Trinity — Research Resources

Chapter 5: Abusive Churches Use Fear, Guilt, and Threats

Traditional evangelical churches value and respect individual differences. For the most part, they encourage people to become unique persons in their own right, not mere photocopies of someone else.

Authoritarian, manipulative fringe groups, on the other hand, encourage clones and promote cookie-cutter life-styles.

Flavil Yeakley, in his book The Discipling Dilemma, suggests that such groups value conformity, not diversity. "They tend to make people over after the image of a group leader, the group norm, or what the group regards as the ideal personality …. They are made to feel guilty for being what they are and inferior for not being what the group wants them to be."