Spiritual Abuse
After I came to the truth about tithing I was trying to convince someone of this truth through an e-mail conversation. I shared my opinion of the pastors who teach this false doctrine. She warned me that I shouldn't be speaking against the men that were "appointed by God to shepherd His people." This seems to be a common belief among many church goers. They believe that the men or women in the pulpit were put there by God and that we shouldn't question them. There are people who have been called by God to help and teach his people but that's not true of everyone in the pulpit. Would anyone say that a pedophile priest was appointed by God? What about the married leader of a mega church that was just "outed" for paying a man for sex? Was he appointed by God? Was the gay Episcopalian bishop or the lesbian Methodist minister appointed by God? Obviously not.
There have been many people who have been lied to, controlled, put into bondage or abused because they believed that they shouldn’t question the leader of their church. That they were somehow questioning God Himself. This is just not true. Christians have a God given gift of discernment. This gift is the Holy Spirit. If something doesn't seem right to you then it probably isn't.
There is such a thing as spiritual abuse. Some people in positions of authority in the church use that authority to manipulate and abuse other people for or their own need or greed. Do you know someone who has been in this type situation? Do you know someone who feels guilty if they aren’t in church every time the doors are open? Is church attendance more important than their family? Are they suffering financially because they give more than they can afford to the church out of fear of being cursed by God or condemned by the church leaders? Do they feel like they will never measure up as a Christian?
The Pharisees put heavy loads on people but Jesus came to set the people free. Why do we let the modern day Pharisees try to load us down? Jesus said that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. If your Christian walk is full of shame and the feeling that you'll never measure up there is something wrong. You are not living the abundant life that Jesus promised you. You may be a victim of spiritual abuse and not even realize it. I just read an excellent book on this subject. The book is called The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse. I am out of the religious system now but as I was reading the book I recognized the tactics of abuse that were used in the church I used to go to. The authors of the book have a web site that can help people who have been spiritually abused.
If you want more information on this subject you can find their website here: