Audra Balque
CCOU 304 – D03
Discussion Board 4
Spiritual Abuse
The way that I would describe spiritual abuse is when a person who is in an authoritative
leadership position that could be a Pastor or a Bishop and even a Priest of a church. That
individual who holds that office can use and abuse their sense of power and authority by being
manipulative and shaming those who fall under their leadership in ministry in a public setting
and or in private and those persons can be members, ministers and or church staff. Those who
feel the wrath of an inferior leader tend to feel powerless, hopeless, disrespected on so many
levels and they tend to take the abuse because they don’t want to be perceived as being weak in
front of their counterparts and so they tend to forgive and make excuses for this type of abusive
behavior because they are taking a blind eye to the truth of how they should be treated. The
Scripture Ephesians 4:29 (ESV) says, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only
such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” I
think that we often times miss this this form of abuse is because as Christians we tend to put our
leaders on a pedestal that they can do no wrong and that is they do anything out of order such as
speaking and talking down to the members or even the ministry leaders that we are to overlook
those behaviors and forgive him or her as Jesus forgives us. Instead of being yes men and
women to those who are in a position of authoritative power we should hold them accountable
for abusing their power. “The Bible describes and condemns spiritual abuse. Jesus castigates
abusive spiritual leaders for their abusive practices. Stephen followed the example of his Lord as
he exposed the abuses of the Jewish leaders. In Galatians Paul pronounced eternal condemnation
on those who demanded people follow human rules to gain entrance into the kingdom.” ( Hilsop,
2010). The way that I would minister to a victim of spiritual abuse we should look at and share
our experiences of being victims of spiritual abuse and then we should use the victimization as a
way for us to empower one another and use all that has taken place and become victorious
because our faith is not in man but we put or trust in God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
(Word Count: 400)
