Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Churches That Abuse

Churches That Abuse

Enroth, Ronald M.

Paperback

Religion General General ChristianityGeneral Sociology

Publisher Price: $19.95

PREORDER - Expected ship date November 24, 2026

ISBN10: 193943050X
ISBN13: 9781939430502
Publisher: Garrett County Press
Published: Nov 24 2026
Pages: 190
Weight: 0.34
Language: English
The book that named spiritual abuse: back in print for the first time in a generation, with a new index.

Long before religious trauma and church hurt entered the vocabulary, sociologist Ronald M. Enroth documented what happens inside authoritarian churches: congregations that look doctrinally sound from the pews but run on fear, guilt, and control. Drawing on dozens of interviews with ex-members, Churches That Abuse tells their stories, including eleven years inside George Geftakys' Assembly, the medical-neglect deaths of Hobart Freeman's Faith Assembly, a pastor's wife's handmaid, and more.

Enroth identifies the marks of an abusive church that counselors and survivors still use today. Its leadership is control-oriented and accountable to no one. It manipulates members through fear, guilt, and threats. It fosters elitism and a persecution complex. It imposes rigid, legalistic demands on how members live. It discourages dissent and disciplines harshly. And it makes leaving painful, marked by shunning.

Written from inside evangelicalism, not against it, this is neither an attack on the church nor an apology for it. It is a sober, compassionate field guide to the difference between spiritual authority and spiritual abuse, and a way out for those caught inside.

This Garrett County Press edition restores the complete 1992 text, newly typeset, with an index created for this edition.

Also in

Religion General

View All