(Fred, please pardon the minor digression I'm about to make.  I do have a point to all of this.)

Especially with people who are raised in coercive religious groups (including "Bible-based" coercive groups associated with the dominionist movement) one of the things that the few studies on people raised in those groups have found consistently is that people who were raised in coercive groups consistently have a higher rate of anxiety-related disorders (often showing up as, and misdiagnosed as, obsessive-compulsive disorder).

One of the longterm consequences of being involved in any coercive group--and this is, sadly, especially apparent and possibly a permanent effect in kids raised in coercive groups--is a condition called "complex post-traumatic stress disorder".  It's essentially a variant of PTSD that results from longterm cumulative stress (instead of one particular event).

One of the particular side effects of complex PTSD (which is now increasingly recognised as a distinct type of psychiatric injury and is under consideration for listing in DSM-V) is that people's "fight or flight" response gets stuck.  There are measurably higher levels of stress hormones like cortisone in people who have complex PTSD even after they escape the situation and the process of recovery from complex PTSD takes years.

In the case of people raised in coercive groups (and other abusive situations), one of the things they are finding is that people's brains can be permanently "wired" to have elevated levels of stress hormones--they are constantly on alert, "hypervigilant".  (This is one reason, besides basic socialisation issues, walkaways who were raised in coercive groups have a hard time and often need psychotherapy--growing up all their lives in an environment that breeds complex PTSD literally wires the brain to be a stressbucket, as this is occuring in their developmental periods.)  It is, sadly, a common thing for people who were raised in coercive groups to self-medicate due to the anxiety issues.

This site has some useful backgrounder info regarding complex PTSD, and the following sites have very good info regarding complex PTSD and especially complex PTSD in people raised in coercive religious groups:

Documentation of fear and complex PTSD in child survivors of David Koresh's group
info regarding longterm sequelae of being raised in a coercive group (geared towards custody cases)
Discussion of socialisation and anxiety issues among walkaways from a "Bible-based" coercive group
Excellent discussion of longterm sequelae and complications of walking away when one has been raised in a coercive group
Another excellent article on longterm sequelae of being raised in a coercive group (of note, several "faith healing" groups that have promoted dominionism are noted)
discussion of dominionist child-rearing techniques and longterm sequelae for kids raised in coercive dominionist groups (started by a person whose husband--a pediatric psychiatrist--has noticed severe adjustment problems in children of dominionists)

I mention all this stuff on coercive groups for several reasons (and yes, Fred, this is where I get to the point, I swear):

a) Many of the practices of dominionist groups--especially those with a heavy emphasis on "spiritual warfare" or "deliverance ministry" (which include many if not most non-Christian Reconstructionist "Christian Nationalist" groups, especially the premillenial dispensationalist dominionists)--do have practices that raise multiple warning signs of coercion.  "Deliverance ministry" practices in particular are in some aspects indistinguishable from the concept of "Body thetans" in Scientology--one of the single most harmful concepts in that particular group, according to most exit counselors, because legitimate doubts in the church are seen as a sign of demonic "oppression".

I've written rather extensively--both in comments and in a series of posts on Talk2Action--about the coercive aspects of parts of dominion theology especially popular in the premillenial-dispensationalist dominionist community, so I won't repeat myself there.

I will also note as an aside that a few movements and persons involved in dominionism--Bill Gothard, the "Third Wave" movement in neopentecostal and charismatic churches, David Yonggi Cho, "Youth With A Mission", Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship International, etc.--have either been independently identified as coercive and spiritually abusive, or promoting spiritually abusive tactics.  Bill Gothard's writing in particular is essentially a summation of dominion theology as practiced in churches such as the Assemblies of God, and multiple exit counselors consider Gothard's groups to be "Bible-based cults".

b) Much of the "militarisation" of the church is directly related to "spiritual warfare" theology, which is an extension of dominion theology that originally started out with the concept of an "overcomer army" or "Joel's Army" taking over the world.  Many of the practices directly related to this are, as I have noted, explicitly coercive, enough to push the "spiritual warfare" movement in many cases to being a bona fide coercive religious movement.  (There is an increasing emphasis on this in dominionism in general, which is why it's worrying that the SBC is embracing this.)

c) In many cases, this is explicitly targeting children.  Much of the push for dominionist correspondence-school programs is to "isolate" children from "corrupting influences" and to eventually train them to "be Joel's Army"--in some cases, involving literal military training (not just as far as joining the armed forces, but in the case of Bill Gothard, running a boot camp for "God Warrior" youth).  Again, the SBC (and notably the Southern Baptist Seminary) is part of this push:

(from Ethics Daily)

A professor and administrator at a Southern Baptist seminary says he reads "blessedly violent" Bible stories to his young children because he wants to "raise up violent sons" prepared for spiritual warfare.

Russell Moore, dean of theology and senior vice president for academic administration at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., titled a June 1 column for the Carl F.H. Henry Institute for Evangelical Engagement "Why I'm Raising Violent 4 Year-Olds."

In it, Moore, who functions as the institute's executive director, defended taking his two 4-year-olds to see a movie rated PG-13 for violence.

Moore said a reader objected to an earlier column mentioning he took his two young sons to see "Stars War Episode III: Revenge of the Sith," because the film is "way too violent for children."

Moore went on to say it is only the second movie the boys had ever seen.

"One was a tender, touching Christmas movie about a little boy who discovers that Christmas is all about believing in the miracles within," he said. "The second was a cartoonishly violent movie in which men go face-to-face with evil aliens; often chopping off limbs in the heat of battle."

Moore went on to quip that he repents of "taking them to the Christmas film."

"This is because of my overall philosophy of childrearing," he explained. "I am aiming to raise up violent sons."

"I am not seeking to raise sons who are violent in the amoral, pagan sense of contemporary teenagers playing `Grand Theft Auto' video games or carjacking motorists," he explained. "I want them to be more violent than that."

"I want them to understand that the Christian life is not a Hallmark Channel version of baptized sentimentality," he continued. "Instead, it is a cosmic battle between an evil dragon and the child of the woman, an ancient warfare that now includes all who belong to the Child of the Promise (Rev 12)."

Moore, who has a doctorate in theology from Southern Seminary, said he wants his children to forgive their enemies, "not because they are good boys, but because they understand that vengeance against the Serpent comes not from their hand, but from that of the anointed Warrior-King (Rev 19), whose blood-soaked garments don't often transfer to the imagery of a Precious Moments wall-hanging."

He said he also wants them to "exercise self-control of their passions, not because it is polite, but because they are called to struggle against the Evil One, even to the point of cutting off their own limbs rather than succumb to devices."

An EthicsDaily.com review of "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" in May warned in a reviewer's note: "This movie is unlike the other `Star Wars' movies. The movie's last 30 minutes are the most violent and darkest in the franchise's history. Parents with younger children (under age of 9) need to be aware of this aspect of the movie."

Moore said he would not take his children to see other violent movies like "Kill Bill" or "The Silence of the Lambs," nor would he see them himself.

But he said the "Star Wars" movie "offered the opportunity to talk through these issues of cosmic struggle" with his boys" and "to place such themes in context of what they already know from the most blessedly violent bedtime stories they hear every day: the Holy Scriptures."

d) Increasingly, the push for "spiritual warfare" is crossing over into "real life" wargames.  Much of the increasing popularity of "Christian Militia" groups is related to the whole "spiritual warfare" movement; also, the increasing amount of infiltration of the military by dominionists (as documented wonderfully by Yurica Report et al) is part of this, as they see themselves as getting actual training and many dominionist groups even increasingly claim people will be "forced to fight for the right to be Godly".  (Braveheart, of note, is commonly used as an example.)  Part of the reason Southern Poverty Law Center started monitoring dominionism is because of the links to militia groups.

(The push for militarism in some branches of dominionism--particularly the groups that spawned dominion theology--is very old, dating all the way back to the dawn of the Cold War in fact, and much of the conspiracy theories promoted in the "spiritual warfare" community date back to the Cold War and still incorporate Communists and/or Russia and/or the UN as Bad Guys.)

by dogemperor on Fri Jan 13, 2006 at 01:19:55 PM EST
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