Spiritual abuse
by John Telford, Church Society:
Spiritual abuse seems suddenly to be a thing. Up until very recently there have been four recognised types of abuse: sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse and neglect – and those four are still the officially recognised categories of abuse. Emotional abuse has traditionally been understood to include any type of abuse caused by withdrawal of affection, name-calling or patterns of control. One of the marks of a cult is that it uses patterns of control to keep its adherents in line.
Over the past few months some peripheral voices on the edge of the Church of England have called for spiritual abuse to be recognised as discrete category. Alongside these calls, the Churches’ Child Protection Advisory Service (CCPAS) published a report stating that ‘Key characteristics of spiritual abuse identified were coercion and control, manipulation and pressuring of individuals, control through the misuse of religious texts and scripture and providing a ‘divine’ rationale for behaviour.’ (Oakley & Humphreys (2018) Understanding Spiritual Abuse in Christian Communities.)
Last week this report received coverage in the mainstream media with claims that 1,000 churchgoers had experienced spiritual abuse. Justin Humphreys of CCPAS, who co-authored the report, told the Telegraph, “We do have to be mindful as to the way we deliver messages that are based on our own theological or doctrinal position. When leaders are delivering what would be seen as a challenging message it’s important to deliver it in a way which says ‘this is what I believe to be the case, however you as individuals should be free to challenge that or reject it entirely’.”
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