5 Misconceptions about Spiritual Abuse: #2: “Spiritual Abuse is Only a Problem in Independent Churches That Have No Established Church Polity”

In anticipation of the Nov 1st release of my forthcoming book, Bully Pulpit: Confronting the Problem of Spiritual Abuse in the Church (Zondervan, 2022), I am working my way through a new blog series, “5 Misconceptions about Spiritual Abuse.” You can find the prior installment here.

We now come to the #2 misconception in the series: “Spiritual abuse is only a problem in independent churches that have no established church polity.”

In the research for my book, I was surprised to see the widespread nature of this sentiment. Across the board, folks regularly expressed the idea that authoritarian, domineering pastors must be linked to a church polity that …

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