#389 - Spiritual Abuse and Coercive Control

➡️ DESCRIPTION: Spiritual abuse is a painful reality that is often misunderstood and sometimes minimized in Christian circles. Between the legitimate exercise of biblical authority and unhealthy control dynamics, the line can become blurred—to the point where sincere believers find themselves hurt, confused, or even crushed in the name of God. In this episode, I have the privilege of speaking with Anna Kitko, a trained theologian and specialist in coercive control and religious trauma, and Caroline Collins, who holds a master's degree in counseling and psychology and studied theology (BTh) at SEMBEQ Seminary. You can find a PDF of the written questions and answers of this interview here: Retrouvez les autres articles et épisodes de cette série sur l'abus spirituel ici: TABLE OF CONTENTS 00:00 - Start 02:31 - Caroline’s presentation 03:47 - Anna’s presentation 07:36 - What led you into this field? 12:45 - What is coercive control? 15:40 - The difference between submission and subordination 18:58 - Man’s headship 22:42 - Describe a victim of coercive control 25:35 - Describe coercive control in a mainstream evangelical church 29:07 - How can we impose truth on the church without crushing people? 31:56 - What about the victim mentality? 36:01 - 1 Tim 5:19-21 is to protect the church from abusive leaders 37:40 - Can abusive leaders be restored? 42:22 - Theological influences behind spiritual abuses 44:39 - The danger of spiritual therapies 47:49 - Integrationism and biblical counseling 51:16 - Spiritual abuses in the reformed and evangelical world 57:03 - When plurality of elders doesn’t help 01:00:26 - A local church is accountable to other churches 01:03:55 - How do you think the issue of spiritual abuse will evolve? 01:05:31 - Other resources on that subject - - - Conclusion 01:08:07 - 🎵 Music : Paper Halo ( 01:09:19 - 📖 Book recommendation: Leslie Vernick, Les relations destructrices ( 01:10:07 - Baptist Symbolic (James Renihan, PhD) 01:10:57 - Next episode: Vincent Beaulac, Influence numérique et spiritualité 01:12:18 - Off record --- 🔊 Suivez Coram Deo sur différentes plateformes: - YouTube: - Apple Podcast: - Spotify: - SoundCloud: 📜 Cliquez ici pour avoir la liste de tous nos épisodes ([ ❤️❤️ Soutenez Coram Deo en faisant un don sécurisé déductible d'impôt: - 🇨🇦 En canadien $ - - 🇪🇺 En euro € -

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#389 - Spiritual Abuse and Coercive Control is an episode from CoramDeo - Un regard chrétien sur le monde by Coram Deo.

This episode is 01:13:46 long.

This episode was published on Feb 2, 2026.

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