why abusive pastors like Standridge will always find pulpits

Trigger warning: this 5 minutes video is spiritual abuse at its finest:

First of all… yes, this is abuse.

1. He shames people publicly.
2. He exalts himself over the other person.
3. He enlists God as justification for what he does.
4. He says he loves you while hurting you.
5. He threatens if we don’t agree that he loves us.
6. He points his finger at you and yells.
7. He commands obedience.
8. He uses physical touch to augment what he’s saying.
9. He jokes about you to other people as if you’re not there.
10. He threatens not to do something for you.
11. He insults you.
12. He demeans your value and depreciates your worth to you and others.
13. He uses stares to intimidate.
14. He calls you names.
15. He verbally establishes his own higher value and power over you.
16. He says that you won’t get anything better and so this is your only option.
17. He threatens to leave if you fight him.
18. He threatens to give himself to someone else who wants him.
19. He frightens you into worrying about losing your own children.
20. He mocks you to your face and in front of others.
21. He isolates you by threatening those who love you to leave you alone.
22. He divides family members against one another.
23. He annihilates all threats of competition.
24. He tells you to prove your love to him by giving him what he wants.
25. He demands unquestioning submission.
26. He expresses relief once his anger and frustration has been unleashed.
27. He prays when he’s finished and asks you to join him.

Jim Standridge will always find a pulpit and he knows it. Because he knows that there are enough Christians who want this kind of relationship because they feel they deserve it. The way Standridge acts is the way God acts. God is angry. They repent. God forgives. On and on this goes, reaffirming that there is at least some kind of working relationship between them and God.

Believe me, some of these people might leave his church, but more will come. The word will get out there that Pastor Standridge preaches it like it is! He preaches the truth! He won’t stand for sin in the church, so look out!

I appreciate this short clip so much because this pastor says what many pastors and the church think and feel. There is a lot of anger and frustration with the people. People are a disappointment. They frustrate the program. They get in the way of the vision. They undermine the churches agenda. Their sin pollutes the purity of the church and prevents the Spirit from fully moving.

If you want to meet others who have been through this stuff and left it, I invite you to join The Lasting Supper.