For Moses Model Churches

For those wondering about Moses Model churches, in particular Calvary Chapel churches, this site, Calvary Chapel Abuse, takes a look at the problem of the Moses Model structure and the fallout from it. It also questions the practices of leadership in the Calvary Chapel movement, and focuses on one church and pastor in particular, the blog author's stepfather, in one particular California church. Of special interest to Provender is the comments section, in which members from many Moses Model churches weigh in on similar patterns of abuse.

One astute commenter says this: It seemed to us the CC organization would want to know about one of their own that was causing harm to many people. I eventually found that not to be the case when it came to my attention on PP blog that my story was not unusual within CC. I read account after account of much the same thing that had happened to others … sounded like it was the same pastor … yet we were all over the country … or even other countries … in small & large CCs. So often it seemed like people were talking about the same pastor yet that was not the case. Each with stories of the harm unchecked power can cause. 

It "sounded like it was the same pastor." This is telling. When you study spiritual abuse, you see that the same authoritarian and manipulative behaviors occur over and over. The same author. The same signature. To actually read the accounts can help you if you are going through a spiritually abusive situation. Sometimes you can even predict the next step because it's happened all before with someone else. Very eye-opening.

Religious Cults Info

This blog focuses on aledged spiritually abusive practices of Word of Faith Fellowship in North Carolina, but includes links to other spiritually abusive situations as well. Author John Huddle includes helpful tips, news sites and decent links to spiritual abuse resources -- as well as personal observations and stories of abuse from the WOFF.

One post that clearly demonstrates the interference in personal lives exercised by this group is called AM I WRONG? PLEASE LET ME KNOW later linked and called The Toilet Paper Revelation. It describes a situation in which his pastor announces that God has shown her the correct way to handle toilet paper.
Really.
It describes the way members tried to comply with correct toilet paper usage. An excerpt from the post:
The fallout from this service was amazing. True to form, children began to scrutinize the paper habits of those in their household! There were self-appointed “TP Police”. Some were more vocal than others. Do you know the thoughts that one would have when you finished and had to make to the choice, fold or not fold? Or if it was your turn to change the roll, over or under? The pressure to be on the right side of this revelation was VERY GREAT! Because many households had more than one family, bathroom habits were visible by more than your immediate family members. 

If you are trying to demonstrate to someone the controlling nature of spiritually abusive groups, this site is a must.

The agony of seeing spiritual abuse for what it is

On a forum post, a Harold Camping follower rides the spiritual roller coaster so many spiritual abuse victims find themselves on: defending their abusive leader and then condemning him, back and forth, trying to make sense of what's happened to him. By looking at his post as he tries to come to grips with the spiritual disillusionment so often left behind in such abusive situations, you can see how the mind works when a victim confronts the unwanted information that a leader is flawed, dangerous and hurtful.

Covering your Pastor's Nakedness

In Predators in the Pulpit, Chris Efinda, on the Bereans blog, talks about the doctrine of covering your father's nakedness. In spiritually abusive groups, sins of the father are routinely covered up by the "sons," the enablers of abuse.
Efinda says that it becomes a spiritual test, "When a spiritual son happens to witness his dad in a sinful act, he needs to treat the incident as a divine test of his own loyalty and must promptly cover dad’s nakedness."
This justifies the perpetuation of abuse in churches and groups and gives a scriptural veneer to the most atrocious acts of the clergy.
 Those who help abusive pastors, then, think they are doing something noble, when in reality they cement in place abusive church leaders.

Matthew 18

Provender's links to a cogent treatise on Matthew 18 and spiritual abuse http://communiosanctorum.com/?p=96called Principles, not Procedures have been broken for some time, as the Prophezei site we had linked to disappeared, but I found Kevin D. Johnson's article on a different site and have now restored the link. Johnson raises some interesting issues about the context of Matthew 18 and says this:

It has been noted by more than one that quite likely this passage about going to a brother privately and then taking two or more and then to the church is a process which is primarily concerned with dealing with sin in and among a circle of leadership that you are a part of since our Lord was talking to the would be leaders of the church as he outlined these things. These are the men who are to treat little children with the dignity they deserve granted to them by our Father in heaven, the ones who ought to be going after the one instead of the ninety-nine, and the ones who have received forgiveness at the hands of our Lord and should not forget that same graciousness when dealing with those under their charge who also owe them as well. That is the context of Matthew 18 and we find our Lord’s words about offenses in and among this context.
There is nothing in the passage that says that this is how a layman must approach a pastor or session in confronting sin. Wisdom should tell you that the deck is already stacked against you and to think this is the way to proceed in every case is to go well beyond what the basic outline of Matthew 18 proposes. Nor is there anything here in this 18th chapter as to how a person must confront their leadership at all with sin. It may very well be that the wisest thing to do in that type of situation is to leave as quietly as possible and not utter a word to the leadership or others that you have issues with what they have done. 
There is much more to the article, and it deserves a thorough reading by anyone debating the proper context or usage of that passage. 

New book on Spiritual Abuse

Dr. Barbara Orlowski has written a book on spiritual abuse, and especially healing after the fact. Check out the reviews on Amazon. It looks like a decent resource for those interested in how church government figures into disaffection with churches. Orlowski has looked at many online sources concerning spiritual abuse.