Spiritual Abuse Awareness Week: Violences are Connected
























All violence is connected.


Too bad. That’s not how it works.






18 thoughts on “Spiritual Abuse Awareness Week: Violences are Connected

  1. Thank you for this pearl of great worth. The value of a pearl is measured not by the wound that formed it, but by the light that reflects from it.



    The question here is not “is this something they wanted?” but “is this something they cared about at all?” Would they have done anything differently if someone had pointed out to them how their teachings were being used by abusers and predators? Are they doing anything differently NOW, as the connections between their teachings and abuse are being openly discussed at last?

  4. Pingback: Luckily, this is not difficult

  5. Pingback: Victims raise profile of ‘spiritual abuse’ | Queer Church News

  6. Thanks, Sarah, for being transparent and making these connections. I was just chatting with a friend who lived through the death of a child and how people revert to Job’s “double blessing” as some sort of consolation… as if two subsequent children ever make up for the loss of one.

    Our tendency to take sanctuary within the golden calf of god-language creeps into the rest of our physical lives manifest by reckless language of power, race, privilege, gender and eventually into disembodied confusion between what is really happening around us, in our bodies, and in our relationships. Spiritual abuse is physical, because our spirits manifest themselves in physical ways: be they loving or away from love. Love casts out fear. Spiritual abuse feeds off of fear.

  7. I just want to say thank you for this – I am someone who is very much outside the church because of my abuse experiences, and so I often can’t engage with discussions about Christianity at all, but people like you speaking up and advocating for change give me hope. It is so hard for me to explain to dear Christian friends of mine why certain beliefs and even phrases are triggering for me because of how they were used to abuse and to justify that abuse, to keep me in a relationship I should have run away from very early on.

    I wish what you describe didn’t sound so familiar because I wish it were less common, but I am glad that you are speaking out so that we can know we are not alone. Thank you.

  8. Thank you for posting. You can find my story at findingellen@wordpress.com

  9. Your story resonates strongly with my own dealings with spiritual, physical, sexual, and verbal abuse. The sad thing is that my abuser (who was a college student at the time) is now a pastor of a large church!

  10. Thanks helping me (and so many others) see how dangerous teachings about God/people can directly result in dangerous situations for the people we love. I sincerely hope that your voice is heard and continues to make an impact.

    I know this wasn’t the focus of your post, but I’d love to hear your thoughts on whether a church’s support of “just war” has an impact on the safety of it’s most vulnerable members. In other words, if a church tacitly encourages violence overseas, is it more likely to tacitly encourage domestic abuse?

    Again, not really the point you were making, but a connection you raised that I had never considered!

  11. Pingback: Where Have I Gone Wrong? (A.K.A. an Ammendment and Apology) | Metamorphosis Reborn

  12. May your courage to retelling your story be a point of light for you today

  13. Crying. Like all the times I read your blog. <3

  14. Pingback: Spiritual Abuse Awareness Week: Day 1 | The Profligate Truth

  15. Sara,
    If one looks closely at the person and life of Jesus Christ one will be hard pressed to find any references that condone abuse of any kind. Some where along the line religious zealots, more than likely beginning with the clergy have decided that male should be the dominant one. My take is that so much time has passed and so much has been done to fashion religion in a way to suit the people in power, the clergy.

    My question is, if Christ were to return, would he recognize Christianity today to,in any way be related to what he lived and died for? Most of what we see as religion is man-made not “God made”. Everything God created is good….prejudice of any kind be it racial, gender,economic, educational…. Has no place in to the Creator. So for the church to condone the abusive treatment of ANYONE is a man made concept.

  16. Thank-you for your courage, Sarah.

Join the conversation!


WordPress.com Logo


Twitter picture


Facebook photo


Google+ photo


Connecting to %s


Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 852 other followers