SAVAGE SHEPHERDS
by adam harbinson
Abuse happens when someone has power over another, and uses that power to hurt. Spiritual abuse occurs when a Christian leader uses his authority to control, coerce or manipulate God's people for his own purposes, while making it look like they are God's purposes.
The purpose of authentic spiritual authority is to draw alongside, to serve, to equip and to build up God's people, to show them how to be free. Spiritual abusers place themselves in a 'chain of command' above God's people. But spiritual abuse is nothing new.
The prophet Ezekiel railed against it in his day, and Jesus berated the Pharisees for their practices that were designed to create a gulf between God and the common man. Spiritual abusers create a hierarchy in the family of God, one that does not exist in Scripture. |
Imagine a situation where a family decides to leave a church in which they feel their freedom is being restricted. However such is the fear of the leaders that their departure might cause a hatthewallenaemorrhage of the membership, the youngest of the family, an eight-year-old Downs Syndrome child, is threatened with expulsion from the primary school attached to the church if they leave - and when that and other more sinister methods of persuasion fails they're told, "This is of the devil! You mustn't leave."
Now visualise the father of that family; a man who is convinced that God wants his service outside that particular church. He's been CEO of a Financial Services company for fifteen years. False allegations of fraud and theft are made about him and an ecclesiastical court is convened so that 'Christians can sort out difficulties among Christians'.
His business collapses and his business activities are investigated for two years by the police, he suffers a complete breakdown and then bankruptcy and yet when the investigation uncovers nothing other than a few minor irregularities, despite rigorous enquiries, he sits alone in the shattered ruins of his life; no apology, no helping hand, only desolation.
And the reason? Regardless of the rhetoric, abusive churches are easy to get into and hard to get out of.
That's spiritual abuse. |
Imagine a young Christian married couple. Jim loves the City Tabernacle, Sarah isn't quite so sure. So night after night she sits alone at home watching TV, waiting for her husband - and the marriage begins to show signs of unravelling.
She wants to try some other places of worship so they could share fellowship. Jim is reluctant.
At her instigation they visit the pastor in hopes of finding a compromise; "You have a clear choice Jim", says the man of God after a frank and open discussion.
"This church which is your true spiritual home, or your wife" - and of course the pastor knows best, and the marriage is over.
That's spiritual abuse
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Watch out when the preacher opens in prayer by saying, "Let's come into the Lord's presence", for either he hasn't thought things through or he really does believe that God lives there.
Why is that important? Because it creates a faith that leaves you desolate between Monday and Saturday. True faith is rich and relevant and meaningful, for it rests on God's promise that he lives and breathes in us every moment of every day. He wants to share our challenges and disappointments, our failures and victories, our joys and our sadness.
My wife and I brought a lady to church with us one Sunday evening - we both wish we hadn't. Her marriage was about to end; her divorce would soon be made final and she was an emotional wreck. She accompanied us in the hope that she might find some crumb of comfort there, God might intervene in her sad life, or that something might be said to help her make some sense of it all. It was customary after the formal part of the service for some to remain for a further time of singing. So in due course the minister stood up and said in a half whisper, "The service is now over, but some of us are staying for a while longer. Those of you who must leave God's presence now, please do so quietly" - and the singing continued.
"Those of you who must leave God's presence." What sort of a message did that send to our friend? And we watched as she descended into even deeper depths of despair having just be
en told that she must face her week of torment alone. To give the minister the benefit of the doubt, his unfortunate comment may have been an innocent slip of the tongue, but it didn't come from a vacuum. No, it sprang from a mindset that is conceived in religious thought and incubated in the belief that the church building is God's house. Most emphatically it is not.
The word 'church' as it appears in the New Testament never refers to a building, indeed for most Christians there were no church buildings until the fourth century. The word 'church' refers to a community of people who have been 'called out', recognised by God as " a royal priesthood, a peculiar people" (1 Peter 2:9).
Paul the apostle describes Christians as " the temple of the living God ," ( 2Cr 6:16 ), and Peter says, "You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house" (1 Peter 2:5) . It is a cruel lie to tell people that the Christian faith revolves exclusively around our Sunday activities, for God wants to be fully involved in all of our daily doings.
But that's how cold religion peddles its mild abuse, driving an ever-so-thin wedge between the common man and a God who desperately wants to have fellowship with his creation - fellowship being defined as 'two fellows in the one ship'
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