The hallmark of spiritual abuse is that it involves one person with ecclesiastical or spiritual authority over another. Without that authority, you might have other forms of church conflict—where one person mistreats another person—but you don’t have spiritual abuse. In other words, the abuse in view here happens downward.10 Johnson and VanVonderen argue, “Spiritual abuse can occur when a leader uses his or her spiritual position to control or dominate another person.”11 Wehr refers to this dominating behavior as “pious coercion.”
