Toxic Faith #4

Irreproachable Clergy

“The Bible warns that it is an act of rebellion to question spiritual leaders, and you will answer to God.”

“Spiritual abuse is a widespread problem that is deeply ingrained in our contemporary christian culture.”

A brief intro

In chapter three of their book Toxic Faith the authors give twenty-one beliefs commonly held by christians that they say constitute a toxic faith. They write,

“Faith is slowly poisoned as lies and false ideas are integrated into a person’s beliefs about God. At first glance they make such good sense. And plenty of people support and distort beliefs that have been around for thousands of years.”

My question continues to be, “Why have these distorted beliefs been around for thousands of years?” Perhaps, it’s not the individual christian who has adopted a Toxic Faith. But rather, maybe it’s the religion itself that’s toxic. We’ve already discussed the first three and this week we’ll be looking at Toxic Faith #4.

Irreproachable Clergy

All ministers are men and women of God and can be trusted.

This one is very interesting in that it’s a pretty serious problem in christian circles and has indeed been around for thousands of years, and it’s more common than christians would like to admit. Books and books have been written about how lay christians have experienced “spiritual abuse” from church leaders. I asked the AEye gods to show me a list of books about “spiritual abuse”. The result was a list of 225 books. Here is a short list of some of the titles.

Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse
Bully Pulpit: Confronting the Problem of Spiritual Abuse in the Church
Healing Spiritual Abuse: How to Break Free from Bad Church Experiences
When Narcissism Comes to Church: Healing Your Community from Emotional and Spiritual Abuse
Breaking the Silence on Spiritual Abuse
Recovering from Churches That Abuse
Toxic Churches: Restoration from Spiritual Abuse
Healing Spiritual Abuse and Religious Addiction

And my favorite title

Untwisting Scriptures That Were Used to Tie You Up, Gag You, and Tangle Your Mind

So, it’s clearly an issue that widely affects many christian circles. David Johnson and Jeff Van Vonderen in their book The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse say that “Spiritual abuse is a problem we believe to be widespread and also deeply ingrained in our contemporary christian culture.”

So, maybe it’s good that the authors of Toxic Faith addressed it in their book. However, the question still remains, is this a “distorted toxic faith” that has been adopted by individual christians or should it be considered as christian orthodoxy? Where might christians have gotten this false idea of an irreproachable clergy? From the bible? From the pulpit? Perhaps both?

Let’s see what some christians websites have to say about this topic.

First, we’ll look at a website written for christians in the military. They call themselves “Warriors” and the blog is entitled The Authority of God. It’s rather short, just a little over 1,500 words, yet the word “authority” is mentioned 54 times. No surprise really, seeing that it was written for christians in the miliary who live and work in a hierarchy of unquestioned authority. Let’s see what they have to say.

Warrior: The Authority of God

“Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account.” (Hebrews 13:17:)

The Bible says, “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.” (Romans 13:1-2)

“The Bible warns that contempt toward God’s obedient servant is equal to contempt toward God. Don’t do anything that would hinder Godly, spiritual leaders. Don’t even bad-mouth them. It is an act of rebellion, for which you will answer to God.”

You’ll notice that resisting any kind of authority is the equivalent of resisting the ordinance of God and you will have to answer to God for such defiance. Perhaps there will be court martials in heaven for such insubordination.

Honoring God’s Delegated Authorities

The next online article we’ll look at is entitled God’s Delegated Authorities. I found it on a church website that was written by Pastor Matthew. He writes,

“Jesus Christ is the Lord of history, the Head of the church, and the Lord of every Christian family. The authority of church, state, and family is the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. To obey these delegated authorities is to obey Christ. But to rebel against these authorities is to rebel against the Lord himself. Such rebels, we are told, will be punished by God himself in history and at the end of history.

“Children, if you dishonor your father and mother, you are dishonoring the Almighty God, and he is going to deal with you severely. If you do not honor the government or the police, and if you disobey the laws of the state, you are going to be dealt with by God himself. If you think that you can abuse a pastor or an elder who has been appointed by God, and then think you can get away with it, you are mistaken.”

As we can see again, Pastor Matthew teaches that disobeying any kind of authority is the equivalent to rebelling “against God himself” and if you think you can get away with it, you are sadly mistaken because God will deal severely with you. Oh my!!

According to author Ronald M. Enroth in his book Churches that Abuse, this kind of teaching is the basis for how cult leaders control their subjects. It’s classic cult behavior when members are being told that questioning the cult leader means that they are rebelling directly against truth and against Jesus. Therefore, questioning authority is the ultimate sin. (How convenient for the leader.)

I think we’ve found the answer to our original question. Since this teaching of an irreproachable clergy comes directly from the bible and is also taught from the pulpit, it’s not just a matter of a personal toxic faith that some christians might hold, but rather it indicates a systemic toxic religion.

Christians Say the Darndest Things

This little bit of silliness comes from the “Warriors” website.

Sometimes christians say baseless things that they really can’t back up with anything that even remotely resembles facts. Nevertheless, christians accept such nonsense as if it were the absolute truth. I see it over and over again in my reading of christian literature. The sad truth is that christians are indeed easily deceived.

Here’s the quote from the Warriors’ website.

“To begin with, God places a high value on authority because He is the one who created it. The Bible says that all authority comes from and originates with God. He is the absolute source of authority in the universe. Then He delegated His principle of authority to mankind to maintain order in the world.”

Several obvious things jump out at me when I read this quote.

First, does he really believe that God created authority? If so, when? Can’t find it anywhere in the creation story in Genesis. Nowhere does it say that “on a certain day God created authority.” It does kinda say that God gave the male and the female the right to “rule over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Is that authority? If it is, then I’ve failed. My attempts to exercise authority over my cat always fail. She seems to have the impression that it’s the other way around; that I’m under her authority. Cats! Gotta love them.

Second, how does that author know that God is the absolute authority in the entire universe? How many parts of the universe has this guy actually visited? What intimate knowledge does he have of the Centaurus constellation? Which, by the way, is the closest constellation to Earth at only about 25 trillion miles. Is his God also in complete authority there? How would he know and how does that affect us earthlings?

Third, if God created (and highly values) authority as the Warriors’ blog claims, wouldn’t it also stand to reason that God also created and highly values love, compassion and kindness?

As I mentioned above, the word authority is used a whopping 54 times in their article. Meaning, not only does God place a high value on authority, but they obviously do too. Surprisingly (or maybe not so surprising) there is not one mention of love, compassion, or kindness in the Warrior article. Let’s face it, love compassion and kindness have never been highly valued by the military… ever. If the Warriors’ blog is correct, then this is what Jesus might have said in Matthew 22.

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “The Lord your God is the highest authority, and you must obey him (and me) with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: You must be subject to all governing authorities. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Wait a minute. That’s not what it says, is it? If you’re a christian you already know what it really says. If you are not schooled in the bible, let me enlighten you.

The greatest commandment is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two.”

Love!

Now there’s an interesting concept. Christians says it’s important, but many churches fail to mention it in their mission statements.

In addition, we find in Matthew 25 these words attributed to Jesus, “Truly, I say to you, to the extent that you did this (showed love, compassion and kindness) to one of these my brothers of mine, even to the least of them, you did it to me.”

For the Warriors, Pastor Matthew and many other religious leaders, insubordination to authority will get you in big trouble with God. But if you believe the words of Jesus in Matthew 25, you’ll be in much bigger trouble by not showing love, compassion and kindness to “the least of these”. Read the last two verses in that chapter if you’re in any doubt.

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In closing

The teaching of an irreproachable clergy comes directly from the bible and is also taught from the pulpit; therefore, it’s not just a matter of an isolated personal toxic faith that some christians might hold, but rather it indicates a systemic toxic religion, that I am glad to no longer be a part of.

From Where I Stand

July 26, 2026

Dale Crum