Controlling churches
This website is not about cults and cultic behaviour. The focus here is on Christian churches, or to put it or more accurately, Christian churches which abuse their members to benefit the leadership!
A church cannot control or abuse anyone! A church is simply a building. It is men and women who control and abuse the people who go the church.
There is obviously very little difference between controlling and abusive cults and controlling and abusive Christian churches. Calling a church 'Christian' or having the leadership with titles such 'bishop', 'archbishop' etc. means very little in Christian terms.
Established churches
The established church groups are not the subject of the website. The ministry are mostly employed by the church group and have terms of employment which would generally not allow them to take advantage of the church membership.
But there are are very many smaller churches which are setup by individuals who mostly own or rent the church assets and do not answer to anyone!
Why do people allow themselves to be abused?
The answer to this question is not very complicated. People in a church want the church to be a place where the focus is on Christ. They want the leadership to know the Bible, to teach the Word of God and for the people in the church to be friendly and pleasant.
If that is how they see the leadership and the membership of a church, then it is easy for people to see problems and contradictory behaviour within the church as problems within themselves.
How a Christian church controls it's members
There are a number of religious groups that control their members does so through fear! But the really good abusive churches do not allow their members to realise that they are being controlled in such a way!
Instead they make their members want to be controlled, and they develop a mindset within the congregation that this control is for their own benefit and that anyone who wants to rebel against the control is satanic and should be thrown out of their midst!
After all the Bible says that 'if they are not with us then they are against us'. Leaders who wants to control the congregation can do wonders with the above Scripture! It is of course taken out of context and is an abuse of the Word of God.
Another indicator of controlling churches is where the church hides the accounts from the members. There is no good reason why a church should keep their accounts secret. After all it is the membership that gives all the money! Any church that hides the accounts from the members or refuses to reveal the salaries of the ministry are behaving in a controlling manner.