Parallels
I had never heard the term "spiritual abuse " until just over a year ago. When I first heard about it, to me it almost sounded overly dramatic but as I have researched it and also dealing with my own experiences, I realize it really is abuse. Last night, I was chatting with an online friend who is getting out of an abusive marriage. I started explaining to her a little bit of my experience with our former church and it hit me how many parallels there are in an abusive relationship and a spiritually abusive church. The manipulation, use of fear and guilt, the gaslighting ,the lies and isolation are all there. It just manifests itself in different ways. My friend was asking how she could have let this go on so long when she knew she was being used and manipulated .I told her it's amazing the tricks your mind plays on you when you're in an unhealthy situation and the lengths you will go to in your head to justify all the bullshit. My friend said "You get it. You re...