Abuse can be called today. The #MeToo movement has shown that it affects many. Sexual abuse, for example, affects one-third of all women. They experience a sexual assault at least once in their lives, usually by someone in their immediate circle. This also applies to men, though not to the same extent.

Violation of the personal sphere

Abuse sometimes shapes a lifetime. However, the violation of the personal sphere and shaking of security does not only concern sexuality. There are many other assaults that hurt people in their personal sphere. There is emotional abuse, and also religious abuse.

In religious abuse, people are placed under the violating rules of the community or governing figures. Uniformity is demanded, one’s own thinking is outlawed. Those who do not fall in line and subordinate themselves can suffer the consequences. This year there was a sensational case involving the Swiss chocolatier Läderach, with serious allegations of abuse. Violence against children was mentioned by several people. Plus, of course, intimidation. This is not an isolated case. The Organic Christ Church (OCG) from Walzenhausen (eastern Switzerland), for example, has also made negative headlines in recent years. There are many reports of people leaving cults and sectarian groups.

However, it would be far from the truth to reduce abuse to physical or sexual violence. It goes much further. One also thinks of group dynamic processes, social ostracism, the supposed threat of God’s judgment, indoctrination and psychological violence. Emotional abuse is also an issue. There is far more attention to this issue in the Americas than in this country. Those who have been affected by religious abuse can suffer serious trauma as a result. In the United States, the term “Religious Trauma Syndrome” (RTS) is known to describe these cases.

It becomes abusive when other people are hurt, intimidated and manipulated.

However, religious trauma does not only occur in “typical religious sects”. Many other faith communities are affected, not least by a corresponding congregational culture and doctrinal views. Note: It is not about the teaching, but about the resulting culture and attitude. It becomes abusive when other people are hurt, intimidated and manipulated.

Damaged by hell doctrine

The doctrine of hell is a threatening message. It is adhered to by many, but it is absent from the Bible. This has been detailed on this website. I have met many people who have been badly affected by this doctrine. Lifelong anxiety is often a result. Those who were affected in their youth often find it difficult to free themselves from it even in their adult lives. Those who as adults join communities that preach a hell are often severely unsettled in their image of God. This is also true where the doctrine of hell is little mentioned, but is always present in the background.

Hell is not only a dark legacy of Christianity, but a gloomy cloud hanging over the lives of many people. Well understood: It hangs over the lives of believers. Although it was supposed to be a threatening message for unbelievers, it hits believers first and foremost.

• Believers are not sure whether this “God of love” will not leave them hanging one day.
• Believers are troubled whether their relatives and beloved are loved by God when He has put an expiration date on His love (as the teaching suggests).
• Many are deeply frightened about everyday situations that may lead to disaster if not done exactly right.

People are harmed by the doctrine of hell to this day. It is a shame that this doctrine is not seriously questioned, especially since Scripture does not speak of these medieval ideas with a single word. The problem, in fact, lies here: The doctrine of hell became a badge of orthodoxy. Not the good news and proclamation of grace, but assent to the threatening message, became the measure of orthodoxy. It is this linkage that leads to further unholy harm:

• Believers are accused of unbelief if they doubt the legitimacy of hell, even if they do so on the basis of biblical statements. They are pressured to either remain in the traditional understanding of hell or be considered heretics and excluded from the community.

Cults work like this. It is pretended that “true believers” believe in hell, but “false believers” do not. Now, how can you keep the faith when you grow up in such an environment? This is almost impossible. That’s why there’s this website, for example, which encourages people to search the Scriptures for themselves. Everyone may discover for himself that the Bible does not speak of this doctrine of hell with a single word.

It is amazing when you realize for the first time that the very statements of the Bible are the most effective way to refute hell.

One need not reject the Bible when examining the doctrine of hell. It is amazing when you realize for the first time that the very statements of the Bible are the most effective way to refute hell. Furthermore, there are good answers to all the Bible passages that supposedly speak of a hell.

Orthodoxy is a trap

Already Jesus has to deal with the self-righteousness of many a religious leader. It manifested itself in complacency, arrogance and supposed orthodoxy. Not infrequently, a legality is to be enforced, a certain view is to be declared binding. A black and white thinking characterizes every orthodoxy and self-righteousness. It is the people who are the first to cry “heretic” when something does not go their way.

Orthodoxy is a trap, because whoever gets caught in the clutches of strictly religious ideas, in which there is no longer any place for others, finds it difficult to get out again. I know this from my own experience and am amazed at how many other people this still shapes today. By the way, this is not limited to a particular denomination or only to Christianity. It is a state of mind that can be adopted by people in general. Religious fanaticism has the same characteristics all over the world. This, in turn, can be compared well with ideological fanaticism, with xenophobia, anti-Semitism and the like. It seems to me to follow similar patterns: The projection of one’s own shortcomings and inadequacies onto other people.

Religious Narcissism

Another form of abuse is cultivated by religious narcissists. One’s own insecurity is concealed with supposed superiority. They pathologically bind other people to themselves in order to get confirmation for their own life from it. Likewise, insecure people get involved, which quickly creates trauma associations.

Religious narcissism leads to dependencies and not to freedom. Narcissists themselves depend on people’s validation. Therefore, they will not resolve the dependencies. No one becomes free when narcissism is involved. Religious narcissism often feigns special wisdom, spectacular healing successes, deep prayerful communion, or extraordinary insights. Some are misled by this.

The narcissist will always be “at the top of the food chain.” This is the receiver. Others receive from the narcissist only enough to keep them happy, paying and dependent.

Lead out into freedom

In the Bible, neither the prophets nor Jesus nor the apostles will lead people into an unhealthy addiction. They always lead out into freedom and personal responsibility. Paul does it something like this:

“Not that we have dominion over your faith, but we are fellow workers in your joy.”
1Cor 1,24

Anyone who wants to determine your faith must put up with this statement. Paul had no desire to dominate others. He saw himself as a co-worker (gr. sunergos), because faith is mutually promoted (“synergy”) in community, not determined from above.

Real experiences of faith reflect what was already mentioned as a testimony in the Psalms:

“And he led me out into the open, he set me free because he had pleasure in me.”
Ps 18,19

“And hast not delivered me into the hand of the enemy; thou hast set my feet in a wide place.”
Ps 31:8

“Out of affliction I cried to Yah; Yah heard me and set me in a wide place.”
Ps 118:5

“And I will walk in wide places; for according to thy precepts have I sought.”
Ps 119:45. To be clear, these rules are not the assumptions of today’s communities.

The touchstone is this: Is it trust in God? Does this or that person lead toward Christ and out into freedom? These two belong together (Gal 5:1). Everything else may be viewed critically.