This is a list of resources that I’ve found helpful on my journey to recovery. This isn’t a comprehensive list by any means but these are the ones that stick out most to me when I think about my recovery. Feel free to share anything in the comments that you’ve found healing.
List of Nationwide Support Groups and Cult Specific Counselors
Cult Experts:
– Freedom of Mind Center, Steve Hassan
– Stages of Cult Recovery from the Cult Help and Awareness Library
– Rick Ross (2021 Update: Site has changed hands. Link goes to Wayback Machine)
– Dallas Cult Experts, Doug and Wendy Duncan
Spiritual Abuse:
– Provender: A Clearing House of Spiritual Abuse Resources
– Identify the signs and symptoms of authoritarian abuse and psychological enslavement that is rampant among church groups. (2021 Update: Site has since gone down. Link goes to Wayback Machine)
– Biblical Response to Spiritual Abuse via the Watchman
Book List:
1) Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse by Jeff Van Vonderen
2) 12 Christian Beliefs that Can Drive you Crazy by Cloud and Townsend
3) Any book by Brennan Manning especially The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus. Every book is saturated in grace and tells of a Jesus who frees us from our self-loathing.
FREE BOOKS:
Churches That Abuse by Ronald Enroth is a great book that I’ve referenced here before. It gives a rundown of abusive practices and characteristics to help you understand what you have experienced. He has also written Recovering From Churches That Abuse.
Both of these titles are out of print but you can buy used copies or email me and I will send you a FREE digital pdf of the books. My address is recoveringalumni at recoveringalumni dot blog. PDF has since been lost.
So You Don’t Wanna Go to Church Anymore by Wayne Jacobsen, follows the journey of a man who slowly discovers that Christianity is not about ethics, but about love. Though he is in full time ministry at a thriving church, his efforts to control both his behavior and other’s leads only to emptiness and futility. A great read that will refresh your spirit and help you think about things in a new way.
Also by Wayne Jacobsen, He Loves Me is a radical reorientation of the Christian life from effort and performance to resting in God’s love. Each page is dripping with grace and mercy. You can download the first edition for free if you follow the link. (Note: click the title not the book image)
9 comments:
As far as I know, both “Churches that Abuse” and “Recovery from Churches That Abuse” are available free online. I will double check
to see if I can find them, and if I do, I will post the urls here.
These are legal copies, allowed by the author.
Here are the urls mentioned above:
http://www.ccel.us/churchesrec.toc.html
RA,
Is the forum gone? I can’t find it. 🙁
No. You can find it at forums.recoveringalumni.com
littlegraygirl – thanks for reminding me. I will work on adding the link!
Under Much Grace has an impressive wealth of well-researched information on cult-like movements and dynamics within conservative Christianity.
For books, I found Philip Yancey’s What’s So Amazing About Grace? particularly helpful for sorting out real Christianity from the graceless counterfeit.
@ Eric,
That’s funny that you would mention that book specifically. I read it my third month in at TM, and it rocked my world. As bad as my time at TM was, I think it would have been much worse without that book. It was actually responsible for me NOT joining the Honor Council.
I’d like to add a book to this list called Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships. It’s the book I am currently working through with my therapist and I’m finding it to be really helpful and comprehensive.