Participants Needed for Research Work on Spiritual Abuse

Posted on by February 18, 2015avatar

‘If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.’ – Thorin Oakenshield -JRR Tolkien link

 

 

 
Spiritual abuse. Just the phrase makes me feel depressed.
 
Brad Sargent and I share a love of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. It represents to us the way a fellowship should play out. We walk together as we experience joy, pain and suffering. We rejoice together in our victories and we carry one another in our sorrows and weaknesses. All the while, we are marching stolidly to eternity. Unfortunately, some of us find ourselves attempting to recover from a church experience that resembles the den of Smaug.
 

We received an e-mail from Kathryn Keller Lamar. She is doing her doctoral dissertation on spiritual abuse. Did you know that many mental health professionals are encountering many people who have been victims of spiritual abuse? Some of you are probably nodding your heads and saying, "Been there, experienced that!" This doctoral research should be further proof that we are being listened to. Please consider participating in this survey. Here is what Kathryn sent to us.

To TWW  readers:

If you are interested in supporting academic research on spiritual abuse, you are invited to complete the following survey for a doctoral dissertation on spiritual abuse. Feel free to contact the researcher, Kathryn Keller Lamar, for any questions about the study or for general conversation about the topic of spiritual abuse. Her email is klamar@twu.edu

The academic literature seems to be lagging behind popular culture’s discussion on spiritual abuse (via blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), so please help us “catch up” so we can better understand it. I am a psychology student at Texas Woman’s University and intend to use this study to enhance clinical work as well as further research.

The following link will direct you to the survey. It takes less than 30 minutes.

Thank you!
Here is the link: https://www.psychdata.com/s.asp?SID=164705

 

 

Comments

Participants Needed for Research Work on Spiritual Abuse — 41 Comments

  3. Excited for the launch of Kathryn’s study! So good to know that Kathryn has taken on the topic of spiritual abuse in an academic setting. Trusting that many people will take the time to fill our her survey!

  4. Is it okay to share the link with some friends? Sadly, I know a few women who experienced spiritual abuse as they left abusive marriages.

  7. Off topic
    I’m just letting you know that starting about two weeks ago, the type display in the comment box (to compose posts) appears differently, it’s much harder to read.

    The letters appear thinner, un-even, and the serifs do not show up on all the letters, such as small case letter “T,” etc, which makes it very hard to compose posts.

    When I type the word “posts” here and above as a matter of fact, it looks more like this — “posLs” — when I type it in the composition box.

    After I click on the “post comment” button, so far, the type in the posts appears pretty normal. But it’s difficult to write a post when you cannot really make out what it is you are typing.

  9. @ Daisy:
    We have changed nothing that affects type for over a year.

    Some things to consider.

    Is your font size set to smaller/larger than default?

    Do you have your font settings such that web sites can specify a font instead of the browser forcing a font? We specify Lucida Grande as the preferred font. If you don’t have this things might look off.

    Is your display resolution set to the native resolution for your display?

    I don’t know your computer / OS / browser but these are all setting that can make type look awful.

  10. Hey, I participated in the study, & it was actually illuminating to me. I noticed that I kind’ve downplayed what I experienced, by checking boxes that implied it was in the not-so-awful category. Yet, when I got to the page about how it affected my views and activities, I ended up checking every.single.box in the “this really changed me and it sucks big time” section. Those are not technical terms of course. <3.

  14. @XianJaneway wrote:

    in the “this really changed me and it sucks big time” section. Those are not technical terms of course.

    Technical terms are needed to carefully explain ones issues. I deem your answer more than (to quote 7) sufficient.

  19. @ dee:
    Wearing the requisite catsuit. I wish the ST franchise hadn’t made the actresses have to wear coetumes like that.

  20. Hey Dee and Deb, have you checked out the Pulpit and Pen blog? They’ve just put up an EXTREMELY tasteless article claiming that the Copts, 21 of whom were brutally beheaded by ISIS the other day, were not “real” Christians because they didn’t believe in JBFA.

    The fact that there are fundagelicals who say things like that make my blood boil. I’m quite likely to become Orthodox (probably either Antiochian or Coptic) at some point, so I take those kinds of attitudes very personally, also.

  21. MidwesternEasterner wrote:

    have you checked out the Pulpit and Pen blog?

    I have. I saw the original tweets and went over to their blog. Interestingly, Dustin Germaine is out of there. He is even shutting down his own blog. The post was written anonymously. They have just posted something trying to tap dance but are not doing a good job.

    Julie Anne just wrote a great post on the matter. I would like to do so but want to wait until next week to see if there is any ore backpedaling. I believe someone over there called Al Mohler a heretic. Now, I am no Mohler fan but that is going way too far.

    Here is the link to Julie’s post.
    http://spiritualsoundingboard.com/2015/02/17/pulpit-and-pen-is-publicly-correcting-church-leaders-the-21-egyptian-beheadings-they-werent-real-christians-so-was-it-true-christian-persecution/

  22. @ MidwesternEasterner:

    I was only a matter of time before P&P reached this ugly height. They have been tasteless for years.

    May we all send the message to our Coptic brothers and sisters that we stand with you and pray for you.

  23. dee wrote:

    Interestingly, Dustin Germaine is out of there. He is even shutting down his own blog.

    Dustin’s interaction on Julie Anne’s blog has been very cordial and even supportive. I was just starting to warm up to the guy. I hope the P&P’s slur on the Copts will give him pause.

  25. Hey everyone!! Thank you for taking and/or sharing my survey! Once I get enough data the first time around, I’ll refine the instrument that is under development and send it out again for another check. If it’s “legit” (in the spirit of “technical terms here in these comments!) 😉 I will try to publish it. Woohoo! Hoping it can be used for clinical and research purposes. I will let ya’ll know how it goes. If it is the case and if it’s possible, I am up for having it be in the public domain for people to use. Will keep ya’ll posted. @XianJaneway thanks for your feedback! It’s so consistent with what I hear….people go through stuff that’s hurtful and they don’t know that it might be on the abuse spectrum. (This same convo is being had about the 50 Shades of Grey stuff and domestic violence….case in point!) Anyway, thank you all for your interest!

  26. MidwesternEasterner wrote:

    Hey Dee and Deb, have you checked out the Pulpit and Pen blog? They’ve just put up an EXTREMELY tasteless article claiming that the Copts, 21 of whom were brutally beheaded by ISIS the other day, were not “real” Christians because they didn’t believe in JBFA.

    As I commented over at Julie Anne’s blog:
    “What would God ever do without the Pulpiteers to tell Him who’s REALLY Saved and who’s not?”

    And for the Romish Papist response, Pope Francis proclaimed the 21 Copts martyrs.

  28. @ numo:
    I saw her on an episode of Law and Order Criminal Intent. (I think). I didn’t recognize her since she was fully clothed in a suit. Still, I have to admit I loved her character.

  29. @ dee:
    I really enjoyed her character, too, but that outfit… yikes! Have seen her in assorted smaller roles myself, though am blanking on titles. One was an homage to/pparody of Doris Day – Rock Hudson movies that was a lot of fun. Starred Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor. Jeri R. played a stewardess, with a Pan Am blue uniform and cap.

  31. @ dee:

    Thank you Dee. I knew you would not let that stand. I’m going to a Coptic monastery next week (I booked before the massacre) which I visited last November, and I love the Copts and felt personally offended by that article denying their Christianity. Copts are very humble, generous and loving people who in no respects trust their ethnic heritage with their salvation. The only problem in the Coptic community is one with female genital mutilation among the rural Copts, but the Coptic Pope and the Grand Mufti of the Muslims of Egypt have been working together to try and stamp it out. Also the other Oriental Orthodox churches with which the Copts are in communion (Armenian and Syriac) have never practiced FGM and view it as sickening; some of their Islamic neighbors are of a fiqh that does, however (the Shaf’ti).

    One other thing baffled me in the article: it’s one thing to say as Luther did that good works are unnecessary for salvation, but how does that extend to believing that those who believe that they are are damned? I don’t think Luther or Calvin ever said that; they saw themselves as trying to free Christians from an unnecessary burden of “good works” imposed by the Roman Catholic Church, but I don’t recall them ever suggesting Catholics were damned, merely oppressed. So this idea that one who believes in good works is not a Christian and is damned seems a bit novel. It would seem to imply Landmarkism, I.e. The view that the Baptist church alone is legitimate and capable of saving. Which I believe most Baptists reject.

    But it seems to me that sola fide does not exclude those who believe in other requirements, so I find this new strain of thought divisive and frightening.

  33. Kathryn Keller wrote:

    Hoping it can be used for clinical and research purposes. I will let ya’ll know how it goes. If it is the case and if it’s possible, I am up for having it be in the public domain for people to use. Will keep ya’ll posted.

    Although I never suffered physical abuse, I do believe I have suffered some spiritual abuse against my personality. I am a bit of a free thinker with legitimate questions at times. So I took the survey. I was surprised at how much negativity I deal with in my mind because of some of the labels I have been called (black sheep of the family, liberal, bitter, willful, etc.). I’m finding that I really need to deal with this stuff and get on with my worship. Thank you for doing this!

  35. @ Eric S:
    Thanks for your comment. So common to label people with the labels you mentioned. I’ve been thinking a lot about those kinds of labels lately….they seem to be a kind of objectification. Like “you’re not like us, so we’ll put you in a box rather than treat you as a real person with thoughts, ideas, needs, feelings, etc.” It’s sad….and sometimes does become abusive. At the very least it has a negative impact. I can also relate with the free thinker & question thing…I mean, shouldn’t we just have faith? Geez! 😉

  37. Lydia wrote:

    May we all send the message to our Coptic brothers and sisters that we stand with you and pray for you.

    Amen.

  39. William G. wrote:

    One other thing baffled me in the article: it’s one thing to say as Luther did that good works are unnecessary for salvation, but how does that extend to believing that those who believe that they are are damned? ….So this idea that one who believes in good works is not a Christian and is damned……
    But it seems to me that sola fide does not exclude those who believe in other requirements, so I find this new strain of thought divisive and frightening.

    I was likewise baffled and frightened by this aspect of the article. I’ll write a bit more on the open discussion page.

  40. I took the survey. I answered based on a recent church which tended toward spiritual abuse, but in which I don’t consider myself to have been personally abused. (I’m not female nor gay, for one.) I COULD have answered based upon an earlier church, where I was the right-hand-enabler to the spiritually abusive leader– which makes me a recovering spiritually abusive leader.

  41. @ Daisy:
    Your spell checker is likely the culprit. Next time you see a word displayed wrongly,hit back arrow,make sure highlighted word is spelled correctly,then click on correct spelling,and that word will post just fine after that.