Jeff VanVonderen is the coauthor of The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse and When God’s People Let You Down as well as several other books. He is a longtime participant in and supporter of the NACR. STEPS: Your book on spiritual abuse was published a long time ago. But it’s still in print. I guess the problem hasn’t gone away yet? Jeff: The response to the book has not really diminished that … [Read more...] about Spiritual Abuse: An Interview with Jeff VanVonderen
Search Results for: Recovery from spiritual abuse
Recovery from Spiritual Anorexia
by Dale Ryan I remember when I first heard about people who were anorexic with respect to food. I was confused by the whole idea. Why would people refuse to eat? Why would people refuse to eat even when they were hungry? Why would people refuse to eat even when they were dying of starvation? But it does happen. Some people reject physical nurture. Sometimes, ironically, they reject it as if … [Read more...] about Recovery from Spiritual Anorexia
What is Abuse?
You might think that it would be easy to define abuse but it turns out to be quite complicated. Abuse has many forms. Sometimes the abuser intends to do harm, sometimes not. Sometimes the harm done is obvious, sometimes not. Sometimes even the person who is being harmed may not be convinced that what happened is abuse. How do you sort out such a complicated situation? Well, not easily. Here we can … [Read more...] about What is Abuse?
Breaking Free: What I’ve Learned About Spiritual Abuse
byBarbara Milligan While my husband, John, and I felt that we had good reasons for leaving our church home, we didn’t think at first that what we had experienced was spiritual abuse. We had gotten involved in the church knowing that the pastor, Richard, and his wife, Jill (not their real names), were young and perhaps immature in some ways and that they came from a legalistic background. So … [Read more...] about Breaking Free: What I’ve Learned About Spiritual Abuse
Back to the Basics: An Introduction to Recovery
by Dale Ryan "Now I am really confused," said Jerry. "I'm doing all the things I think I'm supposed to do. I've been in therapy for a year and a half now, and I've been going to the 12-Step group at church. But somehow I have lost track of things. What is this all about? And why is it so painful?" Like Jerry, many of us have experienced times in the recovery journey when we 'loose track' of … [Read more...] about Back to the Basics: An Introduction to Recovery
Recovery from Spiritual Distress
by Dale and Juanita Ryan A few days after Steve first attended a support group for adult children of alcoholics, a powerful image came into his mind. "I saw myself in a large crowd of people. God was holding my hand. But suddenly, God's hand pulled away and I was lost in the crowd. I was separated from God, abandoned, completely alone." When Steve attempted to honestly face the needs in his … [Read more...] about Recovery from Spiritual Distress
Theological Education & Recovery
by Dale Ryan When I left seminary I had only a very limited understanding of addiction and abuse. It was certainly not a high priority in the seminary curriculum. If they came up at all, addiction and abuse were usually assumed to be unusual. Recovery ministry was thought to be a kind of specialization within the general category of pastoral care. … [Read more...] about Theological Education & Recovery
The Christian Recovery Movement: a Brief Introduction
by Dale Ryan This is an edited transcript of a talk presented by Dale Ryan at the ISAAC convention in Madrid, Spain in May, 2003. It is intended to provide a general overview of the Christian recovery movement in the US for people working in other parts of the world. … [Read more...] about The Christian Recovery Movement: a Brief Introduction
Spiritual Abuse in the Pulpit and the Pew
by Dale O. Wolery Pastors should be the last people to perpetrate abuse. The idea is disconcerting and repulsive, but God’s people sometimes do God’s work in destructive ways. Surely not every clergyperson is an abuser, and yet many thoughtful observers believe that spiritual abuse, intentional or not, has become the norm for modern pastors. Any ministerial behavior, mine or someone else’s, … [Read more...] about Spiritual Abuse in the Pulpit and the Pew
Theology and Recovery
by Dale Ryan It was a couple of hopeless drunks in Akron, Ohio—not a couple of respectable theologians at a seminary—whom God chose to jump-start the modern recovery movement. I think that was a pretty good decision on God's part. If our problems were just bad theology, then maybe a couple of theologians would have been a better choice. But the problem, for most of us, is not just "in our … [Read more...] about Theology and Recovery