What is spiritual manipulation and abuse? Spiritual manipulation is a technique used by abusive churches, cults and individuals to control and acquire gain, all the while giving the impression that their teachings and actions are based on the Bible and approved by God. These people will usually twist Scripture to keep others under their control who genuinely fear the Lord.
A characteristic of spiritual abuse is that a misplaced sense of loyalty is fostered and even demanded, whether by a husband, wife, pastor, relative, church, friend, etc. This is not about loyalty to Christ, but about loyalty to a person or organization. This is accomplished by setting up a system where disloyalty or disagreement with the manipulator is construed as disloyalty to God.