Autism is my super blessing! I'm a high-school valedictorian, college graduate, world traveler, disability advocate. I'm a Unitarian Universalist. I'm a Progressive Liberal. I'm about equal rights, human rights, civil & political rights, & economic, social, &cultural rights. I do servant leadership, boundless optimism, & Oneness/Wholeness. I'm good naked & unashamed! I love positive personhood, love your neighbor as yourself, and do no harm! I'm also appropriately inappropriate! My self-ratings: NC-17, XXX, X, X18+ & TV-MA means empathy! I publish shows at 11am! Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/antonio-myers4/support
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episode 89: I am recovering from religious abuse, spiritual abuse, and religious trauma syndrome!
"Agnes and John Lawless argue in The Drift into Deception that there are eight characteristics of spiritual abuse, and some of these clearly overlap with Enroth's criteria. They list the eight marks of spiritual abuse as comprising:[citation needed]
- Charisma and pride
- Anger and intimidation
- Greed and fraud
- Immorality
- Enslaving authoritarian structure
- Exclusivity
- Demanding loyalty and honor
- New revelation
The author of Charismatic Captivation[50] in a post on the book's website delineates "33 Signs of Spiritual Abuse",[51] including:
- Apotheosis or de facto deification of the leadership.
- Absolute authority of the leadership.
- Pervasive abuse and misuse of authority in personal dealings with members to coerce submission.
- Paranoia, inordinate egotism or narcissism, and insecurity by the leaders.
- Abuse and inordinate incidence of "church discipline" particularly in matters not expressly considered to be church discipline issues.
- Inordinate attention to maintaining the public image of the ministry and lambasting of all "critics".
- Constant indoctrination with a "group" or "family" mentality that impels members to exalt the corporate "life" and goals of the church-group over their personal goals, callings, objectives or relationships.
- Members are psychologically traumatized, terrorized and indoctrinated with numerous fears aimed at creating an over-dependence or codependence on their leaders and the corporate group.
- Members may be required to obtain the approval (or witness) of their leader(s) for decisions regarding personal matters.
- Frequent preaching from the pulpit discouraging leaving the religion or disobeying the leaderships' dictates.
- Members departing without the blessing of the leadership do so under a cloud of suspicion, shame, or slander.
- Departing members often suffer from psychological problems and display the symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)."