Rethinking Faith
Religious Rebels
#12 Revival or Spiritual Manipulation? Pt. 2 (S1E12)
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#12 Revival or Spiritual Manipulation? Pt. 2 (S1E12)

Religious Rebels Podcast

Christy continues her conversation about spiritual and emotional manipulation that can look like revival. She discusses more concerns with the Unite Us movement on college campuses featuring Jennie Allen and Jonathan Pokluda. Christy reminds her listeners that she is not trying to condemn anyone, but that she also recognizes anyone can be deceived and affected by power.

Referencing the Jesus People movement of the 1970s and also Bill Gothard's original Institute in Basic Youth Conflicts, Christy ponders how young people are often filled with passion and ready to follow Jesus and yet how they are often targeted, used, and led astray.

Wrapping up the episode, Christy reminds her listeners of the good news of the gospel. It's not about sin management or having a list of rules to follow to be good. Jesus came to heal and restore broken hearts. We don't have to get it together by ourselves, we just have to allow Him to help us. When Jesus begins to transform us from the inside out, we no longer want to do the things we used to do. We find our needs met in Him instead of trying to meet them in unhealthy ways. As Tim Keller often said, "We are more broken than we will ever know, and yet more loved than we can ever imagine."

Related Links:

K-Love Article explaining what went on at the University of Tennessee

Blog Post by Elizabeth Meeshim Hogsten on Spiritual Abuse


Christy’s Links:

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Or visit her WEBSITE

Discussion about this podcast

Rethinking Faith
Religious Rebels
Christy Lynne Wood spent a decade in Bill Gothard's Institute in Basic Life Principles (as seen on Amazon Prime's "Shiny Happy People" documentary series). Homeschooled in this Christian cult, Christy was a good girl following the rules until Jesus unexpectedly showed up and changed everything.
As Christy got to know Jesus for herself, she began to recognize that the God she knew and the god her cult talked about couldn't be the same God. Once the good girl following the rules, Christy felt a strange rebellion creeping into her heart. But it wasn't rock music, college, or blue jeans that was turning her into a rebel (like she'd been warned), it was Jesus.
Twenty years later, Christy is still passionate about discovering truth, destroying lies, exposing religious Christianity, and helping people to find a thriving relationship with the Real Jesus.