Christy connects some dots between the teachings of Bill Gothard, founder of IBLP--the Christian cult exposed on Amazon's new documentary Shiny Happy People and Evangelical Christianity. Gothard's teachings on authority (power), obedience (oppression and suppression) and gossip (truth telling) were pretty extreme. But have those teachings trickled into mainstream evangelical Christianity? Or are these things that we broken people naturally struggle with anyway?
Christy tackles the concept of gossip. Often abusive leaders will use the threat of being called a gossip, or of people gossiping, to stop truth from being told and exposed. There is an unfortunate number of stories coming out about power-hungry, narcissistic church leaders who are able to stay in power because people are too afraid to tell the truth. Christy would like to change that dynamic. She would like to see the church become a place where Jesus reigns not a person, where people humbly use their gifts (like truth telling) instead of bossing others around, and where people find healing rather than abuse.
Books referenced:
When Narcissism Comes to Church by Chuck DeGroat
The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse by David Johnson and Jeff Van Vonderen
Related Blog Posts:
Pastors, Abuse, and the Church
Healing from Spiritual Abuse
The Conclusion of Looking for the Real God
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#169 When I’m the Problem (S9E7)
#168 Real Life vs Social Media (S9E6)
#167 Fear, Faith, and Formulas (S9E5)
#166 Why Moralism Isn’t Enough (S9E4)
#165 Pharisees, Church People, and Repentance (S9E3)
#164 Abusive Leaders, Darnel, and the Harvest (S9E2)
#163 Babel, Pentecost, and the Megachurch Mentality (S9E1)
#162 Did We Succeed at World Domination?
#160 Shiny Happy People - My Response (S8E19)
#159 Pentecost and the Wild Goose (S8E18)
#158 The God who Mothers (S8E17)
#157 Rebels with a Cause (S8E16)
#156 Even More Radical (S8E15)
#155 If We Don’t Reject Lies (S8E14)
#154 Easter Reflections: Reposted (S8E13)
#153 Passover with an Unexpected God: Reposted (S8E12)
#152 What Makes Us Vulnerable to False Teachers (S8E11)
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