Cynthia Kunsman

Spiritual abuse describes the process by which a spiritual authority misuses their power and the trust of their flock in order to meet their own needs or the needs of an organization or ideology. Many churches with sound and solid Biblical doctrine can be considered "cultic" when they practice techniques of manipulation and thought reform. Please read more at undermuchgrace.blogspot.com and undermuchgrace.com concerning the many different aspects of this type of manipulation and spiritual abuse including development, practice and recovery from the phenomenon. Please also visit the Overcoming Botkin Syndrome at botkinsyndrome.blogspot.com for additional information on the emotional incest that these forms of aberrant Christianity produce for children raised within spiritually abusive systems.

I am registered nurse, seminary graduate and naturopath with additional training in thought reform (cults and cultic systems); Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; and training in the use of hypnosis in healthcare for pain management, PTSD and ADD/ADHD. My husband and I exited a cultic Evangelical Church in Feb 1997 after a 4 year involvement, as we were never given informed consent regarding their spiritually abusive doctrines and practices. (One learns about them after one has become well entrenched in the group by violating said unwritten rules and social mores.) I am told that Charles Simpson of the now renounced and defunct Christian Growth Ministries parachurch organization who helped establish the Shepherding Discipleship Movement was personally instrumental in the initial founding of our network of these New Covenant Churches in the State of Maryland with which we participated. The group also drew instruction in Shepherding and Submission Doctrine from the aberrant and cultic teachings of Bill Gothard's Institute in Basic Life Principles organization, an odd parachurch organization product of the Charismatic Renewal of the late '60s and early '70s.

After exiting the Maryland group, we moved to the San Antonio area and discovered that we attended the same church as another follower of Gothard who eventually left to formally organize his own church. This man, an attorney, formed his own parachurch organization named Vision Forum, further extending Gothard's aberrant belief system.

To differentiate this unique and marginally Christian belief system from legitimate patriarchy as defined in Scripture and from "patricentricity," it has been called "PATRIOCENTRICITY." For more information about this national folk religion which combines American patriotism, family sentiment, homeschooling and Old Testament legalism, please watch the video "The Development and Practice of Patriarchy: Cure for Cultural Decline or New, Gnostic Disease."