Safe People: How to Find Relationships That Are Good for You and Avoid Those That Aren’t!, Dr. Henry Cloud &s Dr. John Townsend, 1995. Henry tells about being in a Christian group for 5 years where he learned a lot but became more “religious” and less “real”.

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The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse: Recognizing and Escaping Spiritual Manipulation and False Spiritual Authority in the Church,David Johnson and Jeff VanVonderen, 1991.

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Martin Heresy of Mind Control is a reference to a book on Cults and recognizing them through their leadership styles.

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Twisted Scriptures: A Path to Freedom from Abusive Churches, Mary Alice Chrnalogar, 1997. By wielding distorted Scripture, controlling groups keep earnest believers struggling under the terrible tyranny of oppression, guilt, and fear. The author says, “This book will take you into the inner workings of abusive and controlling groups to show you how they control their members. I will make clear the mind games that many of the major destructively controlling groups have in common.” Checklists at the end of each chapter offer good topics for discussion. Ms. Chrnalogar is herself a former member of an aberrational Christian group.

Families Where Grace Is In Place: Getting Free from the Burden of Pressuring, Controlling and Manipulating Your Spouse and Your Children, Jeff VanVonderen, 1992. “Here is a message about how God’s grace can transform relationships within a marriage and family.  The first step is learning the simple difference between God’s job and ours… Healthy relationships between husband and wife, between parents and children, are possible only when the filter of God’s grace is placed over the processes of marriage and parenting. The Christian family’s ultimate goals can be arrived at without using legalistic and manipulative methods.” (Quoted from the back of the book.)

Damaged Disciples: Casualties of Authoritarian Churches and the Shepherding Movement, Ron and Vicki Burks, 1992. Ron was taught to subject himself totally to his disciplers in the shepherding movement. Vicki was taught to submit to her husband. This is their story of struggling to break free and rebuild their lives. For Vicki, it is the story of rescuing her “self” from non-being. Ron later earned his PhD. in counseling and was on staff at Wellspring. Here is his dissertation, Cognitive Impairment In Thought Reform Environments.

Recovering From Churches That Abuse, Dr. Ronald Enroth, 1994. The message of this book is that “mending” is possible. He makes the point that as the damage was relational, the healing must also be relational. Again Dr. Enroth devotes a chapter to the Assembly. One very helpful aspect of both of Dr. Enroth’s books is seeing similarities between the Assembly and other hurtful Christian groups. Recovering from Churches that Abuse is now available online in PDF format.

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