Rethinking Faith: Continued Spiritual Manipulation, Inner Healing, and Living in the Spirit

This month let's question the continued spiritual manipulation of young adults, explore the importance of "Healing What's Within," and ponder what it means to live in the Spirit.

Rethinking Faith: October 2024

Welcome to the October issue of Rethinking Faith. This month we will question the continued spiritual manipulation of young adults, explore Chuck DeGroat’s new book, Healing What’s Within, and ponder what life could be like if we let the Holy Spirit empower us.

YWAM, Unite Us, and the Spiritual Manipulation of Young Adults.

Yesterday I volunteered to face paint at our school’s Spooky Fall Festival. I ended up working with the oldest daughter of a 2nd grade teacher. Since she’s a senior, we started talking about next steps and what her plans are for the future. I’d met her once before and she let me know that she’d read my entire website, listened to my podcast, and knew all about me. :-) Passionate about faith and ministry, she wanted to know my opinion about YWAM since she’d been reading some pretty negative stories on Reddit. I told her my cautions. We talked about discernment and emotional manipulation. We could have talked a lot longer.

#11 Revival or Spiritual Manipulation? Pt. 1 (S1E11)

Last May I did a two part podcast series on the spiritual and emotional manipulation of Gen Z. I was feeling pretty fired up about a new movement at college campuses called Unite Us. Jennie Allen speaks for them along with Jonathan Pokluda, and she often posts images and videos of the events on her Instagram account. It doesn’t seem to matter which college the rally converges on, there are always pictures of college students singing with raised hands, gathered in groups, and being baptized in fountains, ponds, and in the backs of pickup trucks.

It looks amazing.

It makes great social media content.

I know. I’m a skeptic. But for good reason.

Remember that I spent a decade in Christian cult led by a man who filled arenas with people taking his Basic Seminar. Fifty years later we are finally exposing the junk that happened because of his "ministry." Crowds do not guarantee that someone or something is being blessed by the Holy Spirit or that the Spirit is even active in that event.

Something felt off right away about the Unite Us rallies and it turns out they are operating with the same formula every time. If you listen to my podcast, you will discover that they start with professional worship-music, then move into an intense talk about sin (from Jennie Allen) that includes a strongly encouraged opportunity to confess your most embarrassing, vulnerable thing with two or three other people near you. Following this forced vulnerability, or trauma bonding, the event continues with a gospel message (by Jonathan Pokluda) that is heavily focused on being sure of your salvation. Then after this wildly emotional, spiritually intense night, students are invited to come be baptized. Is it any wonder that hundreds or thousands come forward?

This glowing article from KLOVE gives a rundown of the night, but I find more red flags than things to be excited about.

It’s a new school year and Unite Us is back in business creating rallies. But is it actually a work of God? I guess time will tell. I have no doubt that God is able to use anything, but I still find myself concerned. I even wrote a comment on Jennie’s last post.

I wish I was as hopeful and excited as the masses of evangelical Christians who have never experienced the dark side of religion. But I’m not. And because of my own story, I will continue to call out the broken, ugly, almost-true places where people cross a line in the name of God.

Don’t get me wrong, I want Gen Z to meet Jesus! I know that they are hungry for truth, for spirituality, and for God—which is why I am going all mother-bear about them being fed a religious formula instead. I love Gen-Z. I feel an intense calling to them even if I’m not sure what that means. But I hate that they are being spiritual and emotionally manipulated and abused in rallies, on mission trips, in Christian organizations.

This isn’t a new thing. And I don’t think the people behind the rallies, events, and organizations are necessarily intentionally harming anyone. But it shows even more how desperately we need discernment, critical thinking skills, and yes, the deconstruction movement. There are many things that we assume are Christian and biblical because they are traditional or taught to us as good. But maybe they aren’t. Things like:

• Revival experiences

• Modesty and purity culture

• Using guilt and shame to motivate

• Speaking in tongues, prophetic words, and healings

• Never questioning authorities

It’s possible that there are nuggets of truth to be found as we dig into our beliefs and perspectives. But it’s almost guaranteed that we will discover parts that need to be trashed because they are just human opinion or religion.

I long to protect Gen Z if possible from the religious trauma us Gen Xers and Millennials have been through. But more than anything, I wish evangelical culture would embrace the need to stop, question, and pick apart the things we push as “Christian experiences and beliefs.” And until it does, I’ll be over here in the corner poking holes, making awkward statements, and saying what needs to be said.

“But what if it (God finding Adam and Eve in the Garden) is also a better story than we’ve been told, a story that shows us how we can acknowledge what’s happened to us while also compassionately healing the wounds left behind? What if God’s response to us is, in fact, kinder than we imagined?”

Healing What’s Within by Chuck DeGroat

Full disclosure, I haven’t read the whole book yet; I’ve gotten through part of the introduction. But so far it’s everything I was hoping it would be! Chuck DeGroat’s previous book, When Narcissism Comes to Church, was exactly what I needed when it came out in 2020. So I preordered Healing What’s Within long before it was available and have been waiting impatiently ever since. I love the way Chuck incorporates story, therapy, and biblical thought in his books.

When I wrote Religious Rebels, I came back to the Garden of Eden three times. This story of people separated from God is a vital part of our theology. But what if our view of the story itself is skewed by religion? What if the anger in God’s voice—that we often imagine—was never there? What if He asked His questions from a place of heartache, compassion, and gentleness?

I can’t wait to work my way through this book exploring these questions:

Where are you? Who told you? Have you eaten from the tree?

As I’ve said many times before, we need heart transformation not just behavior modification. But we are often too afraid to dig into our hearts and sit in those broken, messy spaces. We are ashamed to be honest because we think we are supposed to be good.

Those are lies. God is waiting with loving eagerness to dig in and sift through with us. His heart for us is restoration, healing, and hope.

I Can’t Do This Alone (And I Don’t Want To)

The young adult group I lead at church is small this year—small but mighty. It’s honestly becoming more of a community group since there are so few of us. We are digging in, being honest, sharing freely, and it’s good. I love that we’ve created a system where no one is preaching at us. It’s not a Bible study and we don’t have devotions. We either have a topic that someone starts or a story from someone in the group, and then we discuss.

One of the young women shared her story this last week. The theme was God’s faithfulness even in the broken places. She made a statement in the middle of her story that hit me square in the forehead. “There was no way I could do it all by myself, but God did it through me.”

Photo by freestocks

Do you have one of those things that you keep learning over and over? This is mine: letting the Holy Spirit take control instead of doing it all by myself.

My story with the real Jesus began with a mystical experience. Learning to let the Holy Spirit live through me happened while I was in the cult trying to follow all of the rules. And yet, living in this mystical connection is something I continually fall out of over and over again.

I think I’ve spent so much time lately talking theory, debating topics, and presenting ideas, that I’ve forgotten to live in the relationship I’ve been given. The silly thing is: I know this story. I’ve done this before. I know how it feels to be exhausted and overwhelmed by all the things. And I know how it feels to say, “I can’t do this alone” and get supernatural help.

I believe in it. I talk about it. But it’s easy for me to run off in my own strength and live life wondering why I’m so tired and can’t seem to get anything done. The Spirit is gentle; They don’t force Themselves on us. We are allowed to choose to live in this gift we have been given. It’s kind of crazy. And beautiful.

So maybe I’ll go take a quiet, contemplative walk today and just enjoy God. Hopefully I’ll sit down and stop trying to do it all alone. It’s a journey, friends.

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As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts, questions, or comments. You can find me on Threads, Instagram, Facebook, my website, and on my original podcast. I’d love to connect with you on any of these places!

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