significance of Boundaries in Recovering from Controlling Religion Unfortunately, high-control, high-demand, high-commitment churches are quite prevalent. These are religious communities that enforce rigid rules, don’t tolerate disagreement or questioning,...
Consequences of Church Trauma: Disconnection with Self Controlling religion taught me to distrust myself: my instincts, my gut feelings, and my desires. Growing up in more traditional and evangelical churches, there was a lot of talk about sin, the sinful nature, and...
Eight months after my former pastors were removed because of spiritual abuse, I left that church. In fact, I moved countries. After over seven years of living in South Korea, I returned to the States, hoping to leave my traumatic experiences behind me. But I found...
In spiritually abusive environments, some form of truth is usually present. And some good things are usually happening. This makes it harder to identify the toxic theology, beliefs, ideas, and values at play. As I have tried to mentally untangle my own experience of...
In 2018, the co-lead pastors of my church at the time were asked to resign because of spiritual abuse. I had never heard the term before, but in the years since, I have reflected deeply on the pervasiveness of spiritual abuse and its subtly destructive...
