You wouldn’t think that people who gather together in the name of God, would be able to hurt other people so bad, unless of course you live it. You would hope that emotional relief and acceptance would be found in a place where love is preached. You could have believed that Christianity set you apart from suffering in this world, until relationships inside those circles cut deeper than any outside force. And you could continue the cycle of pain that conditioned you in childhood to relate to God from a distant, silenced and fearful stance, but hopefully you will soon grow tired of that as well. Spiritual abuse begins in the home. It is defined as a misuse of authority to control the behavior of others through manipulation, fear and promises of advancement which creates a co-dependent bond. In short, it symbolizes a gang. The common thread throughout dysfunctional families, clergy, gangs, and society is the religious spirit. Everything that functions with unspoken co-dependency has religion as its foundation because freedom of faith was purchased in exchange for land when Europe paid the way for our puritans to scope out American soil. Religion is a business that costs us our freedom to finding our purpose. If we don’t form the correct alliances, we could be targeted as weak, vulnerable chinks in the armor of God.

Our natural instincts to divide and conquer go as far back as Adam and Eve but throughout centuries we lost sight of the freewill intended to mend relationships through communing with Our heavenly Father. Earthly Fathers set out to work and traditional roles of mothering nurtured the home, while the reliance upon neighbors grew as advancement on the earth gave way to new temptations, ideologies and competition. The original family nucleus had its own share of problems but once we realized that needs could be met outside of it, we lost our first loves and sought a counterfeit. Position of prominence and power can only be maintained by those who support it and if those of lesser importance start to share a difference of opinion they can easily be reminded of how expendable they are. Brothers and sisters fighting to end strife in allegiance to parents who still squabble with their own, brokenness inviting unbelief. Hence, many grow up and venture out to seek an existence all their own, a surrogate family that will not demand such dedication but all the while their soul still longing for it.

Church raises a steeple while waving a white flag for all the people to enter its doors and surrender their woes, as long as they behave and don’t become foes. Foes who would question the methods and ideas, charm looking deceitful but making some great deals. Strive, perform and effort to gain some sort of semblance over past pain, all to the glory of another person’s chains. But what if we all, are the same person right down the line, we each have the blood of Jesus buying us time, to surrender our judgments, lay down all the jealousies and yield to His love for our own hypocrisies. Wouldn’t we each stop hurting ourselves, extend comfort and counsel as Holy Spirit does, not negating or minimizing what we thought that love was. The needs to be right would all pass away and healing from church would be possible today.