Category Archives: spiritual abuse

The Spiritual War Against You!

20 Thursday Sep 2018

Posted by in authoritarian abuse, spiritual manipulation

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Many describe themselves as Christians today, yet are careless, lackadaisical, and carry on with a minimum of effort or reflection in their attitude toward God, as it concerns who they are and how they are to walk in Him. It seems that the Christian life has become more about what one “deserves” or is “entitled” to, than about what they can GIVE or how they can GROW and LEAD in TRUTH.

Some people are driven by what they can get out of something or someone. These are the PREDATORS and many sincere church-goers become their PREY. These sincere people succumb to their predator and have become passive and have not exercised their will freely. Consequently, they have unknowingly been spiritually and emotionally manipulated by those in power.

People, there is a serious SPIRITUAL WAR going on out there, and it is not just in the world; it is within the walls of the church building. It is disgusting to GOD and no man-made church organization is immune to this WICKEDNESS.

You may not understand it all, but if you sense in the slightest that something is “WRONG”, and if you believe you are one of HIS, then you need to HEED that warning.

It is imperative that you understand what is going on in the end-time spiritual war that is against you, so I encourage you to get a copy of “The Church of the End-time Zombies”
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Paperback: http://www.lulu.com/content/16262055
Ebook: http://www.lulu.com/content/16464312

RESCUE is here to help!
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The Spiritual War Against You!

27 Wednesday May 2015

Posted by in authoritarian abuse, spiritual manipulation

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Many describe themselves as Christians today, yet are careless, lackadaisical, and carry on with a minimum of effort or reflection in their attitude toward God, as it concerns who they are and how they are to walk in Him. It seems that the Christian life has become more about what one “deserves” or is “entitled” to, than about what they can GIVE or how they can GROW and LEAD in TRUTH.

Some people are driven by what they can get out of something or someone. These are the PREDATORS and many sincere church-goers become their PREY. These sincere people succumb to their predator and have become passive and have not exercised their will freely. Consequently, they have unknowingly been spiritually and emotionally manipulated by those in power.

People, there is a serious SPIRITUAL WAR going on out there, and it is not just in the world; it is within the walls of the church building. It is disgusting to GOD and no man-made church organization is immune to this WICKEDNESS.

You may not understand it all, but if you sense in the slightest that something is “WRONG”, and if you believe you are one of HIS, then you need to HEED that warning.

It is imperative that you understand what is going on in the end-time spiritual war that is against you, so I encourage you to get a copy of “The Church of the End-time Zombies”
image

Paperback: http://www.lulu.com/content/16262055
Ebook: http://www.lulu.com/content/16464312

RESCUE is here to help!
Please feel free to email us at rescueonfb@icloud.com
You can also call 518-477-5759

Recognizing Manipulation Techniques: “Appeal to Fear”

09 Saturday Aug 2014

Posted by in authoritarian abuse, hypocrisy, spiritual abuse, Uncategorized

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Appeal-to-Fear

A common manipulation technique often used in the Institutional Church is called “appeal to fear.” According to Wikipedia, “An appeal to fear (also called argumentum ad metum or argumentum in terrorem) is a fallacy in which a person attempts to create support for an idea by using deception and propaganda in attempts to increase fear and prejudice toward a competitor.”

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Examples:

  • “If you continue to drink, you will die early as your father did.”
  • “If you cannot graduate from high school, you will live in poverty for the rest of your life.”
  • “Voting for him is the same as voting for the terrorists.”
  • “If you tell a lie, then no one will ever believe what you say again.” 
  • “If we don’t go to war, our country will be destroyed.”

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As I’m sure we all know, the most common use of “appeal to fear” in the Institutional church is in telling people they will go to hell unless they do what they are told. In some of the churches I grew up in, it was a little more subtle and indirect. I suspect the leadership of these churches instinctively knew that this would be too obvious and scare people off. They had to find a smoother way to do it.

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One Sunday at my old church, the preacher said the name of the sermon was “How to Deal with Adversity.” The gist of it was this: bad things will come upon a person if they rebel against God. The pastor is in spiritual authority over the members (an example of the “begging the question” fallacy – they couldn’t prove whether God had actually called that pastor to be over an individual). Since the Bible says that to rebel against authority is to rebel against God himself, if you didn’t do what the pastor asked, you were in rebellion and opening yourself up to potential catastrophes or tragedies.

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He then brought up the church building fund, talking about how the pastor had asked everyone to pledge. Mind you, the majority of the congregation was struggling financially, and they were being required to pledge on top of tithing. We had already had one building fund, and when we reached that goal, the pastor had decided it wasn’t enough and began another one.

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By the end of the sermon, it was clear to me it had never been about how to deal with adversity at all. It had all been carefully constructed to scare people into giving more money – implying that they could get cancer and die, get in a horrible car wreck, lose their house and car, etc., or possibly even go to hell if they didn’t do what they were told.

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In what ways has the “appeal to fear” tactic been used on you?

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Relevant Readings

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Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_fear

Recognizing Manipulation Techniques: “Cherry Picking the Evidence”

05 Tuesday Aug 2014

Posted by in authoritarian abuse, charismatic captivation, control freaks, deception, prosperity gospel, pulpit pimps

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by Carol A. Davis

Cherry-picking In religion, leaders will often use “logical fallacies,” logically flawed arguments, to persuade and manipulate churchgoers into doing what they want. According to Wikipedia, “A fallacy is incorrect argument in logic and rhetoric resulting in a lack of validity, or more generally, a lack of soundness.”

A very common fallacy used is called “Cherry-picking the Evidence (also called anecdotal evidence, confirmation bias, biased sample, and proof by example), “… it is the act of pointing to individual cases or data that seem to confirm a particular position, while ignoring a significant portion of related cases or data that may contradict that position.”

Here’s an example:

Yeah, I’ve read the health warnings on those cigarette packs and I know about all that health research, but my brother smokes, and he says he’s never been sick a day in his life, so I know smoking can’t really hurt you.

Here is an example of one that was often used at a church I used to attend. They were always pushing members to tithe and “sow more seed” to get that “hundred-fold return.” Often they would have a member stand up before the church to give their testimony of how they finally decided to give tithing a try, and directly after, something really good happened to them. Maybe they received a big settlement they had been waiting on for a long time, received a promotion at work, received a check in the mail that they hadn’t been expecting, got approved for a house or car loan they should not have been eligible for with their credit rating, and things of that nature.

These testimonies would have everyone wanting to give more, because they thought if they did, the same would happen to them. The fact was, for every member who’d had an experience like that, there were many more who had been faithful in tithing and giving offerings for years, but never experienced any kind of windfall or dramatic change in their financial situation. But those people were not going to be asked to testify about it in front of the church, so you weren’t going to hear those stories. They showed you the evidence they wanted you to see and excluded what they didn’t want you to see.

Don’t be fooled by leaders who cherry pick evidence. Anecdotes alone are not enough to support a claim.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_picking_(fallacy)

http://www.iep.utm.edu/fallacy/#AnecdotalEvidence)

SPIRITUAL COVERING IS ANOTHER NOT SO TENDER DEMONIC TRAP

24 Monday Oct 2011

Posted by in authoritarian abuse, church donations, false religions, hypocrisy, organized church, pulpit pimps, spiritual abuse, Uncategorized

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Spiritual covering is yet another doctrine of demons that puts God’s people in bondage by taking one scripture out of its natural context and forming a teaching that brainwashes and hoodwinks those who submit to it.

When people try to control you, you are going to react in one of a few ways. You are either going to give in and acquiesce, give up and pretend that “all is well, ” when deep down, you are really seething inside.  This is a dangerous reaction because your inner rage will eat away at your health.

Now if you are like me, you are going to resist. The bible says that rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft. True—-if it is God that you are rebelling against. However, if religious pretenders and hypocrites try to throw what they call a spiritual covering over you, rebellion is good, but running is even better!.

As a minister in an authoritarian bureaucracy ruled globally by just 12 bishops, I watched and experienced how the traditions of men made the word of God of none effect. In certain denominations and even in the charismatic movement, bishops rule the pastors under their authority like holier than thou puppet masters. In the denominations, the power and control of the Bishops lie in their ability to appoint pastors and fill pulpits. Any pastor in full time ministry is totally dependent upon whether or not the Bishop chooses to favor them with an appointment to a church  that will be lucrative enough to financially provide for himself and his family. In the non-denominations, What you have is a clique based upon popularity.  If the bishop is a mega preacher of 25,000 members or so, then the money must first flow to the bishop—the man or woman of God FIRST, with a slow trickle effect of money rolling down to the most obedient, the most compliant, those who suck up and kiss “royal behinds.”

The denominational  “spiritual covering” net entrapped me for 25 years. Since spiritual covering is really about money,  those who “cover,” desire to be paid by YOUR hard earned cash for their “blessing” that trickles down to you in slow, tediously slow  drops.  In my particular situation, I was not well liked by bishops because I had a full time secular career. As such, I could not be placed under any Bishop’s thumb in order to survive financially. So my punishment was that I was appointed to those churches  that could not afford to pay a full time pastor’s salary—churches that no pastor without a secular job could survive serving. In most cases in such a system, the pastors’ primary objective is to protect his own power base and therefore, their interactions with the Bishops are usually characterized by subservience, flattery, subtle manipulation and “out and out” lies.

The irony is that in the denominational set up,  the Bishops are dependent on the ministers they rule to advise them since the Bishops don’t usually live in the communities that they oversee. So a bishop  needs his ministers to tell him the truth. However, a Bishop’s ministerial advisors are so threatened by him financially speaking,  that one lie begets yet another lie and the entire leadership system operates on a foundation of lies, cover-ups and pretenses. With Satan being the father of lies, no wonder the devil has a seat in such a religious/political system.

Within a complex bureaucratic hierarchy as I have described, sin spreads like leaven from top leadership in a circular, downward fall, then in an upward spiral. As the root of such a system is rotten, the deception within charismatic, non-denominational systems spreads far beyond just a few pastors or a handful of ministries. Ministers and laypersons within a charismatic system alarmingly and systematically mimic the same key people. Leaders watch and imitate well-known leaders as they pass on the same false teachings.I personally have moved beyond correcting either system by any attempt on my part to fix it.

In my ministry, I work with associates.  My associates are my equals. Everyone of my associates is valued because  they are valuable.   They work with me and help me because the Holy Spirit has revealed to them that I am both a lover of truth and of freedom.  If somebody RULES over you in ministry, you need to know tha you are not serving the One who died to set the captives free, but rather you are serving false gods And, if you cannot recognize and admit to yourself that your beloved church or ministry, or pastor  is practicing, unbiblical and ungodly doctrines and practices, then you are definitely brainwashed and under the spell of “deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons” and these demonic lies are “seared in your own conscience as with a branding iron” (1 Tim. 4:1,2). And, that means you need deliverance to be set free from Satan’s bondage and deception. It also means you are deceived about who you are serving. You are not serving the true Jesus, but the Fake One, who is the master of idols — which is idolatry, which means you are an “idolater,” and idolaters do not inherit eternal life or have an inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God (Gal. 5:20,21; Eph. 5:5)!

So RUN from your captors and RUSH out of the arms of the Fake Jesus Sananda Immanuel into the arms of the True Jesus Christ of Nazareth, who died and was raised from the dead to set the captives FREE! “He whom the Son sets FREE is FREE INDEED!

Here is the deal. The bottom line. Anytime you come away from a corporate experience with demons attacking you, you need to “book.” To “book” is to hit the road Jack, and don’t cha come back no mo, no mo and no mo!  Sing along with the late Ray Charles and “hit the road, Jack, and don’t cha come back no mo, no mo, no mo, no mo!!. Hit the road Jack, and don’t cha come back no mo!!!!!.” What you say?”Yeh! Now sing it again before you submit yourself to their demons.

Sheppard’s Counseling Center provides training to ministers who have left the organized church, from 3 months, to 6 months, to a year in a unique deliverance mentoring model called Spiritual Empowerment Workshop or the SEW Program. Training is oral and by telephone  for those who are in full-time jobs. For others, training modules are written and  with video lessons, assignments, on the job training, OJT with pay, done on-line. Some remain with SCC and become affiliates and associates. Others go and do their own thing.  We don’t try to control or rule over anybody.  If you are interested, call 518-477-5759 or send an email to pamsheppard911@yahoo.com .

ARE YOU A VICTIM OF SPIRITUAL ABUSE?

19 Wednesday Oct 2011

Posted by in authoritarian abuse, charismatic captivation, deliverance mentoring, licentiousness, spiritual abuse, Steven Lambert, the human spirit

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Truth Brings Healing. I Am Fully Healed!

The term “spiritual abuse,” is a relatively recent expression  coined to describe the damage inflicted upon the sheep by and in the organized church. Simply put, spiritual abuse results when a spiritual leader or system that controls, manipulates or dominates a person with its traditions, doctrines and practices. The key to this kind of abuse is that it is authoritarian in nature.  In other words, the perpetrator of spiritual abuse has either legal, spiritual or pastoral authority over the victim.   In such cases, several demons conjoin together to seriously damage a human spirit.

Dr, Steven Lambert has coined a similar phrase called “charismatic captivation.”  I like the term, but I don’t use it because I know that spiritual abuse is quite active in traditional denominations and is not just “charismatic” in nature.  However, I like what Lambert writes in his 11/15/08 newsletter entitled “the Myth of Spiritual Covering:

Moreover, in the process of time, it is going to become very apparent that the specter of authoritarian abuse and licentiousness perpetrated by wayward spiritual leaders is far more prevalent than what has ever been recognized before. Likewise, it will become just as manifest that the subject matter of this book — the heretical Discipleship doctrines, which are concerned primarily with false and fallacious concepts of spiritual authority — has been a primary underlying premise for much of the authoritarian abuse that has taken place among Charismatic/Discipleship churches and groups especially.

The root-cause of the Discipleship heresy is the “spirit of error” (1 john 4:6)  which is a spirit of perversion, and the “spirit of error,” unchecked, will eventually lead to a multiplicity of perversions in virtually every facet of the person’s life in which this demon and its cohorts are manifest. In the process of time this spirit will manifest perversion, corruption, and convolution in the inhabitee’s spirituality and every aspect and attitude indigenous to their natural life: their morality, marriage, ministry, message, methods, motives, and monetary matters.

In respect to this type of authoritarian abuse, one thing that needs to be pointed out, however, is that it is not just individuals who have been victimized by this spiritually lethal perverse spirit, but so also has the collective Body of Christ, in that Satan has been sowing these weeds of heresy and tares of heretics in God’s Field, thereby polluting and severely denigrating its produce, which was precisely his objective.

For 25 years, I served in ministry under the authoritarian abuse and licentiousness of  two different bishops and several elders. I  am quite strong but I must admit that I too was once a wounded healer whom the Lord has completely delivered, once He led me out of the organized church. My scars came from the root of bitterness and anger that resulted from constant primarily  rejection.  You see, because I refused to blend in with my peers, I was rejected from childhood that carried over into adulthood, for the mere reason that I am not a people pleaser, and I refuse to back down. 

 Consequently, when I arrived at the organized church in 1979, I was “different.” In the world when I was not saved, I was a retaliator.  People KNEW not to mess with me.  My wrath would be felt by my enemies because it is the nature of my flesh to plot and scheme until I had destroyed them. My pleasure came from getting right in my enemy’s face  and boast, “Gotcha!” Once saved, and having to come to terms with the fact that vengence belongs to the Lord, my soul and spirit did a lot of struggling.  So when I got to the organized church, folk really didn’t know how much restraining I was doing. So I became severely abused by people who profess to be Christian, both  bishops, ministers and the sheep I myself pastored. In fact,  I was more disrespected and humiliated by professing Christians than by any enemy who I was ever in battle with in the world.  The spiritual struggle  I endured by not retaliating against them was quite intense, to say the least. The reason why I was damaged by  was because God had never sent me to the church in the first place, so my spiritual  abuse was actually self inflicted. I was sent by the devil to the organize church to be spiritually abuse, rendered useless, and then destroyed. I have the victory for the enemy was unsuccessful.

Even though the Lord did not send me there, He allowed it to happen because I needed to discover first hands the depth of the Babylonian systems depravity so that I can help others in times like these. So while on “my mission,” God saw to it that I was not accepted by protecting  me from the comfort that leads to compromise. I now understand why  professing Christian churchgoers rejected me as much as they did.  You see,  they felt my inner strength and my fearlessness before I even know how strong I really am and they became anxious and intimidated.  Some label this quality as spiritual fortitude, or simply “courage.” All I know is that people actually feel my inner power and they are often intimidated by it, causing them to reject me. 

I’ve learned not to take it personal because  rejection is a part of the business that I am in.  Like Jesus was about His Father’s business , I am about my Lord and Savior’s business. He was and still is rejected. Therefore,  that is my plight also. When rejected actually DID  HURT me as “spiritual abuse” from religious authority , I accept it as my own fault. To move forward in ministry,  I submitted myself to inferior tyrants,  the denomination’s bishops and elders.  I allowed them to  restrain me  from serving God my own way. As a result,  the unholy authority of the “spiritual covering” false doctine and practice  smothered and oppressed my spirit. The Holy Ghost spoke to  me in a dream and warned me  that if I did not come out of the organized church, He could not use me.

So if you are a victim of spiritual  abuse, you need to know that  God will not heal the damaged so that they can remain under the exact same authority figures that damaged them in the first place. You will have to “come out of Her” to be healed. It will take a little time to heal, and that is what our  SEW Deliverance Mentoring Program is all about.  Our ministers are all wounded healers, those who have come out of the fires of refinement, prepared to rescue others.  If you would like a minister to mentor YOU, call 518-477-5759 or visit www.pamsheppardpublishing.com/deliverance-mentoring

My personal story is in the first few chapters of my book “Come Out of Her, God’s People.” In the book, I explain in detail why the dominational churches are diseased, depraved and dead and why the non-denominational-charismatics are deluded, deceived and headed for destruction. I tell my own story in the first seven chapters, followed my such subjects as Strong Delusion, the Plagues of Idolatry, the Altered State of Consciousness, Satan’s Agenda, God’s Plan and “Free at Last.”  

To preview it, click the cover.