These churches often have a severe top-down male authority structure that is not to be questioned or challenged, especially by women. These church cultures create an ideal environment for spiritual abuse. In a case I studied from a church in the Southwest, the abusive pastor tried to suppress a woman’s concerns to the elder board by using passages like 1 Corinthians 14:34–35, where it says women should be silent in church—an appalling and irresponsible application of that passage.
