The first sign of spiritual abuse is control-oriented leadership. Let’s talk about how this trait plays out at the Honor Academy.
Here are some of Dave Hasz’s own comments to illustrate. Click on the statement to see the source link:
Dave Hasz: If the leadership is godly.
“Rebellion I believe is questioning your leadership without giving them the benefit of the doubt.” (3rd post down, blog has since been removed.)
What is rebellion? According to Wikipedia, it is a refusal of obedience. When is it sinful to rebel? There are many acts of civil disobedience (the civil rights movement) and other forms of rebellion that were completely appropriate. As far as I can tell, the only sinful rebellion is rebellion against God. But, here, Dave Hasz is saying that disagreeing with his leadership and views is rebellious, with the implication that you are sinning against God when you disagree with Him. I have experienced this personally as have many, many people.
It’s important to understand here that many of us had legitimate questions and concerns about things going on in the internship. We were there with a right heart, wanting to seek God and know Him more. Why else would you pay money and spend a year of your life there? Though we approached him with respect, our concerns were not treated in the same way. Mostly, Dave would give a 1 minute answer and summarily dismiss our concerns with reasons why everything Teen Mania does is God’s will and why we should not question it if we want to be godly people. And if that didn’t convince us, well, we were just rebellious.
On the contrary, the Bible exhorts us to test the spirits, look at the fruit, to be like the Bereans who tested the apostles word to see if it was true, etc. I find it quite suspicious that Dave would insist on what is essentially blind obedience. We are called to be ultimately obedient to no man – only to Jesus Christ.
Am I advocating that there should be no rules or standards at the Honor Academy? No, not at all. Every organization needs basic rules to function. However, these rules do not need to encompass the breadth and depth that they do, nor do they need to insist that secondary and tertiary matters of faith cannot be disagreed upon.
No matter what the HA propaganda says, the actual culture is that you cannot disagree without feeling the sting of disapproval and rejection. If you disagree you are labeled rebellious. In some cases they even try to perform an exorcism on you to remove the rebellious spirit.
The saddest thing about all this is that they tell you that the Lord also views you through the eyes of disapproval and rejection. That you are being rebellious towards Him. This is probably the one thing that messed me up the most.
Consider if you really want to put yourself, or your child, under a person who demands to be obeyed without question. Does that sound healthy to you? Does that sound like someone who loves people? Or someone who loves his own authority?
Most importantly, does that sound like Jesus?
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