Woke to da Bougie Church by Distinguishing Tares from Wheat: Gaslighting from the Traditional Church (Article #3)
Woke to da Bougie Church by
Distinguishing Tares from Wheat: Gaslighting by the
Traditional Church
Article #3
Welcome back to our
high-speed maglev, the Ministry of Reconciliation Train (MRT)! I don’t take it
lightly that you have chosen to stick with me thus far. I’ll endeavor to honor
your attention by continuing to provide clear, concise distinctions between
tares and wheat.
Our train’s
final destination is the de-weaponization of Christ for personal, financial,
and POLITICAL gain. To the new passengers, I would encourage you to review our
previous two articles (aka train stops) to get an overview of where we’re
going.
Today’s stop: Gaslighting
by the traditional Church.
The next leg of
our journey will be traveling to higher mountainous elevations—it’s possible
that the increased altitude may cause slight dizziness. To help you overcome
your discomfort, I’m going to take a moment to remind you why we’re on this
train and the importance of our destination.
The true work
and message of Christ has been weaponized to provide cover for the evil,
manipulative, and demonic means of those who don’t know Him (1 John 4:8). As
disciples of Christ, we are not going to take it anymore. Know that we battle
not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and spiritual
wickedness in high places (Ephesians 6:12). There are individual demonic
attacks, and there are institutional demonic attacks. While these institutions
obscure Christ, we are interested in seeing a wider view—the big picture.
As we begin,
remember to take deep breaths and hold on to Christ as our cornerstone (Acts
4:11), our foundation (Ephesians 2:20), and our compass (Psalms 37:23).
Gaslighting is
defined as the manipulative use of psychological methods by a person or group
over an extended period that affects the victim’s ability to trust their own
sanity, the validity of their own thoughts, or the power of their own
reasoning.
On an individual
level, gaslighting manifests as telling lies, denying the truth despite the
proof, turning others against the victim, engineering them to feel crazy, and destroying
their confidence.
The key points
are doubting the validity of your own thoughts, sanity, and power of reasoning.
The true danger lies in empowering any person or group with the authority to
confirm what we know to be true or what we individually hear from God.
On an
institutional level (such as the traditional church), there are so many ways
that the body of Christ has been gaslit. This mass-gaslighting is so
mind-boggling that I cannot concisely explain it all in a single article. That
would be like kicking an anthill and then trying to pick up the scattered ants one-by-one.
The challenge in
depicting these manipulations is that we’re putting words to that which is
unspoken. It’s not easy to draw a picture of what’s been concealed or to shed
light on what hides in shadows.
Nevertheless, I
will provide an example.
Women have been
gaslit within church for generations. If it’s not about the clothes we wear, the
positions we hold, or our vocality in the Church, then it’s about how good of a
mother, a wife, or volunteer we are. Although it is not scriptural, submission
is only used in the Church in reference to women. Any woman that tries to break
free from the lie is called a witch or a Jezebel! Oh, and don’t even get me
started on all the sexual violations!
Furthermore,
it’s difficult to explain the gaslighting within the traditional Church because
the amount of denial and deflection makes it hard to “see the forest for the
trees.” Those who share their experiences with gaslighting are often met with someone
saying “Well, that doesn’t happen at my church.”
The devil has a
way of distracting the body of Christ from what he is doing on an institutional
level by convincing us to focus on what occurs at the personal level. I’m
making a conscious choice to NOT get bogged down by the small details—I’m here
to tackle the bigger threat.
Within the Church,
gaslighting can take on the form of RELIGIOUS INVALIDATION. This occurs when
the Church causes you to question or doubt your definitions of good and evil by
self-righteously crowning themselves an authority over YOUR interpretation of
the world. Methods include (a) magnifying the negative and minimizing the
positive and (b) holding incongruent double standards for themselves versus
others around them. I call it the Church’s calculated use of the “Fear, Sin and
Guilt” message.
In a Huffington Post article about her
experiences in the Church, Elizabeth Baker wrote:
“Gaslighting is psychological
manipulation that leads one to question one’s own feelings and perceptions of
reality. [...] I have watched, shocked as 81 percent of the religious leaders
and peers of my youth and early adulthood have embraced a man and a political
ideology contrary to the teachings of Jesus. They have thrown out the
foundational values of Christianity in exchange for tax cuts, Supreme Court
nominees, and political power. Today, those Christians are calling me a heretic
and a godless woman because now I reject their Republican rhetoric and because
my personal Christian values (that they drilled into me for decades) more
closely align with the Democratic Party’s platform.
The boldness of the church’s hypocrisy
is causing me to question the very foundation of my spiritual beliefs. It’s
disorienting. Every biblical principle I hold sacred has been disregarded by
many other Christians, and I often feel like I’m losing my sanity while the
entire house of cards that is my evangelical upbringing collapses around me.”
You say that,
Elizabeth! Amen!
If you recall in
my last article, I spoke to you about the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and
Evil” versus the “Tree of Life.” Our mission as disciples of Jesus Christ is to
remain free from the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” and function from
the “Tree of Life.”
To be clear, I’m
NOT advocating that you waste time remaining connected to the “Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil” by endlessly debating the evils that you see within
the traditional Christian Church. I’m encouraging you to ACCEPT that what you
are seeing is most definitely evil and that the relentless debates are
demonically designed to keep us bound to the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and
Evil.”
I know it’s
evil! You know it’s evil! God, through the Holy Spirit inside you, is telling
you it’s evil! Let’s get free from the debate! What you are seeing is evil all
day long and twice on Sunday! Some people hide in the shadows and will never
admit the evil. Satan benefits from the debate!
Just call a
spade a spade and get free from ANY construct that keeps you tied to the
“Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” That’s the DEVIL!
We must unlearn
our personal trauma, but a person cannot recover from a trauma that they are
not allowed to acknowledge exists in the first place. Enlightenment is the
antidote to gaslighting. Christ enlightens us.
Don’t fall for
it! Back up! Look around you! Venture beyond the borders of your own
neighborhoods, your own church, your own state, and your own country!
All this
gaslighting is wrong, especially the POLITICAL gaslighting. So, to all the
wheat reading this article: what are YOU going to do about it? Are you going
big, or are you going small? Are you going to remain bound by a limited vision
of you and yours, or are you going to embrace the bigger vision of us and ours?
(Ephesians 2:17-19)
As wheat, we are
called to be ambassadors of the Love of God to the world. As a disciple of
Jesus Christ, I’mma do what Jesus would do. I think you should too.
Joy Johnson
Perspectives of
a Christian Black Woman ©
Page/ Blog - Perspectives
of a Christian Black Woman:
#WWJD #WsW #CBWPerspectives
Landing Page:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cNXGl8QhW7eo_0VVXUA4QpKgF3nXLidd/view?usp=sharing
FB Page:
https://facebook.com/PerspectivesofaChristianBlackWoman
Blog:
Perspectives of a Christian Black Woman:
Comments
Post a Comment