Are we supposed to submit to harsh leaders?

Recently I received the following question on another blog post I wrote titled When Submission is Twisted. Because my answer got a bit long winded, I decided to write a new post on this subject. If you find it relevant, I’d love to hear your comments.

submission or passivity?

Question:
I was once under church leaders that were abusive to me. How do I know if I did the right thing by confronting? Or if God put me there to learn submission?

They would never support me in my...