Churches That Abuse by Ronald Enroth

The book that named spiritual abuse.

Long before "religious trauma" and "church hurt" entered our vocabulary, sociologist Ronald M. Enroth documented what happens inside authoritarian churches: congregations that look doctrinally sound from the pews but run on fear, guilt, and control. Drawing on dozens of interviews with ex-members, Churches That Abuse tells their stories, including eleven years inside George Geftakys' Assembly, the medical-neglect deaths of Hobart Freeman's Faith Assembly, a pastor's wife's "handmaid," and more.

Enroth identifies the marks of an abusive church that counselors and survivors still use today. Its leadership is control-oriented and accountable to no one. It manipulates members through fear, guilt, and threats. It fosters elitism and a persecution complex. It imposes rigid, legalistic demands on how members live. It discourages dissent and disciplines harshly. And it makes leaving painful, marked by shunning.

Written from inside evangelicalism, not against it, this is neither an attack on the church nor an apology for it. It is a sober, compassionate field guide to the difference between spiritual authority and spiritual abuse, and a way out for those caught inside.